2008 Woodie Awards
It Can Happen Here, Too: Turnitin.com
Zev Eleff
Issue date: 10/22/07 Section: Features
- Page 1 of 1
If a student didn't want to write a paper for himself in the ancient, pre-Internet days, he would probably turn to a willing friend. Today, the Internet has created a plethora of willing friends, so long as they are paid a reasonable sum. To combat this growing phenomena, Turnitin.com and other popular PDS websites allow teachers to scan students' essays to gauge the authenticity of students' work. Over time, these websites have collected thousands of papers and boast tremendous databases that they believe can accurately measure the originality of someone's writing.
While students have been using the Internet to shop for papers for over a decade, 'paper mills' have been in existence for much longer. One of the more premier legal cases involving paper mills occurred in 1972 when Boston University successfully sued several Massachusetts-based term-paper mills for fraud. However, the university's attempt in 1997 to legally stop Internet term-paper mills was quickly dismissed by a federal judge on grounds that Internet mills could not be prosecuted under anti-racketeering laws.
Although studies vary, many report that as high as 70 percent of college students have cheated and 36 percent have plagiarized written material.
According to Turnitin founder John Barrie, services like his allow educators to "harness the Internet to solve the problem the Internet is creating." Barrie notes that there are many online "term-paper mill" sites that will sell papers to students for affordable prices. Although many sites recycle papers that have become familiar to watchful professors, students can purchase custom essays for under $100.
Barrie has also said frequently that as time goes and Turnitin.com's database deepens with more student papers, the computer program gets that much better at detecting plagiarism. Still, even Barrie admits that his website has flaws. "A human being must take that report and interpret it to make sure that what we're saying jives with reality," cautioned Barrie.
Turnitin.com's official report records that the website receives about 15,000 papers daily from students in over 51 countries. Around 30 percent of submitted papers are "less than original," according to Barrie.
The national debate over using PDSs has found its place within conversations held between two Yeshiva College administrators.
"Every professor has the opportunity to require students to submit their work through Turnitin.com," insisted YC Dean David Srolovitz. "It is an important tool for combating plagiarism and for teaching students about plagiarism at an early stage in their lives."
Dean Srolovitz admitted that the opposition to PDSs has legitimate arguments but remains firm in his position. Further, Dean Srolovitz explained that strict policies against plagiarism in college are crucial to prevent students from having plagiarism devastate their professional lives later.
As of now, Yeshiva College does not have an official policy regarding the use of PDSs. Dean Srolovitz plans to raise the issue to faculty for consideration but does not intend to insist that all YC faculty force students to submit work to Turnitin.com or the like. "The solution may be simply to publicize more to our faculty that the software is available to them and easy to use, but they should decide for themselves whether or not to use it for their own classes," said Dean Srolovitz. He further notes that "since PDSs do not prove plagiarism, a faculty member must continue to use his/her judgment to determine if ?plagiarism has occurred. Software is not a replacement for faculty oversight."
To date there have been no credible empirical studies to explore the effects of PDSs on students' ethical writing from sources.
Yeshiva College Writing Center Director Lauren Fitzgerald certainly believes plagiarism is wrong, and that "faculty has the right to track it down and that students who commit it should face appropriate penalties." She does, however, hold a more skeptical view of PDSs than does Dean Srolovitz, both for their ability to identify plagiarism as well as discern when a paper is simply similar or well-researched to an existing one in Turnitin.com's paper bank.
Although Dr. Fitzgerald agreed that PDSs offer a powerful and straightforward solution to plagiarism problems, she asserts that they "just don't work as well as we are led to ?believe."
Dr. Fitzgerald added that "Turnitin.com doesn't 'detect' plagiarism at all," explained Dr. Fitzgerald. "Instead, it matches up sequences of words from a submitted paper to sequences of words from texts it has access to, including those in its database or on the Internet." She explained that such matches might point to plagiarism, but might point to good research instead, since matches will be found even if all borrowed language is properly cited.
Moreover, Dr. Fitzgerald pointed out that even if the submitted paper does contain plagiarized passages, Turnitin.com might not find a match if it does not have the source text registered in its database or if the writer of the paper knows how to circumvent the service.
While Dr. Fitzgerald is philosophically more comfortable with searching Google and other Internet search tools that do not profit directly from students' writings, the key to combating plagiarism, to her, lies beyond the Internet. "Ultimately, and as a number of educational organizations have pointed out, the only way to develop and sustain a culture of academic honesty is through a multi-pronged approach that involves everyone on campus - administrators, faculty, and students."
