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Paper Rater analyzes your writing surprisngly well
As Paper Rater so eloquently states in HUGE type, it's a free grammar and spelling check, with plagiarism detection thrown in for good measure.
It's actually an interesting study in graphic design: Look at that screenshot. Would you rely on such a website for editing an important academic paper, a newspaper article, or any other important text? At first glance, I sure wouldn't. That "Use now FREE!" button just screams "TACKY". And that's really too bad, because when I finally overcame my distaste and gave the site a spin anyway, I found a surprisingly comprehensive grammar and style editor.
I tested the site with a 3,600-word text on electrical engineering. I found it interesting that the site would not accept short text. When at first I tried submitting one or two paragraphs, it simply let me know that the text is too short for analyzing. I actually like that, because it makes me feel the analysis is more thorough.
The site gave me extensive recommendations for the text, and analyzed word usage and sentence structure. I documented the process with a bunch of screenshots, which you can find after the jump.
After you paste in your text (which I cannot show you here), you select the type of document you're submitting. I guess it uses different parameters for different writing types, which, again, makes me feel it's thorough.
After it runs through your text, you get a pane with different aspects of your writing you can click and get concise reports for:
This is the originality detection. Yay, my text wasn't plagiarized!
The Style report is much more comprehensive. You actually need to know how to read it ("so what if I have 171 'to be' verbs?"). The report contains some explanations, but this is where a proper usage guide can come in handy.
This is a sample for an alert my paper got. Apparently, the vocabulary was a bit thin. I wasn't offended because I didn't write it myself. I'm guessing that "Vocab Builder" is a thesaurus, but I didn't test it myself.
Comments
19
Subscribe to commentsaidan.cageMar 3rd 2010 6:15PM
from their TOS:
By submitting Material to the Web Site, you agree to grant the Company, its agents, affiliates, representatives, licensors, and licensees, a worldwide, irrevocable, nonexclusive, perpetual, royalty-free right (including moral rights) and license to copy, modify, translate, publish, disclose, transfer, assign, sell, and distribute said Material in any form now known or hereafter developed, for any purpose without limitation, and without any obligation of notice, attribution, or compensation to you or another.
...ew :(
bknabMar 3rd 2010 6:23PM
That killed it for me...
bwcbizMar 4th 2010 2:52PM
With such a comprehensive, unlimited licensing of rights, I would argue (IANAL) that "FREE" constitutes false advertising. Even for an undergraduate paper, I would say that the assigned rights have some value that rises above "free".
WalterMar 3rd 2010 8:02PM
are there any other tools similar to this without the scary 'big-brother' ToS?
JohnMar 3rd 2010 8:05PM
Me too. Hogwash Terms of Service. Call my cynical, but I think most of these "helpful" sites are like this.
Like I'm going to let an online site (managed buy God only knows) have access to my writing. Other sites offer to help you manage your money, diary, and any other sort of personal details for free. But where are you details going? Where will they end up down the line?
PaperRater StaffMar 3rd 2010 8:48PM
Thanks for the writeup about the service. We have been notified by several people about the TOS and we understand their concerns. After discussing the TOS with our lawyer, we'll be removing the offensive portion immediately.
We hope you'll continue to use the service as we work on improvements and new features.
nikescarMar 3rd 2010 8:55PM
Wow, if this is true I'm amazed.
Maybe this was a case of an over zealous lawyer trying to cover PaperRater's ass in every possible way.
nikescarMar 3rd 2010 8:57PM
I just checked their site and the ToS has been updated. The "offensive" part is gone. Great job guys. And great site.
DeoWulfMar 3rd 2010 9:34PM
Here I was about to label it a scam. That's cool, thanks.
bwcbizMar 4th 2010 3:26PM
Nice work. I wouldn't object to a more limited rights license (for example for use in plagiarism detection within the site, plus use of only the version submitted for certain other purposes), but I appreciate the active response. Assuming you have some other revenue stream planned, perhaps give users a choice of how to "pay" to keep you in business with different licensing/rights/payment schemes, for example:
-authorize advertising and data-mining
-grant of license for re-use of material
-cash payment.
djangelicMar 4th 2010 12:29AM
same here, now i will def use it... pretty exciting
Richard FrischMar 4th 2010 7:31AM
Worthless website!
I tested a totally original blog post I wrote a while back - http://rhftech.com/blog/2010/02/connecting-your-hdtv-to-the-internet/ - and it said it was most likely plagiarized! Who did I steal it from? Myself?
It also had trouble with spelling things like technology words or companies, e.g. Cablevision or HDTV. Its suggested synonyms were also lacked value.
I grade this website a big fat red "F".
MalaycobraMar 4th 2010 8:14AM
"Its suggested synonyms were also lacked value"
Maybe you should run your post through and see what it says...
Richard FrischMar 4th 2010 8:35AM
@Malaycobra If I could edit the post I would. I can't. It stands.
dracona1031Mar 4th 2010 12:03PM
I had the same problem when I tested a blog post from a while back. I wonder if it crawls the web for the text? I'd like to know more about how they test for plagiarism.
PaperRater StaffMar 4th 2010 8:50AM
@Richard F - Thanks for the feedback. If your paper already exists on the Internet, then the originality detector will consider it plagiarized text. This is not a bug -- this is how plagiarism detection works. In the future, perhaps we can enhance this portion of the service by displaying the URL(s) of the matching document(s).
bballpguardmikeMar 4th 2010 4:24PM
Looks neat, I'll have to take a look. Kudos to the PaperRater staff for keeping an eye on the comments here and responding accordingly, that just made me want to try it out even more on the next paper I write.
magicfapMar 8th 2010 3:49PM
Ironically enough, I was about to submit a paper about the importance of analyzing new technologies for big brotherish tendencies when I read the ToS. Too bad, it looked like a good tool.
lqtinkerbellMar 12th 2010 1:37PM
i'm a sophomore in college and i have to submit my paper for plagiarism detection on a thing called safe assign. if i submit my paper to paper rater for suggestions, will it come up later as plagiarized after i submit it for class? i think safe assign searches the internet so if i put it out there, it might come up as plagiarized. and if i submit something else i don't want to revoke all rights to my own work...