Some Sneaky Anti-Plagiarism Tricks That Won’t Work

 

Modern students know how difficult it is nowadays to trick anti plagiarism software. Their desire to get their essays done fast will tempt them towards plagiarism and coming up with tricks that are getting more and more ingenious. But for every plagiarist who comes with a new technique, there is someone out there who will catch on and counter it. Free anti plagiarism software is quite sophisticated, and tricking it is rarely a good idea.

Here are a few examples from ‘mastermind plagiarists’ who tried to trick the detection machine to see why it didn’t work. This is important to review if you feel tempted to make an ‘end-run’ around tools that check text for plagiarism.

1. Carefully rewriting everything

There’s a pretty basic background behind this idea. An anti plagiarism checker is a software that detects identical copies by matching them to the strings of text in a sentence. So if you edit a text enough and replace some words from the sentences, the software shouldn’t be able to detect anything anymore.

While there is nothing wrong with the theory behind this one, it still requires a lot of work — to the point where you wonder if it wouldn’t be more convenient to write the whole assignment yourself, without resorting to plagiarism. 

To make sure that your paper won’t be recognized as plagiarized, you’ll need to replace or edit about one out of three words to make it seem original. That's not impossible to do. However, the average person is not a skilled enough writer to pull this off without their new paper having a very awkward structure to it. Long story short, you either spend some time on your paper, or you’ll fail either way.

2. Using a macro

This was also pretty popular among students, and it needed Microsoft Word (or any modern word processors) to get it done. The idea of this was that you would take an original text (usually irrelevant), and use a macro to replace it with your copied text. Since most plagiarism detectors can’t process the macro, they simply skip over it and scan the original text. The instructor, on the other hand, would just see the copy that was plagiarized.

The reasons why this won’t work are many. Sure, it’s clever, but it also has glitches. While a free anti plagiarism checker you randomly find online won’t have any problems with it, many scanners will reject even reading the macro. Remember that most universities spend the money to have access to the most sophisticated utilities, to assure academic honesty. Most schools and teachers disable macro for this exact reason.

Plus, if your teacher pays enough attention, they will notice that the scanned text is entirely different from what they are reading. After all, they will receive a report as well, not just a score.

The bottom line, this technique underestimates both plagiarism scanners and instructors. That's never a good strategy. This is one of many anti plagiarism tools to put back on the shelf.

3. The letter swap

This technique is somewhat similar to the macro technique. The trick is to take a lower case letter from your text and replace it with a letter from another language, but which looks similar. So while your teacher will be reading your text, he or she will not notice that every e in there is from an entirely different language.

Smart. But it’s foolish at the same time. First, this trick has about five years since it was discovered, so you can imagine they went out of their way to close this loophole. 

Now, an anti plagiarism check can also detect similar letters and match them. Also, some checkers won’t even recognize the foreign text, resulting in a big “Error” on the screen. Don't let anyone sell you on this outdated trick.

4. Essay mill

Another way students try to trick detectors is by purchasing the whole thing from an essay mill. The theory behind this is simple: everything you buy from an essay mill should be 100% original. While it wasn’t written by the plagiarist, the anti plagiarism software can’t detect this.

Again, smart. But it is also flawed. Given the number of texts and copies on various subjects they turn around to their customers, it’s not possible to write a completely original work. Most probably, you’ll get a paper that has most of the content plagiarized. 

Take a deep breath, and use a bit of common sense. Do you really think an off-the-shelf essay from a cut-rate company is going to be original? Of course, it isn't!

5. Avoiding databases

“If they haven’t seen it yet, it’s original.” This is the logic most students use when they turn in a plagiarized paper. So if you add a text that is not in their database, you should be safe, right?

Wrong? First, you can’t know what is and what is not in their database. Some free anti plagiarism detectors can only catch some texts while others might dive into the ‘deep seas’ to check your documents. You can never know. Plus, you might end up spending more time looking for a good ‘lift’ than if you’d write the thing yourself.

Plagiarism detectors nowadays are smart. But while you may think you’re smarter, consider this: is it worth the risk? Remember that software developers know the same Turnitin tricks that students do. Rest assured, that they have worked hard to build a better and stronger tool.

Also, keep in mind that there are many essays writing services out there that offer 100% original pieces of writing. You can discover these top essay writing service reviews on All Top Reviews. That's a much safer solution than trying to figure out how to trick Turnitin.