Fab Find: PaperRater

I tweeted awhile ago about PaperRater, and after testing it, I am selecting the site as today’s Fab Find.  PaperRater is a free grammar checker and automated proofreading service geared toward students and anyone who is writing professional copy. The site also provides plagiarism detection.

If you are a WordPress user then the grammar and proofreading check will feel a little familiar. For an automated system, PaperRater provides some decent analysis of your work with some reasonable suggestions.

One of the nicest features is the originality/plagiarism detection which proactively alerts the author to any text or content that is either not cited, or sounds like it is copied.  Most anti-plagiarism services are offered to teachers in assisting them in finding copied work after submission by the student. Since most authors are now consulting online sources as they create their own work, I like that PaperRater is offering a helpful service to writers to ensure they are not unintentionally copying work or not citing original content. I imagine that PaperRater could be used constructively as part of a writing assignment for students to check how well they are doing with citations.

Faculty and teachers can still use the PaperRater’s antiplagarism service by cutting and pasting a student document into the web page and then receiving a report on suspected missed citations and blatant copying.

Try PaperRater now: http://www.paperrater.com

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Hiatus

I had the rare pleasure of sneaking away for a quick vacation. I promised my companions that my only use of technology would be focused on my online students.  All tweeting and blogging, etc would pause. This request makes it sound like I am some kind of social media junkie, which given the amount of traffic on Twitter, Facebook and other blogs, I say I am average at best. Despite the sounds of things, no one had to twist my arm to give up my media habit and it was a welcome break. If anything, I came back from vacation with more ideas rattling about my brain and now I just need the time to compose them coherently. So stay tuned!