Dr. Fitzgerald added that "studies suggest that honor codes have a positive effect, particularly on smaller campuses like ours. And it makes sense that they would remind students of their responsibilities during that crucial time before starting or turning in work."
Dr. Fitzgerald believes that the best way to combat problems of plagiarism is by educating students. "The Writing Center offers a friendly, non-judgmental setting in which students can engage in the complicated process of distinguishing their work from those of their sources and of citing words and ideas that they didn't generate themselves," said Dr. Fitzgerald of the Center located on the second floor of Furst Hall. "Our staff understands that plagiarism can happen inadvertently - students might not be clear about how to use documentation styles such as MLA, or they might be rushing just to get something down on paper."
Although the debate surrounding the use of PDSs has grown steadily ever since Mr. Barrie created the computer program in 1996, the issue garnered international attention after a January 2004 incident in Montreal, Canada. McGill undergraduate Jesse Rosenfeld refused to submit three economic assignments to Turnitin.com. Despite the fact that the course instructor articulated his policy at the beginning the course, Rosenfeld still declined to submit his work to Turnitin.com. After failing those assignments, Rosenfeld appealed, and an ad hoc panel of faculty eventually ruled in his favor.
A 2006 incident involving a protest against PDSs by students at McLean High in Virginia was enough for the American Federation of Teachers to declare that electronic tools like Turnitin.com "do not provide effective student-centered approaches for eliminating plagiarism and often make questionable use of student intellectual property." The statement found on the group's website also stresses that only teachers can impress ethical lessons upon their students and considers other options to be poor substitutes.
Recently, the Intellectual Property Caucus of the Conference on College and Composition and Communication published a statement on PDSs. Among several points, this caucus resolved that students should be informed of submission requirements to PDSs at the beginning of the term. In addition, CCCC-IP Caucus cautioned that educators should never view a PDS as a substitute for "good teaching." Instead, the caucus challenges teachers to confront students about plagiarism and the importance of academic integrity.
In response to these concerns over services and websites like Turnitin.com, some schools - like DePaul University and the US Naval Academy - have turned to alternative solutions to combat Internet plagiarism. Companies like Glatt Plagiarism Services have created software for teachers to definitively test suspected students of plagiarism without forcing students to submit their work to a third party. Once entered into the computer, founder Susan Glatt's program deletes every fifth word and challenges suspected students to reproduce the missing words to prove authorship. Afterward, the program calculates a "plagiarism probability score" based on accuracy and the time taken to fill in the blanks.
While students have been using the Internet to shop for papers for over a decade, 'paper mills' have been in existence for much longer. One of the more premier legal cases involving paper mills occurred in 1972 when Boston University successfully sued several Massachusetts-based term-paper mills for fraud. However, the university's attempt in 1997 to legally stop Internet term-paper mills was quickly dismissed by a federal judge on grounds that Internet mills could not be prosecuted under anti-racketeering laws.
Although studies vary, many report that as high as 70 percent of college students have cheated and 36 percent have plagiarized written material.
According to Turnitin founder John Barrie, services like his allow educators to "harness the Internet to solve the problem the Internet is creating." Barrie notes that there are many online "term-paper mill" sites that will sell papers to students for affordable prices. Although many sites recycle papers that have become familiar to watchful professors, students can purchase custom essays for under $100.
Barrie has also said frequently that as time goes and Turnitin.com's database deepens with more student papers, the computer program gets that much better at detecting plagiarism. Still, even Barrie admits that his website has flaws. "A human being must take that report and interpret it to make sure that what we're saying jives with reality," cautioned Barrie.
Turnitin.com's official report records that the website receives about 15,000 papers daily from students in over 51 countries. Around 30 percent of submitted papers are "less than original," according to Barrie.
The national debate over using PDSs has found its place within conversations held between two Yeshiva College administrators.
"Every professor has the opportunity to require students to submit their work through Turnitin.com," insisted YC Dean David Srolovitz. "It is an important tool for combating plagiarism and for teaching students about plagiarism at an early stage in their lives."
Dean Srolovitz admitted that the opposition to PDSs has legitimate arguments but remains firm in his position. Further, Dean Srolovitz explained that strict policies against plagiarism in college are crucial to prevent students from having plagiarism devastate their professional lives later.
