Module 5-1: Turnitin.com

Share and describe the response of Turnitin to your paper.

My initial similarity rating was 54%.

The highest percent match was 9%.

8 of the 21 matches were to papers turned in to Lesley University

The number one match was to MCREL and number 2 was to a graduate course paper I referenced.

Each of the matches had a corresponding reference in my paper.

Once I excluded quotes, my percentage went to 22%.

When I excluded the bibliography, my percentage was 18%.

I could not always find the material referenced when clicking through to the websites that Turnitin said that information came from. Much of the information was not there. I used the link to follow and also did a search from within the site as well as Google and there was no material that matched. This makes me question the validity of this tool.

 

Was it easy or difficult to use Turnitin.com. For what age and grade levels do you feel Turnitin.com is appropriate?

It was very easy to use this website. However, I found some difficulty in knowing whether I needed to change the way I cited things or whether I used too much information from other sources.

I would recommend it for any age level that is doing research. Grade 5 through 8 might require some assistance.

What was the impact of using Turnitin.com for you? Was it useful?

I found myself irritated that the site felt that I had borrowed 54% of my work! I had cited all of those items in my paper.

I found it useful in that I could see where I might have to make my citations more clear.

I also might consider using fewer large quotes.

Explain how Turnitin.com can assist you or your students with editing a paper. What kinds of changes did you have to make in your paper?

This could help me and could help my students by giving us both a ready reference of material. I think that I might use less information from the Internet in a short paper. And I might quote fewer things.

I didnt make any changes in my paper, because all of the comparisons they had made, I had cited.

How would you use this with your students? Would this tool be useful for teaching students about plagiarism?

If I were teaching an older group of students, then this might be something I would use all the time.

I could see my students using this to be sure that their material was not just copy pasted from several websites.

What do you believe will be the Long-Term impact of software such as Turnitin.com on written expression in our culture? Are there any dangers in the wide-spread use of this tool?

I would hope that the use of this tool would encourage better citations in research reports.

I believe that after numerous students use the tool, the percentage of works cited will increase. As students turn in papers for the same professors, especially on the same subjects, the percentages will increase. This might discourage students from utilizing the software.

 

There are a few ethical issues with the use of Turnitin.com, as well. A lawsuit was filed in 2004 against Turnitin.com by a McGill University student.. According to CNN.com he had an ethical and political problem with the university's policy of submitting student work to Turnitin.com. (Grinberg, 2004) The issue of student created work and the rights to those works has also been called into question. Turnitin.com does not offer any money to the students whose very work they are using to compare submitted essays to.

How can a University or school that claims to want to defeat plagiarism require students to use a commercial service that doesnt pay for the right to use others work?  (Hoffman, 2006) Although the use of copyrighted material is rampant, relying solely on software to check for plagiarism is still fallible. We tend to assume that computers are better, and in many ways they are, but we need to still be cautious about letting them take the place of our own vigilant eyes.

 

 

References

 

Grinberg, E (2004, Jan 21). Student wins battle against plagiarism-detection

         requirement. Retrieved July 1, 2007, from CNN.com Web

         site: http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/01/21/ctv.plagiarism/

     index.html

Hoffman, T (2006, September, 21). Turnitin vs. student intellectual

         property rights. eSchool News, Retrieved July

         2, 2007, from http://www.eschoolnews.com/eti/2006/09/

     001567.php