Using Turnitin.com

"The Internet has made plagiarism easier than ever before. From elementary schools to the highest levels of academia, the allure and ease of downloading and copying "untraceable" online information have led to a virtual epidemic of digital plagiarism. We were stunned (several) years ago, when tests using our service determined that 15 percent of a UC Berkeley class had used plagiarized material in their papers. Now we know that the problem has gotten even worse. Data from a recent survey of 708 Berkeley students indicates an astounding 30 percent turned in papers containing uncited material from the Internet.

Perhaps most alarming are indications that plagiarism is quickly becoming part of our educational culture. Students who have grown up with the Internet are often unaware that they are plagiarizing, and some of those who are caught can honestly say they just didn't know any better. We see this as a failing of the system, rather than the student, and feel there is a real danger of future generations taking plagiarism for granted."

While I don't believe that intentionally “cutting and pasting” is a problem with these research papers, I do think some students are not as careful as they should be. You must view the following website before you start your paper.

http://www.turnitin.com/research_site/e_what_is_plagiarism.html

while visiting this site, please view the citation link

Turnitin.com will not be grading your reports, Mr. Johnson will. What Turnitin.com does do, is show how similar a paper's phrases, sentences, paragraphs are to sources available on the Internet as well as all student papers ever submitted to Turnitin.com. It will also show me the Internet/teacher/university/high school etc. addresses involved. Using the Internet, magazines, personal interviews, newspapers, textbooks, encyclopedias, etc. is absolutely necessary to write a research paper. Giving credit for direct quotes, paraphrasing and non-general knowledge ideas are all also necessary. Turnitin.com is simply a very powerful tool that allows me to confirm that the data in your report is properly credited to those individuals/sources that originally contained the information.

Your papers will need to be submitted to this site and therefore you need to set up an account. If you have enrolled already from a different class, skip to Step 2. If this is your first time enrolling in the program use the following directions:

Go to the http://turnitin.com website, select New Users

create a user profile, select student, enter the Turnitin class ID _________________________, enter the Turnitin class enrollment password, which is: parker (lower case please)

You will then be prompted to enter your:

e-mail address: __________________________

Your personal password is case sensitive, must be 6-12 characters long, and for security purposes must contain at least (1) number and (1) letter,.

password: ________________________

PLEASE SAVE THIS DOCUMENT FOR YOUR CURRENT PASSWORD AND EMAIL ADDRESS!!!

Step 2: Go to the turnitin.com website, log in using your email address and personal turnitin.com password (Important you must give the same email address that you used in the other class, if you forgot your password they will email you a link to enter another (be sure to check your "junk" mailbox if it doesn't appear in your "inbox". If you don't remember which email account you previously used just proceed as if you are a new user (see above) . If you do have your email address and password, then choose the button at the top left called “enroll in a class”. Use the Turnitin class ID _________________________,