18.428 plagarism checkers

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 18, No. 428.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                   www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

   [1] From: "Lisa L. Spangenberg" (26)
                 <lisa_at_digitalmedievalist.com>
         Subject: Re: 18.426 plagarism checkers

   [2] From: Norman Hinton <hinton_at_springnet1.com> (17)
         Subject: Re: 18.426 plagarism checkers

   [3] From: "pjmoran" <noci_at_cox.net> (4)
         Subject: Re: 18.426 plagarism checkers

   [4] From: Richard Anderson <rianders_at_rci.rutgers.edu> (12)
         Subject: Re: 18.426 plagarism checkers

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 07:04:21 +0000
         From: "Lisa L. Spangenberg" <lisa_at_digitalmedievalist.com>
         Subject: Re: 18.426 plagarism checkers

Hi

Michael Farringdon qsums_at_aol.com

Wrote:

>On a slightly different tack, I would ask, Who is being cheated by
>plagiarism? Surely it is the plagiarist in the main who is cheating
>his/herself. Should we really be so worried by such plagiarism? It won't
>help much in a three-hour exam in an exa mination room.
>

Well, I'm being cheated, as a reader. Plagiarists muddy the source stream.
They, in effect, hijack the reputation, for good or ill, of the person they
plagiarize.

And I strongly suspect that successful plagiarists at the undergraduate
level go on to plagiarize at the next level, either the world of work, or
in graduate school.

We all, unfortunately, know of faculty who have deliberately, consciously
plagiarized.

As a technical editor, and sometime reader for academic presses, I've seen
authors who plagiarize. I find it disgusting; the presses often remind me
of the over-worked student deans at college campuses who deal with student
plagiarism all the time; world-weary and not at all surprised when I
indicate that the author has, purposefully or not, plagiarized. Sometimes,
it's truly not deliberate plagiarism. And sometimes, it is.

--
Lisa L. Spangenberg      | Digital medievalist
Instructional Technology | http://www.digitalmedievalist.com/it/
My opinions are my own.  | Who else would want them?
--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 07:04:47 +0000
         From: Norman Hinton <hinton_at_springnet1.com>
         Subject: Re: 18.426 plagarism checkers
 >I agree with Lisa L. Spangenberg that we should be able to spot plagiarism
 >ourselves.  Surely, any instructor worth her/his salt should be able to
do so?
This isn't  vote for turnitin.com, but the longer you teach the more likely
that you will get a paper that you _know_ is copied, but you can't find the
source.  And the prospect of looking through months of TIME or Atlantic,
etc. can be daunting when it's end of semester and grades are due.
 >On a slightly different tack, I would ask, Who is being cheated by
 >plagiarism?  Surely it is the plagiarist in the main who is cheating
 >his/herself.  Should we really be so worried by such plagiarism?  It won't
 >help much in a three-hour exam in an examination room.
Of course the writer is cheating her/himself, but plagiarism isn't the same
as cheating on an exam -- it's usually a case handing in a term paper,
which may count for as much os half the grade, and was written by someone else.
If one grades on the curve (which I never did in all the years) then
cheating hurts not only the writer but all the rest of the class.  And even
without a curve, a really good paper may change one's attitude towards all
the other papers -- if X can do this well, why not A - W ?
--[3]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 07:05:20 +0000
         From: "pjmoran" <noci_at_cox.net>
         Subject: Re: 18.426 plagarism checkers
To Michael Farrington, regarding plagiarism:  It's not that we
(instructors) can't spot plagiarism--it's that we have to PROVE plagiarism
or face administrative sanction and/or lawsuit.  Patricia J. Moran, FSU
Graduate Student, 850-243-4081
--[4]------------------------------------------------------------------
         Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 07:06:05 +0000
         From: Richard Anderson <rianders_at_rci.rutgers.edu>
         Subject: Re: 18.426 plagarism checkers
Many instructors are grading a large, or huge number of papers per semester
it is a complete waste of time to grade a paper that is plagiarized. An
instructor will spend a lot of time searching  Google for a match because
they need evidence not just a suspicion that it is plagiarism.
A key element of teaching writing is teaching proper citation , a
plagiarism tool detects poor citation. A student should be given access to
the plagiarism tool as well as the instructor so they the student can learn
this before the instructor grades the paper.
Lastly, a plagiarism detecting tool should also handle online submission of
a paper and have a way for the instructor to provide online feedback and
grading for the paper.
--Rick Anderson