It surprises me that Seton Hill still doesn't have an official plagiarism policy. I think that's something we must adopt in the near future. It's actually pretty weird that we don't have one, considering the fact that our school is supposedly "writing intensive." If we do adopt the WAC program that is being discussed, we need more strict policies against plagiarism.

You might want to look at Nick Carbone's article on Turnitin at Technotes

There is more to the service than meets the eye. I have just recently asked my department to sever its relationship with these folks.

THANKS for that great link, Cindy! I haven't seen much criticism of turnitin.com, so it's good to hear from the other side. I especially liked Carbone's comparison: "[Turn it in] is to teaching students how to write well with sources what a spell checker is to proof reading." I suspect it still does more good than harm, though, so long as the teacher is using it as a tool the way a professional writer uses a spell checker -- as an accessory not as a substitute. His point about intellectual property is valid to some degree and it's worth thinking about, esp for upper div courses or creative writing or any time the student could be in a position to publish. Is turnitin.com really unethical? Not as unethical as the plagiarism it's intended to ferret out. And I think the teachers' "fears" of plagiarism are quite justified from what I've seen in some of my classes. The other issue is that I'm certain this software works as a deterrent against those who might have any inkling that their prof isn't good with technology. Fighting the abuse of technology with technology sounds like a good deterrent to me. Anyway, I'm still digesting it all. THANKS.

And Kate: good hearing from you on this topic. You're right...and you'll be happy to hear our campus is working on such a policy as we type. However, there is also the issue of the teacher often knowing what's best in individual cases -- sometimes a campus-wide policy can backfire. However, the problem of students REPEATING plagiaristic acts in different classes is hard to address without a campus-wide policy, that's for sure!

Yes, Turnitin.com makes sense if your definition of plagiarism is "using someone else's words", so that the way around it is to sit down with a thesaurus and change the wording of the source. Elsewhere (http://bedfordstmartins.com/technotes/hccworkshop/plagiarism.htm) Carbone notes that even "Turnitin.com" admits that asking a student to submit a research portfolio (including things such as a photocopy of the first page of each source or article cited) will drastically cut back plagiarism.

I, too, am troubled by Turnitin's database, and for that reason I wouldn't advocate it as a way of improving writing instruction. Students can submit their papers to Turnitin.com to see whether the system will flag any passages as plagiarism... depending on how well informed the teacher is, and how much time the teacher has spent instructinog the students in what turnitin.com measures, the tool may may encourage students to use a thesaurus until the "offenses" are no longer flagged. It's hard enough getting students to find good sources, reference them properly, integrate quotes from external sources into their own writing, proofread, format in proper MLA style, and so forth, without also having to spend class time on turnitin.com.

There's more good conversation about this topic at joannejacobs.com (one of my favorite edu-blogs). Here's what I posted there:

I also blogged this the other day and it generated various strong opinions. My views are split on turnitin.com because as a writer myself, I don't like how they are exploiting the student's 'intellectual property' but on the other hand my college NEEDS this technology because our students are plagiarising left and right in courses that aren't able to teach the whole writing process step by step. I'm leaning toward the position that turnitin.com is a good thing because student cheaters have plenty of tools at their disposal and the culture-at-large seems to support ends-over-means thinking and free sampling, whereas teachers have virtually nothing to assist them in protecting the academic research ethics. It's no panacea, but if students know they might get caught cheating, they might try other methods to succeed in class, like actually learning and writing and thinking on their own.

The universities current stance on Plagarism is posted. It is the Academic Honesty Clause:

"Seton Hill expects that all its students will practice academic honesty in the classroom, computer center, labratory, library, and any other area where ethical conduct is required. The college regards plagarism, cheating on examinations, falsification of papers, non-sanctioned collaboration, and misuse or illegal use of library material, published or unpublished, as violations of academic honesty. Violators of the code may expect disciplinary sanctions ... determined by the faculty member who discovers the infraction."

Seems black and white doesn't it? Not completely. I am glad to hear that there is a revision of the policy in order. Starting this year, I propsed that the academic honesty clause by posted in every syllabus. Deans' Council has put that into affect and students should start to see it in print more often. I hope that once the "beta-version" is approved it will be updated universally.

My school has just started a relationship with turnitin.com. I feel that while there are some downsides to the service, students have so many more weapons in their arsenal if they wish to plagarize. While turnitin does seem to be in many ways an advocate of simply rewording a quotation, it does seems so far to emphasize to my students the difference between paraphrasing and direct quotes. Anything teachers can have at their disposal to discourage plagarism is a good thing. In this era, plagarism seems to be the norm more than the exception. Any educator who thinks otherwise is naive.