Inside Higher Ed today has a story on a survey of student attitudes toward what is plagiarism in Europe.  It’s not clear to yours truly that a survey in the U.S. would have results that are all that different.  You can read the story which refers to a conference sponsored by – guess who? – Turnitin at: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2013/06/07/study-finds-plagiarism-among-students-all-across-europe

And what is there to embed but…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNel8RwSLyE?feature=player_detailpage]

My son sent me a web reference on the Turnitin system UCLA and many other universities use to check student papers for plagiarism. Much of the article complains about shortcomings of the system, i.e., things it does not find for various reasons. But toward the bottom, the article reveals that Turnitin has a service for students that tells them what their plagiarism rating is. That is contrary to the impression given instructors – and presumably to university officials who are paying for the service – that student paper ratings are known only to the instructor. The student gets only a receipt for the paper, not the rating. That’s true unless that student subscribes to Turnitin’s “Writecheck” service.

Full article at http://davideharrington.com/?p=594

As you can see above, the Writecheck website says it is part of Turnitin. It is not someone else’s emulation of the Turnitin system.

UCLA is paying for this service. Is it worth it given what Turnitin is now doing?

PS: Apparently, Turnitin did not see the unconscious humor in calling its student paid subscription service Writecheck. Maybe it’s because fewer people pay by check these days.

Update: Insider Higher Ed has a piece on this issue: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/09/09/turnitin_writecheck_lights_fire_in_plagiarism_debate

August 1, 2010
Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age

By TRIP GABRIEL NY Times

At Rhode Island College, a freshman copied and pasted from a Web site’s frequently asked questions page about homelessness — and did not think he needed to credit a source in his assignment because the page did not include author information.

At DePaul University, the tip-off to one student’s copying was the purple shade of several paragraphs he had lifted from the Web; when confronted by a writing tutor his professor had sent him to, he was not defensive — he just wanted to know how to change purple text to black.

And at the University of Maryland, a student reprimanded for copying from Wikipedia in a paper on the Great Depression said he thought its entries — unsigned and collectively written — did not need to be credited since they counted, essentially, as common knowledge.

Professors used to deal with plagiarism by admonishing students to give credit to others and to follow the style guide for citations, and pretty much left it at that.

But these cases — typical ones, according to writing tutors and officials responsible for discipline at the three schools who described the plagiarism — suggest that many students simply do not grasp that using words they did not write is a serious misdeed.

It is a disconnect that is growing in the Internet age as concepts of intellectual property, copyright and originality are under assault in the unbridled exchange of online information, say educators who study plagiarism.

FULL ARTICLE AT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

Note: Maybe this problem is not so new:

Second tale at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWXr0imYV08