tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post8804490807048925575..comments2023-10-15T04:23:50.187-04:00Comments on College Misery: Early Thirsty: Suggestions for Plagiarism-Checking?Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-53224421468144367962015-10-04T18:24:19.947-04:002015-10-04T18:24:19.947-04:00This is fun but not helpful (sorry). Years ago (b...This is fun but not helpful (sorry). Years ago (before internet), I had a student in my biomed course hand in a technical paper. He was furious when he saw his F, and proclaimed up one side and down the other that he had NOT plagiarized anything! I asked him about his sources, and whether he happened to notice that the author he had lifted virtually the entire paper from was.......wait for it..Oceandivahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12603679557335451477noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-4979962168214520572012-06-26T13:38:54.821-04:002012-06-26T13:38:54.821-04:00Tercel sends this in:
She would probably be in vi...<i>Tercel sends this in:</i><br /><br />She would probably be in violation of FERPA if she passes this semester’s essays to the next TA.College Miseryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01371354682300032653noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-11142519835857330922012-06-26T08:55:16.304-04:002012-06-26T08:55:16.304-04:00If you can find the relevant handbook and the corr...If you can find the relevant handbook and the correct forms, you could try handing the completed documents to the prof and maybe, just maybe, he'll sign'em if the work is already done.Ovreductdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13961540854552566493noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-61304536839165747682012-06-26T06:56:01.783-04:002012-06-26T06:56:01.783-04:00This is really a great idea! I know that most of ...This is really a great idea! I know that most of the language is online. I have had to listen to obnoxious colleagues, though, insist that their essay ideas are soooooooo original that their students could never plagiarize! Never! THAT's the answer to the plagiarism problem, they say! Simply give original assignments that no one has ever thought of before! <br /><br />Remember, we are aAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-4739635048341575672012-06-25T23:55:20.428-04:002012-06-25T23:55:20.428-04:00SafeAssign and Turnitin are the way to go if your ...SafeAssign and Turnitin are the way to go if your uni has 'em. I've also learned this cool trick: if you have an iPhone or newer iPad (not first generation), download the Google app. It has a feature called Google goggles, where you can take a picture of something and Google will search for it. So, if you take a picture of words on a page, Google will recognize that it's words on Elsa Martinezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03038133077768613833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-40258372585116047712012-06-25T22:52:56.835-04:002012-06-25T22:52:56.835-04:00Ha! The student sounds clever. If only s/he would ...Ha! The student sounds clever. If only s/he would apply that same level of effort toward actually doing the assignment...marginalia84https://www.blogger.com/profile/14939939474264439885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-11354671440415049352012-06-25T22:50:31.650-04:002012-06-25T22:50:31.650-04:00Thanks for this. I do intend to choose my battles ...Thanks for this. I do intend to choose my battles carefully. And if the prof won't back me up, then I know that there's not a lot that I can do. I'm hoping that if I show a little proactivity and present him with hard evidence, he'll be roused to do something. But if not, I can know that at least I tried.marginalia84https://www.blogger.com/profile/14939939474264439885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-50387448959218725792012-06-25T22:48:10.629-04:002012-06-25T22:48:10.629-04:00As a grading assistant, I won't be on the rece...As a grading assistant, I won't be on the receiving end of student evaluations. They can moan and cry all they like- it won't go into my record. *evil chuckle*marginalia84https://www.blogger.com/profile/14939939474264439885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-35363058487387999112012-06-25T22:46:33.955-04:002012-06-25T22:46:33.955-04:00"At least you've scared a few students in..."At least you've scared a few students into potentially writing their own papers."<br /><br />Really, that's my goal here. I don't intend to get too carried away with this- after all, I have my own coursework/grant-writing/dissertation-proposal to worry about. But I do want to make it clear to the students that I *will* be thinking about the possibility of plagiarism as I marginalia84https://www.blogger.com/profile/14939939474264439885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-17895401962830519102012-06-25T16:38:56.028-04:002012-06-25T16:38:56.028-04:00Let's be honest though: the language is online...Let's be honest though: the language is online.<br /><br />Start by googling the essay question verbatim. Read the top 3 cheating essays that appear. Then when your students submit them, you'll recognize them immediately.<br /><br />Beyond that, spot-check by googling any oddly-shaped, particularly beautiful, or really specific sentences that do not seem to come from your students. This Academic Monkeyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07086078244493768565noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-72071002157218483202012-06-25T15:48:18.267-04:002012-06-25T15:48:18.267-04:00"Your job as a grad student is to cover your ..."Your job as a grad student is to cover your own ass."<br /><br />ABDbag nails it. If I might add:<br /><br />Your job as a grad student is to finish your dissertation in a timely fashion and cover your own ass while you do it.<br /><br />It sounds like it's not part of your job description to nail the undergrads for plagiarism. In fact, you should probably spend as little time as Bisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02025209722326662833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-25409759383408312482012-06-25T14:44:37.778-04:002012-06-25T14:44:37.778-04:00In my experience, most plagiarized papers are so u...In my experience, most plagiarized papers are so unbelievably egregious that they can be detected with the most cursory of glances. Of course, I guess you have to establish a baseline for normal student work first.<br /><br />Speaking as someone who has been in this exact situation, I would heed the advice given here to choose your battles wisely. I once busted a flagrant plagiarist whose paper ABDbaghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03986523081814895890noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-33234942010442376712012-06-25T14:21:23.144-04:002012-06-25T14:21:23.144-04:00Little things give it away, too. Look for strange...Little things give it away, too. Look for strange formatting in one part of a document that don't exist in others. I caught a student because she had a few sentences here or there that were in dark gray text, not black. A quick Google search found that she had cut-and-pasted those from a website.<br /><br />I caught another when a certain word appeared with a strange definition and always Ruby from Richmondhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02756121084410280787noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-80610234659921860192012-06-25T13:49:36.466-04:002012-06-25T13:49:36.466-04:00Thirding this. If the guy you're TAing for doe...Thirding this. If the guy you're TAing for doesn't give a flying fuck about plagiarism, he probably won't give a flying fuck if you catch a few plagiarists either. He probably won't back you. <br /><br />My advice would be to concentrate on your own grad work and let the undergrads fend for themselves. This situation isn't your fault--and as a TA, you're not really being Gone Gradhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05551318129736463087noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-79834705112737102002012-06-25T13:39:40.765-04:002012-06-25T13:39:40.765-04:00I'm sorry, marginala, but Duck is right...
