Post AaNcR2rumix7W1YcHA by grammargirl@zirk.us
(DIR) More posts by grammargirl@zirk.us
(DIR) Post #AaNXGb54kEGIfOuaQ4 by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-03T02:09:28Z
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Editor friends have given me two cool tricks for detecting possible plagiarism. (I'm not sure at this point if they will detect AI writing or not. I'm still doing more research.)1. Look for text that has invisible white highlighting or color behind it. This happens sometimes when you paste text from a website. You can see it by changing the background color of your document. (Credit: Jeanette Fast Redmond)1/x#AmEditing
(DIR) Post #AaNXeHHvz6o8EODaGu by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-03T02:13:43Z
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2. Look for straight apostrophes in a document that otherwise has "smart" apostrophes. This can be a sign of pasted text. (Credit: Karen Wise)3. Look for spaces that become nonbreaking (shown by a little degree symbol instead of a dot). Another sign of pasted text. (Credit: Karen Wise)When they see these flags, they start pasting text into Google to see if it's on some website.2/x
(DIR) Post #AaNXfoA5FPyWTYH9iy by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-03T02:14:01Z
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If you have other tips like this, please let me know! I'm going to write it up after I play with these a bit myself.3/x
(DIR) Post #AaNXiGZsZIvPBZVu2C by Greenseer@toot.wales
2023-10-03T02:14:28Z
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@grammargirl Lesson 1.. When plagiarising, always paste as plain text
(DIR) Post #AaNYXsHQ9TXmszULXE by the5thColumnist@mstdn.ca
2023-10-03T02:23:47Z
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@grammargirl Could this also happen if you cut and paste to move text around ?
(DIR) Post #AaNYnwEhD9AbmxsEZE by marinaepelman@mastodon.social
2023-10-03T02:26:41Z
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@grammargirl ligatures where they shouldn’t be are also a sign of copying and pasting
(DIR) Post #AaNZEIGHwVL1d5BZuC by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-03T02:31:27Z
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@the5thColumnist Yes, some of it can happen when you move text around between platforms. I have problems with curly and straight quotation marks when I paste text between Google Docs and Apple Pages. It's a sign to investigate more if you aren't sure of the source — certainly not an absolute sign of plagiarism.
(DIR) Post #AaNZKZ7u9WljfjFsLQ by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-03T02:32:35Z
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@marinaepelman Interesting! Thank you.
(DIR) Post #AaNaU93445sZdt7fwu by elaterite@fosstodon.org
2023-10-03T02:45:30Z
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@grammargirl Good tips, except for Karen Wise's suggestion of looking for straight apostrophes. As someone who loathes formatted text I don't use smart quotes &c. I also correct smart quotes & apostrophes to straight ones in text I copy & paste. Having been around computes for a long time, I have found that copying & pasting formatted text from one piece of software into another, or into a webpage, doesn't always work. Probably not a big problem these days, but still, I prefer plain text.
(DIR) Post #AaNaYOD5dVAVp8ptaa by Logophilius@indieauthors.social
2023-10-03T02:46:16Z
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@grammargirl Otherwise inexplicable changes in the font, font size (like from 9 to 9.5), or line spacing.
(DIR) Post #AaNaggQJnr9yd0yiZM by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-03T02:47:46Z
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@elaterite It's the mixture of straight and smart apostrophes that she looks for, not just straight ones alone. Sorry if that wasn't clear!
(DIR) Post #AaNaqrYdGHju3WildI by elaterite@fosstodon.org
2023-10-03T02:49:35Z
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@grammargirl Oh, got it.
(DIR) Post #AaNav2vyuDJGUwdZU8 by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-03T02:50:24Z
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@Logophilius Adding them to my list!
(DIR) Post #AaNb9437YYMi0jf2lE by jacksonmead@mastodon.world
2023-10-03T02:52:54Z
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@grammargirl Not in line with these kind of mechanical tips, but if you're editing something that is not very well written and then suddenly a sentence is well written, that is a pretty good clue. Or vice versa, though that happens less often.
