Information Update Spring 2002

Turnitin.com

"Give credit where credit is due" is a phrase many professors use when instructing stu dents in how to avoid plagiarism. In today’s world, however, where there are so many Internet sites from which a student can quickly obtain information, cutting it out and pasting it together to write his or her paper, some refuse to listen. Unlike the prominent authors, speakers, or artists who have been exposed in the news for plagiarism, many, especially students, do n ot fear reprisal. It can be rationalized that faculty have so many papers to correct and grade deadlines to meet that they will not check to see if the work submitted really was written by the one turning it in, and if there are any plagiarism questions they will be just chalked up as "sloppy writing"

However, with the increased use by students of suspected custom-written papers for a fee, or the cutting and pasting of whole or part of the information found on the Internet, comes a new company that for an annual subscription fee will help professors deal with the problem of Internet plagiarism. It is called Turnitin.com. As a document source analysis instrument it is designed to assess the originality of a submitted paper.

The University of Scranton, while not experiencing a large problem of plagiarism, has purchased a subscription to this service for the academic year 2001-2002. To acquaint faculty members with this new service, Katie Duke, User Instruction Coordinator, Weinberg Memorial Library, has scheduled several "Brown Bag" information sessions to demonstrate the product and to answer questions. Margaret Craft, Assistant Director for Technical Services and Library Automation, Weinberg Memorial Library, is the site administrator and is the instructor for the "Brown Bag" seminars. University of Scranton faculty or students interested in using this service or attending future seminars can contact Margaret Craft via e-mail Craftm1@scranton.edu or by phone, 941-6135. Faculty at the University of Scranton have been encouraged to advise students that this document source analysis service exists and may be used if there is there is suspicion of plagiarism. As part of user instruction during the year the Librarians have informed students of this service and shown them the "How to check for plagiarism" site. For information about Turnitin.com check the following site: http://turnitin.com/

To learn more about the University's policy on plagiarism go to http://www.scranton.edu/student_handbook/ Academic Code of Honesty Section II A. Plagiarism

Katie Duke