Paper Rater
Some of the teachers in my department are using Turnit.com this year which is a good way to catch students who have copied from other sources. However it works well AFTER the paper has been turned in. This site, however, allows students to turn in their papers BEFORE the teacher sees it. Number one, it tells the kids who has plagiarized. This is imporant for the kids who like to change just a few words rather than putting the information in their own words. But the site also tells a student about spelling and grammar mistakes (and yes so does Word and Google Docs) as well as telling them the level of their vocabulary and even if they should use different word choices. So I tried the site with some of my student's work and one nice thing it quickly showed was that the student had used the word "elite" three times in three sentences. When the student clicked on the word, it gave suggestions for new words. Finally the analysis ended up giving the level of vocabulary (average, above average, etc.). Thanks to FreeTech4Teachers for the tip.