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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.

Ian Gordon
Department of Geography and Environment
London School of Economics
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE
44+(0)20 7955 6180
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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/

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

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Tel: 01654 703065 ext. 25

Skype: kelvin.mason1

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