Plagiarism Site OK, But Needs Some Revision

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

John Chow has a great review of a website that checks for plagiarism over at his blog JohnChow Dot Com`.

When I first read about this website I thought, “Well, why not just use Copyscape.” But then I kept reading. It seems that iPlagirismCheck.com does more than just search online sources for plagiarism as Copyscape does. They also check print sources against content theft. That’s good because intellectual honesty at a college or university is paramount. I highly agree with John’s review as well.

The website does have some navigation issues. It’s color scheme is also a bit awkward. If this website expects to get any business they should do a little bit of a redesign. Not much is necessary. Just enough to change the color scheme and some of the navigation hurdles.

Of course, if I’m a college student and I want to check my papers against plagiarism then I may not be interested much in the website’s color scheme. And this website seems to be marketing its services toward college students. Probably C students and below average academically inclined. I wouldn’t expect most A students to need the service – they’ll likely know how to check their own sources and make the proper references so they don’t get caught inadvertently stealing or plagiarizing.

That said, John Chow makes a good point about the call to action and special price button being at the bottom of the website. I think if this were my website, I’d move the Guaranteed Results section to the bottom of the page – below the fold – and move the Special Price to the top where Guaranteed Results is. I’d want people to see that right up front. For one thing, it’s attention grabbing and everyone likes a special price. People will be more inclined to stick on the site to see what the special price is if they see it above the fold. Otherwise, they’ll be off to another site – possibly to plagiarize or check their sources.