By Nicholas Moorehouse, eHow Contributor
Plagiarism is an issue that has been around for quite some time. With thousands of new online resources popping up each day, it's easy for writers to use someone else's material and claim it as their own. Teachers and editors have to make sure that work submitted to them isn't plagiarized. Fortunately, there are websites that make it easy for you to check if the submitted material is original.
TurnItIn
Turnitin.com is a well-known website that checks articles and files for plagiarism. It was one of the first Internet-based plagiarism-prevention sites, and currently employs almost 100 people who work to make the service timely and effective. The idea for Turnitin.com came from a group of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley who were concerned about the recycling of term papers.
CheckForPlagiarism.net
CheckForPlagiarism.net is another web-based plagiarism checking service. It allows users to submit content online to be checked with the CheckForPlagiarism.net database on its secure servers. It is described as a people-oriented service, and it allows users to customize the service to fit their needs by signing up for an account and changing settings as needed.
DupliChecker.com
DupliChecker.com is a simpler website used to check for plagiarism. It's completely free, and allows you to upload files or enter phrases in a text box to check for plagiarism. The site checks on multiple search engines for duplicate content, and allows users to insert .txt files to check an entire article.
AcademicPlagiarism.com
AcademicPlagiarism.com is another useful website for checking for plagiarism. It helps both students and educators check written material for duplicate or copied content. The service is free, and it offers instant color-coded plagiarism reports after scanning billions of Web sources. The website is used by people all over the world and is backed by live customer support.
Read more: Sites That Check for Plagiarism | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_7942218_sites-check-plagiarism.html#ixzz1sDWNEBIz
Monday, April 16, 2012
A Cheating in the Classroom - A New Look at an Old Problem
A Cheating in the Classroom - A New Look at an Old Problem
Here's how you do it. Write test answers on a card attachedto a rubber band. Then pin the rubber band inside your long sleeve. Stretchingthe rubber band, hold the card in your hand to use during the test. If theteacher seems suspicious, release the card, and the rubber band will pull itback into your sleeve, out of view... Who knew! I didn't, until I found a how-to-cheatsite on the net: Link. And it's only one of many.
Cheating no longer seems "bad" to many students. Evenstudents who believe it is dishonorable still cheat sometimes. In one recentsurvey of college students, 85% said they had cheated in high school! At anyage, kids who cheat do so for numerous reasons, some unexpected. Check out thelist.
The best way to counter the causes of cheating, researchsuggests, is to change the focus and the dialog in the classroom-to emphasizepersonal mastery over high test scores. (Iknow! We haven't heard a lot latelyabout de-emphasizing test scores!) It makes sense, though, that studentswho focus on personal mastery will score higher on tests anyway, without the pressuresthat promote cheating. That was the finding at Ohio State University; thediscussion and suggestions to change the classroom dialog can be found here.
In the meantime, we still have to prevent cheating as muchas possible. A lot of it can be eliminated through classroom management. Hereare some tips; others can be found at this site.
Address cheating sooner rather than later. Define it for yourself first. (Is doing homework together cheating?) Then define it specifically for students, including a discussion of plagiarism.
Require students to sign a cheating policy statement, and let them know you will keep their signed statements on file. The message will be clear: You treat cheating seriously, and they have been informed of its consequences.
When testing, be proactive:
Sit in the back of the room while monitoring a test. Students won't know where your attention is directed at any given time. Move about the room occasionally; don't be predictable.
Move students out of their assigned seats; have them sit near others with whom they usually don't interact in class.
Hand out 2 versions of the test; for instance, alter the sequence of questions.
Require students to put books and notes completely out of sight; also, require them to place their cell phones face down on desk tops where you can see them.
Create cover sheets for kids to use to hide test answers. (A manila file folder cut on the fold makes two.) Hand these out with test copies, and collect them after testing. Make sure students haven't written on them before using them again.And then there's plagiarism. It used to mean copying passages out of library reference books; now students can go on line to plagiarize, even downloading entire papers. The good news is we can use technology, too.
