sample admission essay

Plagiarism in admission essays is an issue that can be easily detected and prevented. To start off, plagiarism is defined as an act of using other’s written works or ideas and pass them as your own. Plagiarism can also refer to as the act of using someone else’s idea without giving due credit. Forms of plagiarism can include copying and pasting of online materials, copying and pasting and then changing the paragraph structure, changing the words in some of the phrases, and claiming ideas as your own.

How to Detect Plagiarism

To determine whether an admission essay or personal statement is genuinely written by an author and not just copied directly from an existing source, here are some helpful tips to consider:

Ask the Author about the paper’s Main Points

Asking the author regarding the main points of his paper is a strategy that can help detect plagiarism. If the author can’t explain right away or his explanations are quite far from those included in the actual paper, further investigate and see if the author is the real brains behind the paper.

Look for Suspicious Phrases or Words

Odd words or phrases that don’t seem to fit in with the rest of the article could be signs of plagiarism. Outdated phrases or awkward constructions sometimes indicate a plagiarized source. Always double-check the submitted material against search engines and online plagiarism sources and see if there are phrases that were not properly cited or sentences that were copied word by word.

Detecting content theft or plagiarism is a fairly easy process. You just need to have the patience to carefully read through an admission essay, application essay, statement of purpose or personal statement and look for items that are out of place. The content of an original essay should be reader-friendly and the ideas should be presented in a logical and flowing way.

Photo Credits: RileyRoxx