Software to Find Plagiarism

Plagiarism.org may be able to help.

I hope you'll come back and register with CR4, Guest.

Best,

Moose

Hang on, just let me write that down............

An easy check is to google a phrase and see if it pops up anywhere.

If you are a teacher , set a question with a very specific phrase. Put up a web page with that specific phrase and some form of answer. Compare student submissions to the web-page you have created.

I should have stressed that the page you create should be a true answer. Personally , I would not consider a deliberate spelling mistake in the text unethical. Others may not agree with the strategy I suggest , so consider carefully before using it.

So, what what part of entrapment do you find ethical? Hehehehe. But seriously folks, the lad (15) thinks that's what he has to do, look up the answer on the the interweb thing, copy and paste, don't even learn it. This is despite having in writing the sanctions the school will take if he's caught, and NOW Blair has gone on record as saying 'bothered'! GRRRR.

There wouldn't be a problem if kids had to sit exams rather than just hand in coursework . But that's the point - Public demand says we must improve education - Government reaction is to see everybody is given a degree , before tackling such issues as learning/problem solving/knowledge etc . We can't have 'elitist' things that help identify ability. As you say , ask m'bothered Tony or talk-to-the-hand Gordon.

Double Grrrr.

Have I touched a nerve? When we had our 'induction' for the school (as a health and safety professional - some of the time! - this was a joke) we where told that homework was an essential part of the school program and that everyone would receive homework daily, I seem to have spent at least one day a week for the past four years on the 'phone asking where the homework is!

I've given up asking about Homework . The school issued homework diaries , for the child to list homework, parent to sign it was done , and teacher to acknowledge receipt. Over the past 12 months there were about 6 entry's , but none acknowledged by the teacher. We see H/W about 1/wk but very hap-hazard . I could rant and rant and rant. Appearing to do is the credo of Government wherever it's tentacles reach. I don't blame teachers , they're too busy compiling test data with a list of acronyms so long they don't have time to understand it themselves. My sons school is excellent , but the government do their level best to **** it up. The level of stupidity required to create such a system is staggering.

Dude! We have parallel lives!

I hate to see somebody else so *&%)$ off , but it sure makes me feel better . I suspect we are not a minority.

Likewise, it's a shame peole don't kick up more to the politico's.

Wow - no tests? Sign me up. The engineering tests we took in school made grown men cry. Some even became business majors.

I wish it were stupidity - then we could expect the system to collapse so visibly someone would come in and put it partially right. However I think that it's due to policy being decided by spin doctors to make things look good, regardless of what is really happening: so the press keeps reporting continuing improvements in results each year while some disappointed realists are asking for handwritten applications, not to reduce plagiarism but to weed out those who are leaving school unable to write legibly, spell simple words and punctuate a sentence (although they have acquired the required number of GCSEs including English).

If the school is understaffed because teachers cannot afford to live around here on a teacher's salary, the teachers don't have enough "free" periods in which to mark the stuff that they didn't get through before going to bed the previous night, so they can't give out any more homeworks until they've caught up with marking. And why have we got the worst housing shortage since the early 50's so that each year more young adults are still living with their parents because they cannot find anywhere else to live? Sorry, can't answer because Brainwave says the B word is banned.
My son has been told to revise for his GCSEs and given the address of a handful of useful websites - the teachers are doing their best

I agree with your summary John . He who shall not be named is about to skip merrily onward , leaving the mess behind. What should he care , his kids went private. Some socialists are more equal than others.

Please don't swear on this forum (Blair)!! Sorry it just slipped out.

I implore you to take the action behind your words and "kick it up to the politico's".

Here in America I find our population apathetic and lazy when it comes to taking this action.

Don't think they get an easy ride! When they come around canvassing in my area, I'm waiting on the doorstep, so much so that the wife runs away!

My wife answered the door to one of the energy switch companies . She asked the lying ^&%(* s.o.b. rep to wait a moment on the doorstep , went inside and carried on with compiling her weekly shopping list. Nice to get your own back occasionally. Desperate salesfolk without scruples beware.

I used to be apathetic but decided to take action and tackle law in the drafting stage (before politico's have a chance at it) by commenting whenever the opportunity arises and even comments on finalized law. What is amazing is that it really makes a difference.

A program to check similarities and differences in documents is available.

To check for all possibilities (all the documents in the world) however will exceed al available resources.

To enable checking the documents should all be in a translated data base. Documents could be scanned and OCR ed. Some hand written works will have to be typed in. The same translation techniques must be used. Etc.

If a super computer can only simulate the brain of a mouse for a shot time i fail to see how it can perform all the tasks.

A well read human will do better.

To check for all possibilities (all the documents in the world) however will exceed al available resources.

To enable checking the documents should all be in a translated data base. Documents could be scanned and OCR ed. Some hand written works will have to be typed in. The same translation techniques must be used. Etc.

If a super computer can only simulate the brain of a mouse for a shot time i fail to see how it can perform all the tasks.

A well read human will do better.

Post your comment and mine later , and see if people can spot who said it first.

I didn't need a computer program to detect that plagiarism! - just remember to put quote marks around it, then you'll be OK, even if you "forget" to attribute it.

Homework in primary schools depends on the Head teacher - one school did not give any as the books might not be returned by some kids! (Mine did not stay there long).

Once at high school, the amount of homework/revision done was directly proportional to the enjoyment of that subject.

(This data based on 5 children, 6 primary schools, and [so far] 1 High school)

Yes, but not on any silicon-based computer. Try talking to the student to see if he/she understands what he/she has written: if he/she does, then it's quotation (even if not attributed as it should be), if not it's copying.
I find it difficult to believe that any normal student can produce anything genuinely original on standard coursework without being "wrong" after several million students have done the same task before him/her. So, even if he/she has struggled to do it all him/herself, it can come out identical to someone else's work somewhere - a computer programme cannot tell the difference between cheating and coincidence unless you feed in a deliberate error like the producers of early tables of logarithms. Conversely any cheat with a grain of intelligence will go through changing phrases to make it sound like him/her which will fool the computer.

Of course, this comment is utterly not PC - I'm so old-fashioned that I think the purpose of school is to teach and to learn not just to tick lots of boxes.