Yo...I'm sorry, marginala, but Duck is right...<br /><br />You have not been hired to check for plagiarism. Either quit the job or do the job you were hired to do.... give easy As. It sucks, but all you're going to do is get yourself in a shitload of trouble when the little cherubs complain and the prof has to "grade" the crap himself.<br /><br />Your school's rep is shit The_Mythhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10621186404597424842noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-84325903758636164812012-06-25T11:53:31.477-04:002012-06-25T11:53:31.477-04:00Ah, but your tone of mistrust destroys rapport wit...Ah, but your tone of mistrust destroys rapport with student... ;)Emergency Mathematical Hologramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15873569623797587860noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-73760147415064508352012-06-25T11:47:02.150-04:002012-06-25T11:47:02.150-04:00To the above, I'd add allusions to works not c...To the above, I'd add allusions to works not covered by the essay or the course.Lucy, Countess of Bedfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07181713706519539554noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-40994834165746304582012-06-25T11:17:49.331-04:002012-06-25T11:17:49.331-04:00You *do* develop pretty good radar over time; as o...You *do* develop pretty good radar over time; as others have said, it's usually the shifts in voice (which tend to be pretty obvious to someone with any expertise in textual analysis/close reading/careful reading of any kind) that given them away. Shifts in font or line spacing (remember, recent editions of Word have different defaults for paragraph style than older ones do; this can be Contingent Cassandrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08161652083031423415noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-30492402771762489972012-06-25T11:14:51.331-04:002012-06-25T11:14:51.331-04:00This idea generally works well, but crafty student...This idea generally works well, but crafty students can foil it too. In my first full-time gig, one of my colleagues was going on about a student essay that showed such great promise. It was about comics and popular culture. She showed me the final product when it came in: a writing process portfolio with an invention exercise, outline, rough draft, peer review, instructor conference, and final EnglishDochttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12046114978214062491noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-74028485378994672872012-06-25T10:41:44.678-04:002012-06-25T10:41:44.678-04:00One more tip: do not put quotes around your sente...One more tip: do not put quotes around your sentence. That way, google will still catch it if they have changed a word or two.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-24983507433138711962012-06-25T10:38:00.974-04:002012-06-25T10:38:00.974-04:00I probably won't grade for this prof/course ag...I probably won't grade for this prof/course again, but I could pass them forward to the next grad student who will. I definitely plan to have them submit the essays as word documents. Thanks for the tip about googling incongruous sentences.marginalia84https://www.blogger.com/profile/14939939474264439885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-4177104582505576272012-06-25T10:36:46.968-04:002012-06-25T10:36:46.968-04:00Turnitin could be a bear, but it worked significan...Turnitin could be a bear, but it worked significantly better than Safe Assign, which is the module included with Blackboard that our university now uses. I could do a better job using Bella's method above, and I often have to.Liz Imbriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10789417084922765275noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-75822578452156629052012-06-25T10:36:22.284-04:002012-06-25T10:36:22.284-04:00I'm not sure how much authority I'll have ...I'm not sure how much authority I'll have over this, either. Thanks for the suggestion, though!marginalia84https://www.blogger.com/profile/14939939474264439885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-65110279495071030742012-06-25T10:14:57.623-04:002012-06-25T10:14:57.623-04:00One way to ward off plagiarism -- or at least to m...One way to ward off plagiarism -- or at least to make plagiarism a time-suck for potential cheaters -- is to require outlines and drafts of the essay turned in at various points before the final copy. If the final bears no resemblance to previous drafts, or if there are no previous drafts, that's a 0. <br /><br />Of course, you'd have to have some authority over assignment structure and Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13327984687823524531noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2883226237165701608.post-47287252283137611302012-06-25T09:45:48.845-04:002012-06-25T09:45:48.845-04:00Dude, do you KNOW how big a deal calling yourself ...Dude, do you KNOW how big a deal calling yourself "Duck" is?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com