How do teachers know if a paper is plagerised?

Answer 1

There's several ways that teachers can tell. There's software called "Turnitin" where the teachers can not only check it through software, but also run it by other teachers & professionals who are trained to detect plagiarism. The teachers can also check it against others students who they think s/he plagiarized off of. The most obvious way of detecting however, is to judge the paper's value next to how the student performs in class & for homeworks. If the student normally doesn't do well in class, goofs off constantly, and/or doesn't appear to have put forth any effort but puts in a paper that's beyond what the teacher thinks they're capable of, then they will suspect plagiarism. They also look for obvious things such as quotes from specific books & whether they are quoted correctly or not. In the end, if the teacher has even the smallest question of whether the paper is plagiarized, they will usually act upon it. Even if the charges are later dropped, an accusation will stay on your school records forever & you will be examined incredibly closely by future teachers. This is why it's so important to quote things correctly & to ensure that your paper isn't something that can be suspect.