I came across Paper Rater after one of Richard Byrne's posts on plagiarism tools from August 2010. He recently ran an updated post on eight resources for detecting and preventing plagiarism in June 2012 and Paper Rater is still on his list.
From Paper Rater's About page:
PaperRater.com is a free resource, developed and maintained by linguistics professionals and graduate students. PaperRater.com is used by schools and universities in over 46 countries to help students improve their writing. PaperRater.com combines the power of natural language processing (NLP), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, information retrieval (IR), computational linguistics, data mining, and advanced pattern matching (APM). We offer the most powerful writing tool available on the internet today.
Since I am taking a short course and creating Lab Reports in APAv6 I thought I would give Paper Rater a try. Enter the title of your paper, copy and paste the text of your paper in the text box, copy and paste your references, bibliography, and works cited in the Reference box. Then select the education level of this paper's author, the type of paper you are submitting, originality detection (optional), and read and agree to the terms of service.
Depending on the amount of text inserted, report type selected, and your network connection the results will display. You have the option to print a summary of your results or step through the recommendations.
Paper Rater will check your submission for plagiarism, spelling, grammar, style, vocabulary and give you an opportunity to like them on Facebook. I would put them in a circle if they were on Google+. Depending on the type of paper you submit there is an option to view a grade. Selecting Lab Reports does not produce a grade but I can select Research Paper and the Grade option is available.
The additional components that I like about Paper Rater are:
Bad Phrase Score which is based on the number and quality of trite or inappropriate words, phrases, and cliches found in your paper.
The Style section includes the transitional words score, sentence length, and word usage.
Transitional Words Score based on quality of transitional phrases used within your paper.
The Sentence Length section provides a summary that includes sentence info includes character count, number of words, average length, characters=syllables, number of sentences, average length, percent and number of short sentences, percent and number of long sentences, number of paragraphs, average sentence length, number of questions, and percent and number of passive sentences, and the number of the words in the longest and shortest sentence.
The Word Usage section provides a summary of verb types which include: to be and auxiliary then calculates the percentage of conjunctions, pronouns, prepositions, and nominalizations and sentence beginnings which include the number of pronouns, interrogative pronouns, articles, subordinating conjunctions, conjunctions, and prepositions.
The Vocabulary Score section provides a vocabulary score, vocabulary word count, percentage of vocabulary words, and a list of vocabulary words used. They recommend their vocabulary builder to improve just one word a day in your vocabulary to encourage you to improve your vocabulary score to 60, which will make your paper stand out.
So if you have a paper that you want analyzed, give Paper Rater a try. The site provides a different perspective of your writing.
Paper Rater has a user suggestion improvement site, a blog and a Facebook page. I would like to add Paper Rater to a Google+ circle if they were there.
What is your favorite part of Paper Rater? Are you using it with thesis/dissertation assignments, blog posts, biography, correspondence, book reports, movie or book reviews? Comments, recommendations, reaction box checks, and +1s are always welcome.
Do you or your students visit the OPM Student opportunities site? This site allows students of all ages, in all levels of education to view the requirements and apply for jobs, internships, scholarships, fellowships, grants, and apprenticeships within the federal government. The jobs, internships, scholarships, grants, fellowships, and apprenticeships link to the educational opportunities available to students high school through doctorate level and career professionals.
Learning how to fill out applications for the different programs requires students of all ages to self assess their personal and professional achievements, collect information for human references, and learn how to write about their achievements while analyzing different application requirements and deadlines for each program.
The links below allow one to view the diverse opportunities available which they may not be aware of in or out of high school. Visit the site to review the opportunities from NASA, CIA, Departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, FDIC, FCC, and many more.
Call to Serve - A joint initiative between the Partnership for Public Service and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), is dedicated to helping you learn more about careers in the federal government. To date, more than 642 campuses and 75 federal agencies have joined together to form the Call to Serve network.
Additional opportunities for students (eScholar)
Jobs, Internships, Scholarships, Fellowships, Grants, and Apprenticeships
Federal Jobs by Major - A list of popular jobs filled by individuals with degrees. This list is not all inclusive and some job titles and fields are new to high school students whose environment, family, school choices may be limited. Great discussion opener for students who are thinking about future opportunities.
