Internet Plagiarism

I. Introduction

Many students when given assignments or resources go to the Internet , copy and paste . Most of them donÐŽ¦t know thatÐŽ¦s called plagiarizing and that itÐŽ¦s ethically wrong.

In the following report I will discuss the problem of Internet Plagiarism, the problems affect on teachers and students as well as solutions to detect this problem.

II. Definition of Internet Plagiarism

What Internet Plagiarism is

Internet Plagiarism hasnÐŽ¦t been easy as it is today . Before the Internet age , resources were limited so when students used to plagiarize the risk of detection was very high and they used to be caught easily and either asked to rewrite the research paper or they get no mark for it.

Internet Plagiarism is defined as copying articles and reports of other peopleÐŽ¦s work and handing it out in another personÐŽ¦s name.

If someone is caught of plagiarism , this will cause him to be haunted with shame for the rest of his life. For example , in the 1980s a US presidential candidate was discovered to have plagiarized one of his school papers. He was forced to drop out of the campaign after suffering from shame, but no one sued him [1].

Figure 1 shows a Pie chart of How students plagiarize

Who it affects.

Internet Plagiarism mainly affects two people in any educational institute .

Firstly , it affects teachers . Teachers spend lots of time correcting research papers . So when more than one research paper are with the same content , it will be obvious that both students havenÐŽ¦t written it on their own and that itÐŽ¦s plagiarized .

Most teachers keep warning students about plagiarism and even some universities have a special course in researching methods but all in vain.

Usually when teachers are put in situations where students have plagiarized, they donÐŽ¦t have any proof that the student has plagiarized and canÐŽ¦t do anything about it.

Secondly, it affects students . Students start to become careless and rely completely on the internet for all their researchers. In addition to that some websites like schoolsucks.com offer free online researchers or researchers that can be paid for. Students under pressure of study can depend on these websites to write their researchers. Another problem plagiarism can cause to students is losing

their grades or being forced to rewrite his/her paper again only time it should be his/her own work. Figure 1in the previous page shows a pie chart on how students plagiarize.

III. Solutions for Internet Plagiarism

Comparing Students Work

This solution is still used in many universities such as our University (AUST) . This solution is time consuming for lecturers, it means that all students work should be compared with each other.

Another way assumes that the lecturer knows all the students ways in writing , so when he notices that a students way of writing has totally changed or the paper is too professional to be done by the student .

Both ways are time consuming and need lots of effort from the instructor. Here are some other Guidelines to prevent students from Plagiarism:

„X Let students know that the instructor knows about these websites , then the instructor should actually check some of them out. Students will be less likely to submit a paper that they know the instructor may have seen on the web.

„X Teach students how to correctly cite electronic sources.

„X Give specific instructions for resources and try to choose a topic which isnÐŽ¦t too general.

„X Require a minimum number of sources from a variety of mediums. For example, you might require that the essay uses as a reference 3 books,2 online resources and 3 articles [2,3]

Using Special Software to Detect Cheating

These solutions have been effectively used in lots of universities in the US and Canada. They offer plagiarism detection services that address the growing problem of plagiarism.

How it works

The technology used in detection is called Document Source Analysis , it uses a set of powerful algorithms to create a digital fingerprint of any text document . Here ЎҐs how it works:

1. First , the website makes a digital fingerprint of any submitted document using a special developed set of algorithms.

2. The documents fingerprint is cross-referenced against the websites local database containing hundreds of thousands of papers.

3. At the same time , the website releases automated web crawlers , to search the rest of the Internet for possible matches

4. Finally, the website creates a custom , color-coded originality report completed with source links for each paper.[4,5]

Requirements Needed for Using this Software

The user of this software should have one of the following browsers:

„X PC(Windows XP/2000/Me/98/NT)

„X Mac(OX X/9)

„X Internet Explorer 5.0andhigher.

„X Netscape 7.0 and higher

The user should make sure his browser is set to accept cookies from the website . Also, he should make sure the following browser settings are enabled :

„X SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0 , TLS 1.0

„X JavaScript [5]

IV. Two Options for Software Detection

TurnItIn.com:ItÐŽ¦s an online resource for educators and students concerned with improving their writing skills . This is done by : providing an efficient deterrent to digital plagiarism .Allowing for online grading with full and quick markup. Offering a grade book with multiple scaling and grading options.

SafeAssignment.com:

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