In Context: 5 Web Perspectives On A Story In The News

Mass plagiarism allegations at King's

(Unews) Unews, a website for Atlantic university news run by journalism students at the University of King's College, reported last week that at least 15 students at King's allegedly plagiarized their work. The students wrote questionable papers on The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri. They will have a hearing with the academic integrity officer this week. The worst consequence will be students failing the paper, and in lesser cases losing marks. A King's student who is not accused of plagiarism says it is "bogus" that the plagiarists don't face bigger consequences, even on a first offence, because students have known the consequences of plagiarism since high school. Every essay assignment outline includes a description and rules of plagiarism.

1.

Students can buy pre-written essays online

Dante Essays
Danteessays.com is a website where people can choose from 25,000 pre-written essays about Dante Alighieri's work. It guarantees a custom essay will be finished before the students' deadline, meet the requirements of the assignment and even provide a free bibliography with all sources listed - for $49 per essay. The website does not talk about who is behind Danteessays.com, but Google the customer service phone number and the company The Paper Experts appears. The Paper Experts began in 1996. According to its website, The Paper Experts hires writers with master's degrees, and writes for "MBA students, law students, nursing students, and more; and we specialize in term papers of all topics: business plans, statistics, microeconomics material, and many other topics."

2.

A method to catch plagiarism: turnitin.com

Turnitin.com
Turnitin.com is a website where teachers and professors can submit electronic copies of students' work and have it automatically checked for plagiarism. Its roots come from University of California, when in 1996 Berkeley researchers needed to monitor the recycling of research papers. They teamed up with other researchers to form the world's first plagiarism prevention service, plagiarism.org. It evolved into turnitin.com, and the service includes educators being able to check students' work, as well as students being able to double-check their own papers before submitting them. According to the Turnitin website, Turnitin has caused "dramatic reductions in plagiarism incident, students become better writers and researchers, teachers save time, and institutions improve their overall levels of learning."

3.

King's plagiarism rules

University of King's College: policies and public documents
The University of King's College uses Dalhousie University's rules of plagiarism. Its intellectual dishonesty outline cannot fit all descriptions of intellectual dishonesty in the document, so it acts as a guideline and the university can prosecute students who commit acts not outlined in it. It defines plagiarism as the submission or presentation of the work of another as if it were one's own. The penalties vary from a failing grade on the assignment, to suspension or expulsion from the university. Some examples would be failing to attribute the author of sources, downloading all or even parts of other peoples' work from the Internet and claiming it's one's own, or the use of a paper prepared by someone else other than the claimed author. The university has the power to withdraw previously awarded degrees if plagiarism has been found.

4.

Center advocates academic honesty

Center for Academic Integrity
The Center for Academic Integrity's website provides educational resources, a collection of codes and policies from a list of American universities, useful links to various academic ethics websites, and a search resource database. The center conducts studies on plagiarism. For example, it found that 80 per cent of college students admit to cheating at least once. The Center for Academic Integrity is affiliated with Clemson University in South Carolina, where it receives program assistance and funding. The centre also receives funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation.

5.

Blogger says Internet makes plagiarism easier, chides pro-plagiarism argument

Relfections of a Newsosaur
Blogger Alan Mutter calls a plagiarism case in Germany, where a writer got away with publishing book but copied whole pages from another book, "preposterous." The writer had won a prize for the book, defending herself by saying that originality doesn't exist anyway. The judge who awarded the prize thought her argument backed the concept of her book. Mutter points out how easy it is to plagiarize these days, when one can copy and paste passages from the Internet in a matter of seconds. He writes, "Because the web is open, easily accessible and readily searchable, it is more likely than ever that cheaters will be discovered faster and more surely than ever before... In other words, cheating is not only dishonest but it is also stupid." Alan Mutter is a blogger in the U.S. He was a former columnist and editor at the Chicago Daily News, and is now specializing in corporate initiatives.