Is it safe to post my essay here? Or should I be worried about Plagiarism?

See number 11 in Forum FAQs at essayforum.com/faq/.

In brief, you should make sure that you provided your real first and last name when registered for this site. This will assist Forum administrators in helping to prove your authorship should such a question arise. Next, you may elect to place your name, your initials, or some other identifying information at the beginning or end of the post in which you place your essay. This, along with the time/date stamping of the post, will verify that you placed the essay here before anybody else used it for some other purpose.

As you say, the likelihood of such nefarious (and stupid) activity is low. But you can use those steps to protect yourself.

This is less of an issue with regular essays than it is with application essays. With regular essays, you can also protect yourself by asking your professor / teacher if it is acceptable to use the website. That way, even if your essay gets flagged by anti-plagiarism software, you know you won't get in trouble (as long as the essay being on this site was the only reason for the flag, of course). For application essays, I suppose you are a bit more reliant on people not being totally stupid.

editing online - safe sites?

I have to used some of the sites that provided online editing, and also help with writing papers.And wonder how there are many of them at the web. Is there safely to use them? ...I think everyone has its level of legacy and morality, and choose to use them or don't

Well there's this site which is a really great tool in helping editing papers. Elsewhere, I believe CollegeConfidential has a portion of their forums that they devote to helping revise issues. If you google "Editing College Essay" there will be an array of websites that pop up that charge you to edit, although I think only this and college confidential are the ones that are free.

Hope that helped! :)

If I understand your question correctly your worried some might steal your hard work i.e. writing? Well essayforum for example explains in their terms and conditions that if someone does take your work you can contact them and they will tell your professor you posted it 1st on their website... That is why they ask you for your real name when you register...

If you have your name on your account it is easy to tell who the original author is. I don't know what this has to do with morality.

Unless of course by "help with writing papers" you mean sites that offer to write papers for you for a sizable fee. Using such sites is indeed unethical, not to mention stupid, since in using them you only cheat yourself out of the education you (or possibly your parents) are paying for.

Security of posted work.

Hello,

I have recently joined EF and I believe the site will be very helpful. However, I am concerned about the security of my essay. I really would prefer to not post it for just anyone to see. I was wondering if it were possible to e-mail it to a few moderators and receive feedback from them that way. Of course I will still contribute my own opinions to other members' essays, but if this request is possible then I would really appreciate it! :)

Thanks,
Katie

Sorry, the whole point of the essay forum is that it is a forum -- an open place where all can learn from each other. The price of the free feedback you get is that the process of getting the feedback is visible to all. To get private professional help on an essay, one generally needs to pay for the service.

Alright thank you. I thought it couldn't hurt to at least try. I will likely be posting my essay soon then and I look forward to feedback! :)

Thanks again,
Katie

In my point of view, it is a chance to practise your english of writing

don't look too serious upon it~~~

I am agree with you on the chance to practice writing

Since i registered this website, my writing skill has improved so far

Thank you for feedback on my submitted essays.

Is it safe to post?

Hey I am just wondering how safe posting one's essay on this site is. I would like to get some critiques of my own essays but was wondering what prevents other visitors from copying and pasting essays off this site. Some students might pass these essays off as their own and If colleges you software such as turnitin.com to check the validity you might run into problems when submitting your own essays. I'm not saying that people here are dishonest because I truly believe 99% of the visitors want to offer their help, its just the other 1% I am suspicious about.

Thanks

me too. that 1% suspect will spoil our efforts.

In one sentence, putting your real name in your profile next to your essay prevents that.

EF

I'm sure there are people who will do that, but there are some things that will help it: your post has a date and time, so you have proof that yours is the original.

Second, as EFTeam said, use your real name. That's more evidence.

It's really a matter of doing a cost benefit analysis. Is the improvement you will get by using this site worth the relatively small risk that someone will try stealing your work, which you can prove is yours thanks to the time stamp anyway.

any means to hide the essay?

Hi everyone, I'm very grateful that lots of people here helped me correct my essay. But now I hope it can be hidden to prevent potential risks of being plagiarized. Can anyone tell me how to do it? Thanks. I love this community and will continue helping people with their essays.

you mean hide your essays you have written up to now?

harzel
haha...we all have worried about the same problem. My mother told me the be careful of Zhong1 Jie4. But there are so many here. ...I think it's ok and I have posted several already.

How about just putting initials in your essay? Would that help? And how does the time stamp help? I really want to post mine, too.

It may help, but putting your real last name is the surest way.

EF

Is it better to tell the admission officer in advance?

If I tell the admission officer that I have posted my essay on essayforum and remind him to look for my name at the end of my post, would that diminish the chance that he suspects me of plagiarism?

I think it is great to take ANY opportunity to talk to an admissions officer whenever you can, and be impressive, respectful, enthusiastic.

Also, yes, it is great to tell the admissions officer that you posted on EssayForum, because it shows them that you are serious about collaborating and learning. I understand why you are concerned about plagiarism, because maybe the admissions officer will see the essay on the Internet and think you cheated, but like you said it's easy to just point out that it is your work with your name at the bottom.

You bring up a good point! People need to use their real names when they post here, so that they are shown as the authors of the work.

