Detecting Plagiarism Online and Offline

With the new era and the development of the Internet plagiarism has become a big concern for writers and people who make original research work. Publish materials are not safe from anyone who knows how to use the computer and has access to the internet. The product of your mind and hard work, the write ups, article, research, and literary works that you have spent time doing can easily be stolen through simple copy and pasting or downloading. Yes, plagiarism is stealing; it is the stealing of someone else’s intellectual work and research. The writer’s idea of posting their work and publishing it is for the public to appreciate, and for them to share your knowledge and ofcourse to earn money from their hard work, and not to be owned or copied by someone who just wants to make a few bucks without actually exerting effort or a student who just want to finish his term paper.

When does plagiarism happen?

Well, when people copy your work without proper citation that is plagiarism already. Some people are just down right lazy and intentionally copy works of other people thinking they can get away with it. As the person who conceptualized and did all the hard work it is up to you to take charge, control, defend and protect your hard work. When you caught someone plagiarizing you and your work do the proper steps, make them regret what they did, it will teach everyone a lesson that plagiarism should not be taken lightly and that it is a serious offense. Press charges to site owners who publish plagiarized work.

Are there ways to know if my work has been plagiarized? Yes, use the internet and other resources. Search engines over the internet are a big help. Some anti plagiarism software are free or just make use of the free search engines.

Search engines will display results that are in the same subject or field of your work, you just have to be smart in using the search engines. Manual checking is time consuming, but with the internet it is very easy to detect plagiarism.

Here are some tips that you can do to detect if someone has plagiarized your work.

• First, and the easiest way is to buy an anti plagiarism device, software or system via the internet, you can also download free anti plagiarism software. A lot of industry have developed programs like this because they know the demand, and they are aware that plagiarism is happening very rampant. A downloaded software can be used either offline or online so it is very easy to use.
• Second tip, add a little something on your work. Add up a distinctive phrase, sentence or paragraph that will blend in with your works content. This way when you use the commercial search engines and type in the distinctive phrase you add up, anyone who copied your work will be presented to you. The title may have changed, they may have also changed the format and other stuff but with the use of a distinctive phrase plagiarizers may not realize that it is like a trap and just copy the whole thing.

Just remember not to let your hard work go to someone else’s hand. You are in charge, you have the power to protect and defend your right. As much as you do not like your physical stuff to be stolen, you should also not let anyone take away your intellectual products.