Plagiarism Detection Technology
Plagiarism detection technology is easy to use and reasonably effective at catching the most common forms of plagiarism. There is no substitute for a careful read by an instructor who is familiar with the individual student's work, but commercially available software can make the task easier.
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History
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The Center for Academic Integrity reports that plagiarism is an increasingly common phenomenon: close to 80 percent of students report that they have cheated at least once in their college career, and a 2001 study conducted by Education Week showed that 54 percent of students plagiarized material from the Internet.
Types
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The most common type of plagiarism is material copied directly from the Internet, and is easily detected with free software readily available to the instructor. More sophisticated cheating involves purchasing material written by others, or recycling papers written for other courses, and more complex commercially available software is more effective with this form of violation.
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Prevention/Solution
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The best form of plagiarism detection is a careful read by an instructor who is familiar with the student's work. Students who plagiarize are typically weaker writers and researchers who present excellently written work as their own, and the contrast is evident. Choose a longer, more complex phrase from the essay and enter it into a search engine, such as Google and the original source will typically appear. Be sure to enter the phrase in quotation marks.
Commercial Software
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This simple use of common technology will not be as effective for more sophisticated plagiarism, or for large survey classes where instructors are not as familiar with individual students. Many colleges have turned to commercially available software, such as Turnitin, WriteCheck or iThenticate, to automatically search large proprietary databases for plagiarized material.
Expert Insight
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Commercial plagiarism detection technology also acts as a significant deterrent to cheating. Making students aware that their work will be digitally evaluated even before it reaches the instructor's eyes is a powerful disincentive to plagiarism.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit female student image by Petro Feketa from Fotolia.com
