I put my personal statement online HELP!

I posted it on a forum here (I never thought this would be a problem). It's now been removed by an admin, but if I copy and paste any bits of it into Google it comes up. Will I get denied for plagiarism? What do I do? Will it go off Google over time?

Reply 1

ryanb97

15

Original post by Bigplatts

I posted it on a forum here (I never thought this would be a problem). It's now been removed by an admin, but if I copy and paste any bits of it into Google it comes up. Will I get denied for plagiarism? What do I do? Will it go off Google over time?

ask a mod to delete it

Reply 2

UnableToFindUser

Original post by Bigplatts

I posted it on a forum here (I never thought this would be a problem). It's now been removed by an admin, but if I copy and paste any bits of it into Google it comes up. Will I get denied for plagiarism? What do I do? Will it go off Google over time?

It will probably be a long time because of google's spiders only regularly visiting pages with heavy traffic.

Reply 3

Bigplatts

OP

Original post by UnableToFindUser

It will probably be a long time because of google's spiders only regularly visiting pages with heavy traffic.

Well what do I do? Is this basically just me screwed for UCAS. Will I have to rewrite the whole thing?

Reply 4

tim_123

16

Original post by Bigplatts

Well what do I do? Is this basically just me screwed for UCAS. Will I have to rewrite the whole thing?

Well I would say re write it, you have plenty of time. You also have the main ideas you wanted to put in the personal statement so it won't be like starting from scratch

Reply 5

YellowJane

8

Oh no!

it's never a good idea to post your statement online like that - someone else might steal it for a start. Rewriting it might be a good idea, but I shouldn't think they'd search that thoroughly for it, and they'd probably work out what had happened, it's not going to be written by anyone else, after all

Reply 6

Minerva

17

Original post by Bigplatts

I posted it on a forum here (I never thought this would be a problem). It's now been removed by an admin, but if I copy and paste any bits of it into Google it comes up. Will I get denied for plagiarism? What do I do? Will it go off Google over time?

You can try ringing UCAS and asking for advice, but you probably will have to re-write it. Certainly do not submit anything to UCAS until you've spoken to them and explained what's happened.

Reply 7

parentlurker

15

you can't get denied for plagiarism if you can prove that it was you who posted it and you should be able to do that (give them the password for the account if no other way).

You can ask google to remove links here https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/3111061?hl=en

Reply 8

Juno

20

Original post by parentlurker

you can't get denied for plagiarism if you can prove that it was you who posted it and you should be able to do that (give them the password for the account if no other way).

You can ask google to remove links here https://support.google.com/websearch/troubleshooter/3111061?hl=en

The problem is that you don't know who else has seen and copied

Reply 9

105263

14

It does not matter at all what is on google or on the internet.

The only thing that matters is whether someone has copied your personal statement, used it in theirs and submitted their application.

The Ucas use an anti-plagiarism software which is only for personal statements submitted through UCAS. There is no internet scanner, which wouldn't even be logical, given that people email their personal statements to tutors all the time.

If you believe someone has copied you this may not matter. As long as you submit your application before they do.

Reply 10

parentlurker

15

Original post by 105263

It does not matter at all what is on google or on the internet.

The only thing that matters is whether someone has copied your personal statement, used it in theirs and submitted their application.

The Ucas use an anti-plagiarism software which is only for personal statements submitted through UCAS. There is no internet scanner, which wouldn't even be logical, given that people email their personal statements to tutors all the time.

If you believe someone has copied you this may not matter. As long as you submit your application before they do.

Not true - the process is explained here http://www.ucas.com/sites/default/files/similarity-detection-applicant-guide_0.pdf and does incude some internet content. It does not necessarily matter who submitted first, what matters is being able to show which was written first. Being able to show that the personal statement was on the web might lead admission staff to take a sympathetic view.