Hello!
In the internet age it is easier than ever to write research papers. In my first go-around for college I actually had to go check out books and journals from the library and my papers were cobbled together and did not really reflect what I could do. These days, the research part is much easier as everything I need can be found online, and downloaded as .pdfs instantly.
Unfortunately, this easy access to high-quality research and writing makes cheating much more prevalent,. But, the same internet that makes finding these articles so easy also makes it easier for professors to find out if your work is actually your own. This is accomplished through Turnitin, the big daddy of anti-plagiarism software.
How big is it? They have processed more than 337 million student papers for more than 24 million students, and 1.6 million faculty members use it. When you turn in your paper it will be compared against 45 billion other documents to see how original it is. That is pretty big!
The system is easy for students to use. The professor will post a link, and if you have not signed up for Turnitin you will be prompted to do so when you drop your document into the system. If your professor lets you see the results, within a few seconds the system will respond with an amazing analysis of your work. It will define a percentage of your work that is plagiarized, and note every section that it has issues with.
No research paper will be 100% original, as the APA format references should look the same for everybody, and if you have quotes or paraphrase authors those things will be flagged. Of course, literature reviews will have a relatively high level of non-original material. But that is fine as long as everything is correctly attributed, and it is satisfying to see how good of a job you did on making your paper your own work.
Some see Turnitin as the ultimate big brother tool, but I am fine with it as I feel that everybody should have to do their own work, and they should not be rewarded for laziness. It is a good tool for a tough job.
Thanks for checking in, and next time we will start getting into the actual courses and books from my first semester in the MSIDT program.