As of now, Yeshiva College does not have an official policy regarding the use of PDSs. Dean Srolovitz plans to raise the issue to faculty for consideration but does not intend to insist that all YC faculty force students to submit work to Turnitin.com or the like. "The solution may be simply to publicize more to our faculty that the software is available to them and easy to use, but they should decide for themselves whether or not to use it for their own classes," said Dean Srolovitz. He further notes that "since PDSs do not prove plagiarism, a faculty member must continue to use his/her judgment to determine if ?plagiarism has occurred. Software is not a replacement for faculty oversight."
To date there have been no credible empirical studies to explore the effects of PDSs on students' ethical writing from sources.
Yeshiva College Writing Center Director Lauren Fitzgerald certainly believes plagiarism is wrong, and that "faculty has the right to track it down and that students who commit it should face appropriate penalties." She does, however, hold a more skeptical view of PDSs than does Dean Srolovitz, both for their ability to identify plagiarism as well as discern when a paper is simply similar or well-researched to an existing one in Turnitin.com's paper bank.
Although Dr. Fitzgerald agreed that PDSs offer a powerful and straightforward solution to plagiarism problems, she asserts that they "just don't work as well as we are led to ?believe."
Dr. Fitzgerald added that "Turnitin.com doesn't 'detect' plagiarism at all," explained Dr. Fitzgerald. "Instead, it matches up sequences of words from a submitted paper to sequences of words from texts it has access to, including those in its database or on the Internet." She explained that such matches might point to plagiarism, but might point to good research instead, since matches will be found even if all borrowed language is properly cited.
Moreover, Dr. Fitzgerald pointed out that even if the submitted paper does contain plagiarized passages, Turnitin.com might not find a match if it does not have the source text registered in its database or if the writer of the paper knows how to circumvent the service.
While Dr. Fitzgerald is philosophically more comfortable with searching Google and other Internet search tools that do not profit directly from students' writings, the key to combating plagiarism, to her, lies beyond the Internet. "Ultimately, and as a number of educational organizations have pointed out, the only way to develop and sustain a culture of academic honesty is through a multi-pronged approach that involves everyone on campus - administrators, faculty, and students."
Dr. Fitzgerald added that "studies suggest that honor codes have a positive effect, particularly on smaller campuses like ours. And it makes sense that they would remind students of their responsibilities during that crucial time before starting or turning in work."
Dr. Fitzgerald believes that the best way to combat problems of plagiarism is by educating students. "The Writing Center offers a friendly, non-judgmental setting in which students can engage in the complicated process of distinguishing their work from those of their sources and of citing words and ideas that they didn't generate themselves," said Dr. Fitzgerald of the Center located on the second floor of Furst Hall. "Our staff understands that plagiarism can happen inadvertently - students might not be clear about how to use documentation styles such as MLA, or they might be rushing just to get something down on paper."
Although the debate surrounding the use of PDSs has grown steadily ever since Mr. Barrie created the computer program in 1996, the issue garnered international attention after a January 2004 incident in Montreal, Canada. McGill undergraduate Jesse Rosenfeld refused to submit three economic assignments to Turnitin.com. Despite the fact that the course instructor articulated his policy at the beginning the course, Rosenfeld still declined to submit his work to Turnitin.com. After failing those assignments, Rosenfeld appealed, and an ad hoc panel of faculty eventually ruled in his favor.
A 2006 incident involving a protest against PDSs by students at McLean High in Virginia was enough for the American Federation of Teachers to declare that electronic tools like Turnitin.com "do not provide effective student-centered approaches for eliminating plagiarism and often make questionable use of student intellectual property." The statement found on the group's website also stresses that only teachers can impress ethical lessons upon their students and considers other options to be poor substitutes.
Recently, the Intellectual Property Caucus of the Conference on College and Composition and Communication published a statement on PDSs. Among several points, this caucus resolved that students should be informed of submission requirements to PDSs at the beginning of the term. In addition, CCCC-IP Caucus cautioned that educators should never view a PDS as a substitute for "good teaching." Instead, the caucus challenges teachers to confront students about plagiarism and the importance of academic integrity.
In response to these concerns over services and websites like Turnitin.com, some schools - like DePaul University and the US Naval Academy - have turned to alternative solutions to combat Internet plagiarism. Companies like Glatt Plagiarism Services have created software for teachers to definitively test suspected students of plagiarism without forcing students to submit their work to a third party. Once entered into the computer, founder Susan Glatt's program deletes every fifth word and challenges suspected students to reproduce the missing words to prove authorship. Afterward, the program calculates a "plagiarism probability score" based on accuracy and the time taken to fill in the blanks.