How technology beats plagiarism: using Turnitin for

Examining the validity of using a
plagiarism-detection service for
students’ submissions
Hideto D. Harashima
Maebashi Institute of Technology
GloCALL 2011 ａｔ Century Park Hotel
Plagiarism
 Plagiarize =
to steal the language, ideas, or
thoughts from another, representing
them as one’s own original work
--
The Random House Dictionary
Plagiarism is a sin
 It’s wrong, unethical, dishonest, illegal,
but…..
students do plagiarize.
Ｗｈｙ？
So easy to do copy-and-paste jobs on a
computer
Japanese students have received virtually
no education on the vice of plagiarism
 little sense of guilt
Academic dishonesty is
prevalent
 In a survey of 6,096 undergraduates on 31
(US) campuses, McCabe (1992) reported that
67.4% admitted cheating at least once on a
test or major assignment. Davis et al.
reported similar numbers in another multicampus survey, also of more than 6,000
students: 76% admitted cheating in either
high school or college or both.
(P. Scanlon and D. Neumann, 2002, p.375)
Educate them on academic integrity!
Ways to avoid plagiarism
 Provide reference information, or author credit, correctly.
----- Who is the author? What's the URL? Where did you take the text
or the graphics from?
 Use quotation marks.
----- Put double quotation marks around your citation “Like this.”
 Summarize.
----- Shorten the content. Make the compact version of a long story.
 Paraphrase.
----- Say it in a different way. Use different expressions.
(Ex.) He died in 1911. => He has been dead for 100 years.
 Combine multiple sources.
----- Collect information and expressions from several different sources.
Mix them up and compose a new sentence.
Plagiarism prevention
 A Pledge Card
誓約書
私はこの授業に際して以下の事柄を行わないことを誓約します。もしも誓約に反して
それらのことを行ったことが発覚した場合は履修無効とされることを理解しました。
1 .然るべき断り書きをせず、他人・友人・本・辞書やウェブページの文章を、例え少
量でも、無断借用し、自分の名前を付けて提出すること。
2. 翻訳ソフトウエアやインターネット翻訳サービスなどを利用して日本文を一括英文
翻訳したものを提出すること。（電子辞書・オンライン辞書は使用して構いませ
ん。）
3. 英語の得意な兄弟や友人に頼んで英文を書いてもらったものを提出すること。
4. E-learningシステムを他人になりすまして使用する/させること。
番号＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿署名＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿＿日付＿＿＿＿＿＿
Breaking plagiarism
 Use Google search
Take a few sentences out of the submitted
document and put double quotation marks
around them. Then put them into the
search window.
Limitations
Only Web documents are searchable
Paper documents and documents made by
other students cannot be searched
Plagiarism detection software
Plagium
Use of Turnitin
 Comprehensive software dealing with
students’ paper submission, originality
checking or plagiarism detection,
peer/self reviewing, and grading.
 Japanese language capable
 Can be integrated with Moodle
Plagiarism is a sin
Punitive or preventive use
 Using originality checker to detect and
punish plagiarism.
 Using originality checker to promote
critical thinking and prevent plagiarism.
 Essay assignment for Current English course
Year
Theme
# of
Ss
2010
Introducing Japan
46
Average
similarity
score
2.848
2011
World Heritage sites
52
6.827
Discussion on Validity
 Online documents can be attested well, but
paper documents cannot be very well
attested, especially Japanese books.
 Past student papers can only be attested if
they were stocked in Turnitin database. New
students’ similarity scores get worse than old
students.
 Final essay assignment for Linguistics course
Year
# of students Average similarity score
2010
14
18.286
2011
12
24.917
Discussion on Validity
 Online documents can be attested well, but
paper documents cannot be very well
attested, especially Japanese books.
 Past student papers can only be attested if
they were stocked in Turnitin database. New
students’ similarity scores get worse than old
students.
 Student papers of other schools cannot be
verified because of privacy concern.
Discussion on Validity
 Online documents can be attested well, but
paper documents cannot be very well
attested, especially Japanese books.
 Past student papers can only be attested if
they were stocked in Turnitin database. New
students’ similarity scores get worse than old
students.
 Student papers of other schools cannot be
verified because of privacy concern.
 Difficulty in distinguishing sly copying and
bona fide quotation.
Summary
 The scores we get from plagiarism
detecting service/software cannot be all
valid and reliable. We need caution.
 Plagiarism detection service/software
can be a useful tool for raising critical
thinking skills and preventing wrong
doing, rather than punishing.
Thank you
 Reference:
P. Scanlon and D. Neumann, 2002,
“Internet Plagiarism Among College
Students,” Journal of College Student
Development, 43, 3, pp.374-385.
Turnitin
 Bridge Learning – Japan sales agent

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