Student Temporary Employment Program (STEP) information
Student Career Experience Program (SCEP) information
Presidential Management Fellows Program and Application information - 2 year paid fellowship for graduate students.
Federal Career Intern Programs: Individuals interested in Career Intern opportunities must contact specific agencies directly. Today, 80 opportunities are listed under the Internship link, listed below are a few of the agency specific internship opportunities.
Department of Education
CDC Department of Health Promotion and Education
Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) Congressional Internship Program
Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Congressional Internship Program - Summer, Communications, and Emerging Leaders
Exploring opportunities is a great way to help students empower themselves whether they are seeking local job opportunities or want to do great things in the world. When we listen to students discussing their dreams of what they want to do in life, one thing that is missing is their plan to achieve those dreams. Not all students attend resume writing workshops, career information seminars, or have encouragement from community members, and the OPM Student Opportunities site allows them to explore opportunities from their mobile devices, homes with Internet access, and local libraries with computer labs while learning to compile personal and professional information. While they are conducting self assessments, students may discover that they need to make different choices in their educational pursuits, become involved with community volunteer activities, and build their network of human references.
Encourage and challenge students to explore the requirements for a particular career field, internships, apprenticeships, cooperative learning, and scholarships. Exploring the diverse opportunities allows students to apply ISTE's NETS for Students: (1) Creativity and Innovation, (2) Communication and Collaboration, (3) Research and Information Fluency, (4) Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making, (5) Digital Citizenship, (6) Technology Operations and Concepts as independent learners.
FAQs:
What are the eligibility requirements?
Each program has different requirements. Most programs require that you actively pursue a degree, certification, or diploma. In addition, you need to be in good academic standing at your school, a U.S. citizen, and able to meet security requirements. Check specific programs for eligibility criteria.
What can you do when you create a USAJobs account?
Build and store up to 5 distinct resumes, save and automate job searches, save and apply for jobs, learn how to use USAJOBS, learn about the federal hiring process, discover special hiring programs, search by Agency, Occupation, Location, see which jobs are in demand, and apply to Federal Agencies.
Create an account here.
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Comments, recommendations, or checks in the reaction boxes are always welcome.
Don't let the word test scare you...How aware are you of your unconscious biases? When is the last time you assessed your biases?The Implicit Association Test offers one way to probe unconscious biases.UnderstandingPrejudice.org, is a web site for students, teachers, and other individuals interested in the causes and consequences of prejudice. This is one of many resources available in the supplements to the syllabus for the current course I am enrolled in for research methods.This warning is posted on the website before you select the option to move forward: Warning: This test has been taken more than one million times, and the results usually reveal some degree of bias. Your test results will include interpretations based on research done with more elaborate versions of this test. However, the parties who have contributed to this site make no claim regarding the validity of suggested interpretations. If you would rather not read these interpretations or risk discovering hidden biases, please do not continue. Your results are for your knowledge, there isn't an option to send the results to a social media site or post to your blog...it is just you, your Internet connected device and the 2 fingers you use to respond. Depending on where you are in life the results may or may not surprise you. I shared this link with a few people who vocally claim they have no biases and could use a technological assessment. So whether you take the Implicit Association Test or explore the Understanding Prejudice website, there are more than 2,000 links to prejudice-related resources, as well as searchable databases with hundreds of prejudice researchers and social justice organizations. Comments are welcome...or just click one of the Reaction buttons.
Everyone has an opinion on President Obama's first 100 days, the media covered it, people discussed it over dinners, meetings, and the Internet. What about your last 100 days? What about your next 100 days?It is also a time to reflect on the 100 days left in school or personal, professional, and educational accomplishments of our own 100 days. For some people, documenting their productivity or accomplishments is easy because of some type of audit trail or results measured by a tool. For others, it was not so productive.So what have you done during President Obama's first 100 days? What are you doing for your next 100 days? It is never to late to start a self assessment on your own 100 days.As always, comments, feedback, and recommendations are welcome! Here is to making the best of your next 100 days.
