Does the student's paper include a References or Works Cited page? Are the citations complete and correct or are they missing elements such as the author name/s, titles, date published and URLs?
Does the student's paper have unusual formatting such as grayed out letters and different font sizes and styles?
Does the student's paper include a mixture of different writing styles? Is the body of the paper sophisticated but includes a poor introduction or conclusion?
Is the writing level of the student's paper characteristic of the student’s previous work?
Does the student's paper address the assignment requirements? Does the student's paper cover areas beyond the requirements? Does the student's paper leave out portions that should be addressed?
Tracking down plagiarism
Ask the student to provide you with the URLs or digital copies of cited material. Ask the student if the materials were obtained from Reynolds Libraries databases, the open web, or somewhere else.
Search for unique or unusual words, phrases or sentences in the student paper using Google. Enclose the phrases or sentences in quotation marks to perform an exact phrase search. Be sure to look for options like the Google Advanced Search to perform more specific searches. Google support provides some advanced Google search tips
Check ourlibrary databases. Although most students will plagiarize directly from the open web, some students may copy from sources retrieved from the library databases. The most comprehensie & popular full-text database that is available through Reynolds Libraries is Academic Search Complete.