(DIR) Post #AaNbNNYJqBMQYM4z2G by glennf@twit.social
2023-10-03T02:55:29Z
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@grammargirl @marinaepelman https://glennf.medium.com/dont-coffin-me-it-s-crackers-8dd43faa42d1
(DIR) Post #AaNc9Qq2vWbue0Hhku by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-03T03:04:10Z
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@glennf @marinaepelman That was a great read about ligatures!
(DIR) Post #AaNcR2rumix7W1YcHA by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-03T03:07:22Z
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@jacksonmead Good point.
(DIR) Post #AaNcRtkeATd9WpZ3o0 by Cetraria@neurodifferent.me
2023-10-03T03:02:24Z
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@Logophilius @grammargirl slight changes in font color as well (such as dark grey or navy). If you select a paragraph and one of the text options goes blank (font, color, background, size, even occasionally text style), it might be that something was copied/pasted -- it's indicative that some part of the text is different from the default text.
(DIR) Post #AaNcRv3TJyHbZVNbmq by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-03T03:07:32Z
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@Cetraria Good one.
(DIR) Post #AaNdFKR7k4BQTr0FP6 by glennf@twit.social
2023-10-03T03:16:26Z
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@grammargirl @marinaepelman Thank you! All due to a weird joke misfire!
(DIR) Post #AaNkCVBW1UykcsIl2u by drfancypantsesq@esq.social
2023-10-03T03:47:28Z
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@grammargirl Some of us weirdos intentionally insert non-breaking spaces into our documents. :)
(DIR) Post #AaNlQg8eC60abgHenA by PamelaBarroway@mstdn.social
2023-10-03T04:48:05Z
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@grammargirl 1. Any font changes within the document, no matter how small. It means someone may have lifted part of the copy from another source online; and if you see that… 2. Paste the passage in question into Google or Wikipedia (or both). If it’s been appropriated, you’ll receive that info in the results … sometimes verbatim (plagiarizers never think they’ll be caught). #editing #writing #plagiarism
(DIR) Post #AaNn5T7xZdBS53yb0y by pkrowiak@mastodon.online
2023-10-03T05:06:43Z
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@grammargirl I used to have to edit documents, but we required our writers to include their sources. However, was working with younger writers who knew to change things like quote marks. I know it’s a shot in the dark, but, I would just grab random text from the submitted piece and search for it in the supporting doc and vice versa. It actually worked more often than I’d like.
(DIR) Post #AaO7yOjpamQ3Ti9ytc by roberre@mstdn.party
2023-10-03T09:00:44Z
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@grammargirl back when I was grading freshman comp papers, we used turnitin.com.
(DIR) Post #AaOB8KhNlWabhyRYe0 by LaurenJodi@penfount.social
2023-10-03T09:36:07Z
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@grammargirl in addition to the excellent tips given so far, I also look for words that are way beyond the students writing level. They more often than not don’t actually read what they copy and leave words like “defenestrate” or “obdurate “ 🤷🏻♀️
(DIR) Post #AaOJQDuoWXa9W2lfUm by statesdj@genomic.social
2023-10-03T11:09:01Z
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@grammargirl Mixed fonts are a dead giveaway, there are lots of fonts that look similar, but aren't the same.As an academic, you get to know your students' styles. Words and phrases that seem out of place are always a red flag.
(DIR) Post #AaOkofDDNsV7t6FlOi by grammargirl@zirk.us
2023-10-03T16:15:56Z
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@PamelaBarroway Interesting. You're the second person to tell me you'd search Wikipedia. Do you find that Google misses things that are in Wikipedia these days?
(DIR) Post #AaOmi7r2h5CEbMtOTI by UnCoveredMyths@writing.exchange
2023-10-03T16:37:11Z
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@grammargirl I found some never finished short stories in a really old program. When I copied and pasted to Scrivener, the formatting went nuts!