Prevent Your Own Plagiarism

Many instructors use TurnItIn.com to gauge the authenticity of students' work. It is a valuable service, but it is difficult to use if you'd like to check your own work ahead of time. We've had several requests for a service that will help ensure that your papers are plagiarism-free and cited correctly. Well, you're in luck- here are some suggestions to use for pre-screening your work before submitting it:

*Paper Rater: This site will check your spelling, grammar, and originality, entirely for free! Just be sure to choose the "Include" option in the Originality Detection box. It will also analyze your word choice and style, and offer vocabulary options. Neat tool!



*PlagiarismChecker.com: Very basic in comparison, this site does allow you to enter shorter phrases that are then searched in Google to find instances of plagiarism in your work.

*WriteCheck: If you want to be really sure that your paper won't turn up any surprise plagiarism flags in TurnItIn, then you may be willing to spend the $5 that this site charges to check your paper. The advantage here is that the site is run by TurnItIn, and it checks your writing against the same papers and websites that your instructor is using to verify your original work.



Give some of these a try! They're valuable tools that may give you a quick lesson on plagiarism and the value of citation- or at least they might provide more confidence before you hit the submit button. And these three will not store and resell your papers, an accusation given to some of the free plagiarism checkers on the Internet.

Faxing in the library

The library does not have fax machines available for the public to use, but there are apps available if you need to quickly fax something!

First, scan in your document. You can do this with the scanners located on the second floor of the library in the Computer Lab. If you need help, please do not hesitate to ask the Lab Assistant.

Once your documents are scanned, navigate to one of these web apps:

Hellofax is a web-based service that allows you to send faxes and fill out and sign documents from your Internet browser. New users are given five pages of faxing for free, and after that it costs $1.99 per fax (up to 10 pages, at $0.20/page after that). If you're a heavy duty faxer, you can also sign up for monthly plans which give you varying amounts of faxes each month.

If you're looking for a cheaper alternative, there is FaxZero which will allow you to send a maximum of two free faxes of three pages each a day for free! There is a catch, though. FaxZero will append a cover page with an advertisement on each fax. A $1.99 per fax payment through PayPal, though, will remove the advertisement and grant you up to fifteen pages per fax.

Mobile-Friendly Blog

If you're like many of us at the library, our mobile phones and devices have become a common source of Internet access. A 2010 study from the Pew Research Center estimated that close to 40% of adults access the Internet via their cell phone, and that number grows each year.

Fortunately for those of us interested in the library, I can now report to you that this very blog is now completely mobile-friendly! It looks really great, too. So check it out next time you're poking around the Internet on your phone- and better yet, subscribe to our RSS feed while you're at it!

The library is a great place to read something besides your textbooks and research material. Sanford, Oviedo, and Altamonte campus libraries have areas set aside for browsing and borrowing "Leisure Books". Here you'll find the latest best sellers, romance and thriller books, topical non-fiction, "fun" reads, and some books recommended to us by students and college staff! We carry many of the New York Times bestsellers. These are very popular since you can generally get them quicker than at your public library.