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A student copied their essay off the internet, but replaced quite a lot of the words by thesaurus synonyms in an attempt defeat the automated plagiarism detector. I think my favourite was “public health officials” becoming “general wellbeing authorities”.
OK, so “general wellbeing authorities” has 3000 hits on Google https://google.com/search?q=%22general+wellbeing+authorities%22 and after checking a few, I find it totally plausible that all 3000 of them (including some journal articles in skeevy-looking journals) are plagiarised the same way.
Example: "Trump has again guarded the utilization of hydroxychloroquine to avoid coronavirus, negating his own general wellbeing authorities." https://25hournews.com/news/coronavirus-trump-sticks-by-discredited-hydroxychloroquine-2819
Convince me this wasn't:
defended → guarded
use → utilization
treat?? → avoid
contradicting → negating
Convince me this wasn't:
defended → guarded
use → utilization
treat?? → avoid
contradicting → negating
Yep! Plagiarised from the BBC! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53575964 (It was “ward off” that was changed to “avoid”.)
“Trump has again defended the use of hydroxychloroquine to ward off coronavirus, contradicting his own public health officials.”
“Trump has again defended the use of hydroxychloroquine to ward off coronavirus, contradicting his own public health officials.”
Another. This article in the Journal of Biochemical Toxicology:
“The event of pathogenic microorganisms in ecological waters is a progressing worry for general wellbeing authorities and those in the water administration territory around the world.” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319879278_Prevalence_and_distribution_of_E_coli_and_its_virulence_genes_from_different_water_sources_in_Alborz_province_Iran
…
“The event of pathogenic microorganisms in ecological waters is a progressing worry for general wellbeing authorities and those in the water administration territory around the world.” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319879278_Prevalence_and_distribution_of_E_coli_and_its_virulence_genes_from_different_water_sources_in_Alborz_province_Iran
…
…is surely plagiarised from this article in Applied and Environmental Microbiology:
“The occurrence of pathogenic microorganisms in environmental waters is an ongoing concern for public health officials and those in the water management area worldwide.“
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3406122/
“The occurrence of pathogenic microorganisms in environmental waters is an ongoing concern for public health officials and those in the water management area worldwide.“
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3406122/
Can you guess the thesaurus-substitutions in this news story?
“General wellbeing authorities changed their tune when it became evident that the infection could spread among individuals indicating no manifestations.”
[I can’t link, because Twitter identifies it as ”harmful”.]
“General wellbeing authorities changed their tune when it became evident that the infection could spread among individuals indicating no manifestations.”
[I can’t link, because Twitter identifies it as ”harmful”.]
Answer, from the AP:
“Public health officials changed their tune when it became apparent that the virus could spread among people showing no symptoms.” https://apnews.com/86f61f3ffb6173c29bc7db201c10f141
“Public health officials changed their tune when it became apparent that the virus could spread among people showing no symptoms.” https://apnews.com/86f61f3ffb6173c29bc7db201c10f141
This seems like much more effort than just not plagiarising. (And if you’re writing an article about food safety, you probably shouldn’t start referring to it as “sustenance wellbeing” halfway through.)
Anyway, in conclusion: Anyone who‘s ever used the phrase “general wellbeing authorities” is a plagiarist*, and not a very good one. The end.
(*except me, here)
(*except me, here)
Addendum: Here’s an article in Slate about the phenomenon of thesaurus substitutions (that also explains why @BristOliver tweeted “ #SinisterButtocks” at me earlier). https://slate.com/human-interest/2014/08/writing-clearly-in-student-papers-the-right-click-thesaurus-and-rogeting-are-ruining-writing.html
