Process text to change each 5th word into a "hole".

Cut and paste a paragraph (or more) into the text box below.
Then Submit.


Please click Submit to "hole-ize this text.         to clear and start over.

This can be used to probe in cases of suspected plagiarism. The concept is that if one is the author of a paper and is presented with a paragraph (or so) of that paper in "hole-ized" form, that one will be able to fill in most or all of the words correctly. This is not because of having the paper memorized, but because of remembering (more or less) how one customarily writes. The remaining text provides many cues, and therefore the author should do well.
A person who is not the author should be able to fill in some of the words correctly because of the cues and context. However, it is unlikely that a non-author will do very well. If a non-author reads and re-reads the paper enough times to get a great familiarity with it, then this test will fail. What is the chance that the person who copies will put in that much effort?

A version which also gives as additional output the original text with the hole-words bold faced.

A version which also numbers the blanks and gives a numbered list of the words which were in the blanks.

Background and Discussion

Please send comments and suggestions to hes@ncsu.edu
Copyright 2002,2021 by Henry E. Schaffer