Did I answer your question?

Yes you did ! Thank you !

Plagarism?

Could one be accused of plagiarism from posting their essay on this site?

What if I post an essay to get feedback, revise it, and send it to colleges and they discover that my essay has been posted online (and are unaware that I was the one who posted it). Could there be bad consequences?

No. You are the author no matter where your writing gets posted, printed, or said. Now, if you took my writing and posted it for revision without crediting me as the author of the original, that would be plagiarism. Also, if any of your work includes that from another author and you fail to cite that author correctly, you would be guilty of plagiarizing that author's work.

Plagiarism is a fancy way of saying "stealing." If you are not stealing, you are not plagiarizing. Beware, though, when putting something you learn into your own words that you really put it in your own words. If your words too closely resemble another's, it is called paraphrasing and should be cited as such.

Hope this helps! It was an excellent question, but try not to be too paranoid. Just remember to give credit where credit is due and you will be fine.

Blue skies!

Jeannie

Yes, but Awesomeness did not use her/his real name when creating an account! So, the thing to do is start a new account with your full name, and then it will appear next to every essay you post.

If I ever heard about a student being penalized for participating in a scholarly forum, I'd be very interested in talking to the misguided administrator behind it.

i got a question.. is this plagiarism??

i just stumbled on this site a few days ago, so i didn't know anything about the essay till now

https://essayforum.com/undergraduate-2/father-shaped-myself-describe-world-come-10845/

this is my essay, read the intro

now i found another essay with practically EXACT same thing as my into i wrote. this essay isn't mine and was written over a year ago

essayforum.com/undergraduate-admission-essays-2/feedback-please-uc-personal-statement-prompt-describe-world-3264/

should i change my intro?? is it plagiarism??

You probably answered your own question. One student wrote an essay a year ago and you wrote your essay a few days ago. Who was the original author then?

geez this jsut screwed me over.. now i gotta somehow rewrite my intro =/

Interesting. Was this a coincidence? Or did you use the former writer's idea?

That's most likely the case.. geessh

that's what I thought... heh... Just.. was wondering, not to be singling Clement out or anything.. kinda.. xP

Just to clarify, Mustafa, yes there is such a thing as "self-plagiarism," but it is in the spirit of ...well...cheating. For instance, if I took something I wrote from another class (say technical writing), and presented it as new work for another class (say Creative Writing), this would be self-plagiarism (and laziness to boot! :). However, if I had to withdraw from a class after three weeks but had already done much of the required work, I could resubmit that coursework for that same class on that assignment, and it would not be self-plagiarism because I never received credit for it. I could even submit the exact same article to many media outlets (or colleges) for publishing (or acceptance), and that would not be self-plagiarism. It would be silly to think I have to write a whole new book for each publishing company...see? Just wanted to make that clear lest we set up extreme paranoia. :) How dit it go with your collaboration, BTW?

The above post reminded me of how I wanted to expand an earlier post.Paraphrasing is a completely acceptable form of citation in academic writing, and I think I got the point across that the original author needs to be cited regardless of how you change the words around; stealing ideas is just as bad as stealing a quote...I wanted to combine this thought with my other thought about self-plagiarizing.

All words have become words for a reason. The reason is that everyone uses them. I was once taken to task for stating my learned opinion about a subject in which I am fluent. The instructor told me in the feedback that I did not cite my sourse. My source was me! I know this and I am telling you how it is! ...Made me crazy...So I replied that it came form me and my own experience. "Roses grow well well-drained soil, and tend to acquire a fungus called "black spot" if kept in a boggy or moist environment." < I just made this example up from my own trial and error - my own knowledge. When I asked her how to cite my own knowledge, she replied in her snooty way, that I was neither a published author nor a recognized expert in the filed, so I would have to cite someone who said, basically, the same thing I just did! Tricky...So, being the me that I am, and being the holder of a couple (married) names, I used my other name as a personal communication citation, and said exactly what I said..teehee. Basically I was talking to myself SO There! Haha! Seriously, is that cheating? to her, most likely, to me, no! It was MY knowledge. Kevin remarked, in a different post, that "ethereal garden" is a lovely concept (that I made up) but had surely been used before...

The laborious point I am trying to make about plagiarism is that if you know daggum well they are not your thoughts or word-groupings - if it follows too closely the ideas of another writer, you are lying to yourself if you still insist on submitting it as your own. Does that make sense?? I make myself crazy sometimes...Blue skies! Jeannie

I don't think it's plagiarism i mean it's your work you're just asking for help nothing more nothing less.

First time on essay forum

Hey, I just signed up and the site seems helpful but I was wondering if is it safe?

Hi Erika, I certainly hope it is safe! I think you are talking about whether or not people get in trouble for collaborating here. If that is what you mean, I guess it depends on your teachers, but I don't know of anyone ever getting in trouble. Collaboration is the way things happen in the age of information; I think educators would be remiss to discourage participation in a writer's group like this one.

I'm glad you are here!

Hello, I am new over here!!

hey all,

i just found about this website and signed up. i was wondering how safe it is to post your essay here...i was just concerned about someone stealing my ideas or words.

I would really like to get some feedback so that i can start posting my essays and feel safe :D

thanks