Now, now, let’s not go throwing around words like plagiarism. There could be a very innocent (or cultural) explanation of why you’ve spotted text in the manuscript that was copied from a source without saying so. I get it a lot in curriculum correlations and teacher guides because the Ministry of Education wording was copied from their PDF to make sure the wording was exact and the workflow was efficient. And it’s common to quote familiar phrases without attribution—we often assume the reader will know who first wrote to be or not to be, for example. (Quotes omitted for effect, there.)

But, BUT, even if you want to keep the verbatim text without attribution, identifying the pasted copy can alert you to the need to strip pesky formatting and background code from the selection. And, sometimes, these telltales will alert you to the need to “freshen up” some of the prose, or seek out the proper citation and permissions. It is part of the great responsibility that comes with great power. (Get it?!)

Technical Signs that Text was Copied from Another Source

Watch for these telltale signs that text has been copy–pasted there:

1. Non-breaking spaces (°), which result in erratic line breaks.
2. Manual line breaks (?), which may look random.
3. Straight quote marks and apostrophes. (? vs “ and ? vs ‘)
4. Embedded hyperlinks (often leading back to the source). (How to reveal those!)
5. Font size, type or colour changes.
6. Margin width or line spacing changes.
7. Running text set in a table.
8. Language setting changes (in spellcheck preferences).

And Two Non-Tech “Tells” for Plagiarism

As always, editors can call on their own Spidey Senses to spot something written by someone other than the author whose file they’re working on:

9. Tone, voice or style changes.
10. Particularly polished prose.

Why should the editor care? Because adhering to ethical publishing practices is part of the official Professional Editorial Standards of Editors Canada. Enforcing changes may be beyond the scope of the copy editor’s authority, but flagging potential legal concerns is part of every editor’s ethical responsibilities?

Finding the Source

Before flagging a passage for a rewrite or citation, however, it’s best to locate the potential source. A simple web search of a key phrase often does the trick. Just place the phrase between quote marks in the search field.

Update: Do plagiarism detectors work?

Plagiarism detectors tend to check only against other submitted works or in academic journals and websites; they aren’t checking books, film, or a myriad of other publication formats! Even the LLMs/GPTs (commonly called AIs) cleared this piece of any plagiarism even though versions of this post have been published in several places online and in print since 2014. 

Then there are the “AI detectors” which return as many false positives as they miss.

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Photo by the author. Credit for “lifted” text pasted on the screen in the photo: Fare Well Farm, CSA farm share. A version of this post was originally published at the now long-defunct Copyediting.com.

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