Low-Tech Ways of Preventing Plagiarism

Plagiarism is not only becoming more common but almost too easy for students. Since the majority of our students use their computers a simple mouse click can allow them to plagiarize. I spend a good portion of time at the very beginning of school going over plagiarism and how to avoid it but inevitably students will still try. So I have a few methods that I use to help make catching plagiarism that much easier!

Option 1:
Change your font styles to something different so that when they copy and paste something from a website the website's text will stick out. Believe it or not by that is how I catch 90% of my plagiarizers (they never change the font styles to match).

To make your new font automatic follow these steps (I use Georgia)

1. Type and adjust your font to look how you want and highlight it
2. Click normal text - normal text - update normal text to match
3. Click normal text - options - save as my default style

Option 2: 

When I create my assignments I typically create the answer key first. Then I make a copy of that document to become the one my students will fill out. Then I simply delete the answers from their copy. Whenever I do this I always make the answers in blue this way it's easy to see and I won't forget to delete the answers later. If I do this, when the students go to answer the questions their text will automatically appear in blue. Now some students will change it back to black but for the most part, this becomes a quick visual check for any signs that answers were copied and pasted.