Thanks to computer technology, University professors now have a weapon to combat Internet plagiarism, and cheaters are more likely to be caught.
Tracking-and-analysis Web sites allow professors to enter whole papers or key phrases of a student’s essay, said Melissa Delarosa, vice president of business affairs for iparadigms Inc., the company that founded the Web site www.turnitin.com. She said based on the professor’s search, the sites return all matching information and essays, giving the professor proof of whether or not the student has plagiarized.
“Cheating has always existed in different formats, but if students know they’re being monitored, they’ll be likely to write their own work,” she said.
Chris Loschiavo, director of Student Judicial Affairs, said tracking Web sites may be the way to decrease incidents of plagiarism, a University problem he said is not improving.
“If you ask students, they’ll say a lot of them cheat,” he said.
Loschiavo said a survey conducted in 1993 showed 91 percent of University students have cheated at least once in their college careers. He said although the survey is a few years old, academic dishonesty is still a problem — he said he dealt with 30 cases during fall term alone.
Delarosa said her company’s Web site was created to help stop the growing problem of Internet plagiarism . There are literally hundreds of paper mills, which are Web sites where students can purchase essays.
She said the site offers a submission report process, in which a professor can upload a student’s paper to the site. A report is returned 24 hours later with any links from the Internet or other databases that contain matching information found in the student’s essay, she said.
James Hanley, assistant adjunct professor of political science, said he has used Delarosa’s Web site twice regarding the same student’s political science essays.
“The student’s papers had a tone not at the normal level of a college student,” he said.
There are often key phrases in a student’s work that trigger suspicion because they don’t sound like they fit in with the rest of the paper, he said.
Hanley said tracking Web sites give professors more ground to confront students who may have plagiarized.
“It gives you actual proof, because you can find exact replicas of students’ work,” he said. “Now we don’t have to fall back on just saying it doesn’t sound right.”
John Gage, an English professor and department head, said plagiarism occurs in English classes a lot more than the faculty can uncover, but the tracking Web sites help in some situations.
“There are just as many resources to detect plagiarism as there are for students to plagiarize,” he said.
Gage said the English department regularly subscribes to certain tracking sites because there have been several cases in the last two years involving plagiarism.
“Cheating has always been a cat-and-mouse game for some students,” he said.
Gage said there are common signs of plagiarism, but it usually depends on the assignment. He said often the paper is off-topic or does not answer the specific question.
“In general, the papers handed in are inappropriate in some way for the assignment given,” he said.
Hanley said he only uses the Web sites if he has the feeling a student is being dishonest, but thinks if students knew they existed, they’d be less likely to attempt to plagiarize.
“Students may want to take the easy way out, but they’re not stupid,” he said. “If there’s a good chance of getting caught, they’ll stay away from a particular strategy.”