Online plagiarism checker

Plagiarism occurs when people steal and pass off someone else's written or creative work, as their own. It doesn't matter if it is whole or in part. This also includes reproduction of the work without crediting the source.

I used to lecture at a Public University in Malaysia as well as in private educational institutions and I was quite shocked to see how ignorant most students were regarding plagiarism. Studies in the US also show similar findings. According to surveys there, 80% College students admitted to un-intentional plagiarism. 75% students admitted to cheating and 95% did not believe they would get caught. However, 100% were caught by their institutions.

It is getting tougher and tougher to detect plagiarism, what with the so many resources available in a few clicks plus the ability to just 'copy and paste' into a Word document.

Some students assumed that it is OK to "create" a paper from different sources using the 'copy and paste' method without hardly any original content. They were not aware that we only tolerate Plagiarism to only about 5% of the total document text. Worse, they would not have any references as to where they obtained the various information from. Even with the sources provided, some didn't even bother to change the formatting when they copied from websites so you would suddenly have different paragraph formatting and different font and color dark blue as compared to the rest of the text. Another easy way to detect plagiarism , especially in assignments was when there were a few paragraphs in excellent English followed by paragraphs that I couldn't even understand.

They were quite shocked when I failed them. I explained that ignorance is not an excuse and plagiarism is really serious issue especially in the academic sector. In the West, it is considered a crime and if proven guilty, the individual can be expelled form the educational institutions.

From experience, I learnt that this is not limited to students. there are so many reports of academics being fired from their jobs or suspended because it was suddenly discovered that they had plagiarized other people's work.

While surfing the net, I noticed an ad for a new online service, "iPlagiarismCheck.com - Click here to visit us today!. The iPlagiarismCheck services were developed and marketed by Plagiarism-Checkers, Inc., a company based in New York, USA. This unique service will benefit both teachers and students (college, university, or school students) alike.

Their patented software technology is completely online, so you don't have to worry about installing any software. The software will check :
1) Internet: the software checks blogs, directories, cache as well as PDFs, submitted articles etc all over the Internet.
2) Publications: books, articles, journals etc. hard or soft printed.
3) Even the most subtle attempts at Plagiarism will be detected as they check sentence structures and word-synonyms.

All these checks are carried out instantly and securely. Right now they have several packages available starting from $5.00 for a single document.

The story of Harry McFry

Harry McFry is a genealogical detective (someone who researches Family trees) who lives on the outskirts of Barrington, New Hampshire.

Actually, he's an imaginary character created by Thomas Hamburger Jnr. Follow the adventures of Harry in his blog 'Harry McFly investigates: The case of the missing family'.

I like the fact that instead of using a generic Blogger template, he has customized his blog using a 3 column template. I don't see any ads apart from link to titles on Amazon.com. This indicates that writing is obviously something that he's passionate about. Drawings to go with each chapter would make this blog even better.

As someone who''s really into genealogy, I really like the story. It is now 130 chapters long. The first post comprising of 4 chapters was started back in January this year and starts when Harry receives a call from a mysterious lady... Go to the blog to find out what happens next.

Subscribe to UK magazines online

I was thinking of subscribing to some good magazines and after searching around a bit, found the best place to find the cheapest UK Magazine Subscriptions.

Comparemagazines.co.uk allows you to compare magazine subscription prices offered by different magazines' subscription providers. When I last checked they had 1062 UK magazines in their database, including Fashion magazines, Women magazines and Men magazines among others.

The subscription rates do vary between companies. For example,
Vogue magazine subscription prices are £28.50 and £31.50 respectively for one year subscription from two different companies.

You should note that the actual subscription rates may differ from those listed on the site. For example, two
Cosmopolitan magazine subscription rates are given , namely £0 and £24 on two different sites. However, the actual rates are higher. Still they were lower than the recommended retail price (RRP) on both.

Malaysian Coventry Society BBQ party

Last Saturday (the 28th), the Malaysian Coventry Society organised a Barbecue party at the University of Warwick campus.

It was a nice day - bright and sunny. Besides the great food, the organisers had lined up a number of games for the kids as well as for the adults. Had a nice time.







More pictures on my Flickr page.

Some recent important World current affairs

1. Terrorism charges against Indian doctor in Australia dropped.
Terrorism charges against Indian born doctor Mohamed Haneef has been dropped and he was been freed from custody in Australia. The charges were linked to the failed bomb attacks in the UK. He is still under home detention until a decision is made regarding his immigration status.

The Premier of Queensland, Peter Beattie, called the Australian federal police, the "Keystone Cops". BBC report: Haneef terrorism charges dropped

2. India's first Woman President.
Pratibha Patil became the 13th and the first lady President of India on July 25, 2007 by the Chief Justice of India K. G. Balakrishnan. She succeeds Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. She was also previously the first female governor of the state of Rajasthan.
Read the reuters report: Pratibha Patil sworn in as India's first female president.

3. Israel frees 255 Palestinian prisoners
Those released include 11 minors and six women. None of them had been convicted of directly attacking Israelis. The release was definitely a gesture of support to Abbas against rival Hamas. Read The Guardian's report: Israel Hopes Inmate Release Boosts Abbas

However, more than 10,000 Palestinians including children still remain in Israeli prisons. Read 'Israel must release more prisoners, Fatah official says.'

The Arab league might finally recognise Israel. Read the article in Forbes 'Arab League in Jerusalem for 1st Time' and Arab envoys extend 'hand of peace' to Israel.

First PPP Direct offer

I was wondering why I hadn't received any PPP Direct review offers till date when other blogs less popular and with a lower PR had. I had ranted about it earlier in my SEO Expert blog. On my wife's suggestion, I lowered the minimum offer rate from $30 to $5.

As usual my wife was right. I received an offer today and best of all, the advertiser - Mac Poker, is offering me $10 (not $5) just to put up a link on my blogroll on my sidebar. However, I wonder for how long?

Personalised gifts for kids

We often want to show our kids we love them by giving them a unique gift- take this Personalised Cars Lunch Bag. It can be personalized with your childs full name. They would be really proud of it and it might reduce the chance of it getting lost.
The lunch bag costs $19.95 and it comes from Identity Direct.

This online store carries over over 500 products (most of which can be personalised), for the children and the whole family. Check out the site for other great gift ideas include pencils, pencil boxes, lunch boxes, labels and even clocks and placemats.