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Plagiarism

How does UCAS know whether you have plagiarised or not. I'm sure people come up with the same way of phrasing sentences/using the same wording every day, which isn't plagiarism, so how does UCAS distinguish these scenarios from plagiarism?
Original post by muffin_selight
How does UCAS know whether you have plagiarised or not. I'm sure people come up with the same way of phrasing sentences/using the same wording every day, which isn't plagiarism, so how does UCAS distinguish these scenarios from plagiarism?


If the software flags you for plagiarism, they would check it and see that the phrase used is a very common one. However, I suspect the software is advanced enough to recognise commonly use phrases, or it might even reject short phrases that are the same (for example, anything less than 5 words long). Don't worry - you won't get accused of plagiarism for using common phrases.
Reply 2
Well, I believe that they will run things through plagiarism software at first. Of course, they would probably look at it in person before making the decision whether it's coincidence or malice.
Ucas will pass on the percentage of plagiarised phrases to the universities applied to and it's for them to decide what they will do. A low percentage isn't going to be an issue and, of course, common sense is applied.
For example, I was reading through some Dentistry personal statements and I read "the satisfaction of helping someone, especially if they are in some form of need, motivates me more than anything." That is exactly how I would have written it in my personal statement, but this would be classed as plagiarism?
Original post by muffin_selight
For example, I was reading through some Dentistry personal statements and I read "the satisfaction of helping someone, especially if they are in some form of need, motivates me more than anything." That is exactly how I would have written it in my personal statement, but this would be classed as plagiarism?

Well, as I said, it's all a matter of common sense. One short sentence, which isn't particularly original or out of the ordinary, isn't going to ring any alarm bells. A ps in which 50% of the sentences are flagged up is a different matter. Of course some sentences are going to keep cropping up, but as long as you haven't actually used anything from anyone else's, your situation is fine. If I were you, I'd stop reading the statements now, since you've got an idea of how they go, and wait a few days to let them go out of your mind before you start again on your own. You don't want to plagiarise accidentally!
Okay, thank you for the help!!!
I was told they run it through a program, whose name I have forgotten, but basically, anything which is flagged at over 30% plagarised is then checked by a human to determine whether it is copied or not.
Reply 8
My teacher who does all the UCAS stuff at my school says that their software detects anything within your statement that is over I think 50-60% similar to something else and highlights it in one colour, and anything over something like 90% similar is highlighted in a different colour. You don't know what's been highlighted if at all, it's not changed and gets sent off to the universities anyway. They've had it at our school where two students did all the same subjects and applied for the same course albeit at different universities. Their personal statements were very similar because of this although they hadn't even co silted each other or the like when they wrote them. The first student was fine but when the second sent in their application they were flagged for plagiarism because their software compared it to all the other statements it's ever received. They were fine but it could've been disastrous.

There's always going to be people similar to you so as long as you know you didn't plagiarise you should be fine!


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