Web resurrects old college cheating technique

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I actually spoke to a Turnitin.com regional sales person

I'm a little against their service from a moral standpoint. First off, students have no ability to submit their work for review. Only professors can submit works. It also works somewhat like many jokes about our legal system. You are guilty until proven innocent. In most cases you can't prove your innocence. Turnitin.com works by comparing every word of your paper against a database and it highlights phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that are written SIMILAR (yes, not just identical) to other works.
As a believer in that old adage that if you take 100 monkeys in a room with typewriters they will eventually produce Shakespeare...I am curious how long it will be before even true, honest, non-plagiarizing students are expelled for plagiarism.

Think of it another way...such as in the area of "inventions" - have you ever come up with a unique idea only to see it on TV or read about it several months or years down the road? I know I have. I came up with 3 specific "inventions" that I even started documenting only to find out there is already a patent out there for something almost identical to my concept. It happens more than you think. Isn't it reasonable to assume that people can write similar things on a given topic? Especially when you consider we students all have access to the same research databases, the same material, etc. Sure we can cite the work, that isn't the issue. It?s the parts we add from without our own creative minds that I am talking about. I would guess that as turnitin.com's database grows...eventually there will be overlap and innocent students will suffer.

Now if they allowed students to submit their work and get a "plagiarism" score prior to turning it in to their professors, at least they could see if they need to change or revise sections of their papers. Turnitin's response to this was that they felt students would abuse the ability enabling them to "plagiarize" better. That's a crock in and of itself. It puts students at an unfair advantage to be judged by a questionable system without recourse. After all, they have that disconnect from students and they get their money from the universities. If a few good and honest students lose their educations and careers in the process...no big deal. Just like the legal system. Sure a few innocents go to jail by mistake...but as long as we get the bulk of them its okay, right? Well...it?s okay as long as YOU are not one of the innocents that falls through the cracks.

Posted by: Stellardyne   Posted on: 10/08/06 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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