There are so many issues and problems associated with the use of Turnitin and I simply refuse to use it in my classes. I don't like the way it potentially criminalizes students who are still getting to grips with an academic language unfamiliar to them, who are unsure about conventional citing practices and who still do not know what ideas belong to the canon and don't need citing. In addition, it reproduces modernist and humanist notions of authorial originality, agency and authority and makes collaboration with texts or other humans problematic. Use of the software is also based on a technologically deterministic notion that plagiarism is created by technology and can be resolved by technology, which according to Cole and Kiss (2000) can lead to a James Bond-style arms race between tech-savvy students and lecturers. If we develop sophisticated strategies to catch them, they will develop even more sophisticated strategies to outwit us. They will spend time developing more sophisticated evasion techniques. Many of the essay banks that sell you a custom- written essay for US$9.95 guarantee that their essays are plagiarism-detecting software proof. Turnitin also won’t pick up patchwriting (which accomplished academics are very good at), it won’t pick up something written originally in a language other than English, something so old it doesn’t exist in electronic form, and information on sites where webmasters have set up Turnitin blocks. Without such blocks set up, Turnitin also depletes bandwidth which webmasters pay a lot of money for. It operates a bit like Google but without any reciprocity (most webmasters like Google because it enables people to find their websites, it gives something back while Turnitin is nothing more than an online parasite).
But one my biggest objections to Turnitin is that it is a for-profit company. It profits from students’ work without paying any royalties. By making our students put their essays into the software (which means they are added to the Turnitin database). They are signing away the rights to their work to a commercial company which will make profits from it. This is a blatant violation of the intellectual property rights of our students.
I tell my students who wish to prevent the university submitting their intellectual property to Turnitin to add the following text to the end of their essays (taken from www.essayfraud.com). Others concerned about Turnitin may wish to do the same.
Copyright 2010 [STUDENT NAME]. All Rights Reserved. Aside from my professor's sole, personal review as part of his/her private, single-human, software-free grading process (checking for plagiarism with Google is acceptable), neither my professor nor my academic institution may otherwise copy, transfer, distribute, reproduce, publicly/privately perform, publicly/privately claim, publicly/privately display, or create derivative works (including "digital fingerprints") of my copyrighted document (intellectual property). The same restrictions apply to Turnitin.com and all similar services if my document should somehow come into their possession. Neither my professor nor my academic institution may submit my copyrighted document, in whole or in part, to be copied, transformed, manipulated, altered, or otherwise used by or stored at Turnitin.com (iParadigms, LLC) or any other physical or electronic database or retrieval system without my personal, explicit, voluntary, uncoerced, written permission. Regardless of supposed intent (e.g., "to create a digital fingerprint"), no part of my copyrighted document may be temporarily or permanently transferred, by any party, to Turnitin.com or any other service, program, database, or system for analysis, comparison, storage, or any other purpose whatsoever. Violators will be monetarily punished to the fullest extent allowed by the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) and/or international law.
Julie
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers on behalf of George Oguntunde
Sent: Sun 4/4/2010 9:34 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Turnitin.
It never ceases to amaze me (and my colleagues) who are not located in a
high-tech jurisdiction the emphasis placed on these fancy tools. It may
interest viewers of this list to know that not all academics even have
access to Turnitin and some of us rely as mentioned below on our
understanding of student behaviour.
However, as we all know, Human Geography departments are fixated on
importing wealthy foreign students who pay top dollar. Since these students
are infrequently interviewed prior to offers being made academics have no
ability to assess in person the potential probity of such students nor
obtain a personal understanding of each student's status and personality.
Additionally, this type of software is biased towards English speaking
students. Students proficient in foreign languages can easily plagiarise
work and translate it into English. Why should Chinese or Latin American
students escape censure?
The solution is obvious and therefore will be rejected. Support national
students and reject the greed that demands second-rate international
students. This will permit interviews prior to offers and a better
appreciation of the student as an individual rather than a cash-cow for
avaricious academics to milk as disposable fodder.
-----
It can also be used by students to check if they have paraphrased referenced
work well enough before they submit it. Of course, a cynic might argue it
can be used by students to check if they've got away with plagiarism. In
this situation one's rodent detector still remains as an effective way to
find plagiarism.
Jon
-----Original Message-----
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers on behalf of Ian Gordon
Sent: Fri 4/2/2010 12:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Turnitin
And, to endorse David's point about Turnitin as just a tool, it doesn't
actually pick up everything that is available on the internet - there
are some important exceptions which I will not mention - or (where
multiple versions of some text exist on the web) indicate how much of a
piece of work might actually have been derived from a single source.
In my experience, though it can save a lot of effort, the traditional
tools of 'smelling a rat' and following up with a web search engine are
also still invaluable, in identifying the scale of potential plagiarism,
and interpreting what lies behind the symptoms that Turnitin reports.
Best,
Ian
Ian Gordon
Department of Geography and Environment
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
44+(0)20 7955 6180
[log in to unmask]
________________________________
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers
[mailto:[log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>] On
Behalf Of Lambert, D
Sent: 01 April 2010 19:52
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Turnitin
Dear Paul,
The program doesn't. It's just a tool that aids a human being who knows
the field to do the actual investigation into a possible plagiarism
case. (I speak as a chair of exams who has used it a lot.)
Regards,
David
* * *
Dr David Lambert
Reader in Historical Geography
Royal Holloway, University of London
http://www.gg.rhul.ac.uk/Lambert/ <http://www.gg.rhul.ac.uk/Lambert/>
________________________________
From: A forum for critical and radical geographers on behalf of Paul H.
Sent: Thu 01/04/2010 19:11
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Turnitin
Great question. How does the program differentiate between cliche
phrases and often entextualized discourse and actual plagiarism? What
portion of the final score is actual plagiarism?
Paul
________________________________
Date: Thu, 1 Apr 2010 18:50:04 +0100
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Turnitin
To: [log in to unmask]
Can anyone advise me what is the current collective wisdom on Turnitin?
(Shame there's not a programme called Leaveitout, I reckon)
Dr Kelvin Mason
Distance Learning Tutor
Graduate School of the Environment
Unit 7 Dyfi Eco Parc
Machynlleth
SY20 8AX
[log in to unmask]
Tel: 01654 703065 ext. 25
Skype: kelvin.mason1
Centre for Alternative Technology Charity Limited (CAT), Machynlleth,
Powys, SY20 9AZ, Wales, UK.
Centre for Alternative Technology Public Limited Company; a company
limited by shares. Company no. 1459589, registered in Wales.
Registered office: Llwyngwern, Machynlleth, Powys, SY20 9AZ.
Centre for Alternative Technology Charity Limited; a company limited by
guarantee. Charity no. 265239; Company no. 1090006, registered in
Wales. Registered office: Llwyngwern, Machynlleth, Powys, SY20 9AZ
________________________________
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