It’s a battle as old as time: students try and get away with ‘assisted homework’ and teachers try and catch them. Thankfully, teachers usually come out on top and that is usually down to the pupils giving themselves away with some oh-so-cliched attempts at cheating. Here’s the five most common signs that there has been a helping hand in homework. 
 

1. It’s delivered with too much pride
   
   You’re collecting in homework as your students head out to break, when a notorious under-achiever offers their assignment with a smug grin and a knowing nod. And with that, you’re on the internet checking for plagiarism faster than you can say “rigorous cross-referencing”.
   
   
   
   
    
2. It’s unusually well presented
   
   While there are some students that take pride in the presentation, as well as the quality of their work, there are others for which that’s just not the case. So when the latter hand you rose-scented script the great typesetters would be proud of, you inticntively know that hands have been at work here that are not the student’s own
   
   
   
   
    
3. It’s a bit too good...
   
   Never in all your days in the profession have you seen a student produce such a thorough yet damning analysis of Hamlet. In fact, it puts you in mind of T.S.Eliot’s famous 1919 critique. Oh, wait...
   
   
   
   
    
4. They have not covered their tracks
   
   Footnotes with no footing, instructions to “see page 47” when no such page exists, that pesky URL that copies itself at the bottom of the text after a control ‘v’ is carried out - in the rush of deceit, many students forget to hide their tracks. And teachers can spot a footprint in the sands of subterfuge from across the playground.
   
   
   
   
    
5. It’s exactly the same as another student’s work
   
   You’re at that stage in the day when you’ve been marking for so long that you’re seeing double. Except you’re not. It’s the exact same work, factual inaccuracies and grammatical errors and all, but in different handwriting. You’d be more furious, but it’s Friday night and the anger can wait for Monday. There’s a bottle of wine in the fridge. It won’t be long before you really are seeing double.
   
   
   

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