Simply typing a suspicious passage into a search engine will usually reveal its origin. Numerous web sites are dedicated to identifying plagiarism. Four of them are listed here. I warn my students to not even think about plagiarizing, because I can hunt them down with a few mouse clicks! (They laugh-but they listen.) There's an even easier way to identify plagiarized work: If kids can't define specific words they used in their papers, case closed.
Academic cheating was first recorded during the Han dynasty in ancient China, and it doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon. At least we can act to minimize it. As for students who are busy turning cheating into an art form, imagine the results if we could inspire them to put all that ingenuity to better use. Until then, surf those how-to-cheat web sites yourself to stay a step ahead. And one more thing-watch out for square pencils. That may not be company printing on all four sides!
Happy spring, and I'll see you later.
Here's how you do it. Write test answers on a card attachedto a rubber band. Then pin the rubber band inside your long sleeve. Stretchingthe rubber band, hold the card in your hand to use during the test. If theteacher seems suspicious, release the card, and the rubber band will pull itback into your sleeve, out of view... Who knew! I didn't, until I found a how-to-cheatsite on the net: Link. And it's only one of many.
Cheating no longer seems "bad" to many students. Evenstudents who believe it is dishonorable still cheat sometimes. In one recentsurvey of college students, 85% said they had cheated in high school! At anyage, kids who cheat do so for numerous reasons, some unexpected. Check out thelist.
The best way to counter the causes of cheating, researchsuggests, is to change the focus and the dialog in the classroom-to emphasizepersonal mastery over high test scores. (Iknow! We haven't heard a lot latelyabout de-emphasizing test scores!) It makes sense, though, that studentswho focus on personal mastery will score higher on tests anyway, without the pressuresthat promote cheating. That was the finding at Ohio State University; thediscussion and suggestions to change the classroom dialog can be found here.
In the meantime, we still have to prevent cheating as muchas possible. A lot of it can be eliminated through classroom management. Hereare some tips; others can be found at this site.
Address cheating sooner rather than later. Define it for yourself first. (Is doing homework together cheating?) Then define it specifically for students, including a discussion of plagiarism.
Require students to sign a cheating policy statement, and let them know you will keep their signed statements on file. The message will be clear: You treat cheating seriously, and they have been informed of its consequences.
When testing, be proactive:
Sit in the back of the room while monitoring a test. Students won't know where your attention is directed at any given time. Move about the room occasionally; don't be predictable.
Move students out of their assigned seats; have them sit near others with whom they usually don't interact in class.
Hand out 2 versions of the test; for instance, alter the sequence of questions.
Require students to put books and notes completely out of sight; also, require them to place their cell phones face down on desk tops where you can see them.
Create cover sheets for kids to use to hide test answers. (A manila file folder cut on the fold makes two.) Hand these out with test copies, and collect them after testing. Make sure students haven't written on them before using them again.And then there's plagiarism. It used to mean copying passages out of library reference books; now students can go on line to plagiarize, even downloading entire papers. The good news is we can use technology, too.
Simply typing a suspicious passage into a search engine will usually reveal its origin. Numerous web sites are dedicated to identifying plagiarism. Four of them are listed here. I warn my students to not even think about plagiarizing, because I can hunt them down with a few mouse clicks! (They laugh-but they listen.) There's an even easier way to identify plagiarized work: If kids can't define specific words they used in their papers, case closed.
Academic cheating was first recorded during the Han dynasty in ancient China, and it doesn't appear to be going away anytime soon. At least we can act to minimize it. As for students who are busy turning cheating into an art form, imagine the results if we could inspire them to put all that ingenuity to better use. Until then, surf those how-to-cheat web sites yourself to stay a step ahead. And one more thing-watch out for square pencils. That may not be company printing on all four sides!
Happy spring, and I'll see you later.
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