tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091218950079982154.post6202108904529387795..comments2024-03-07T15:19:55.343+01:00Comments on Copy, Shake, and Paste: At least they are being honest about their dishonestyDebora Weber-Wulffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01602911135725939409noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9091218950079982154.post-43381988479168508042013-11-30T18:03:34.787+01:002013-11-30T18:03:34.787+01:00When I was talking about Viper in a recent worksho...When I was talking about Viper in a recent workshop, one of the participants suddenly exclaimed, "That's what happened!"<br /><br />It seems that, last year, a student submitted a paper to a free "plagiarism detection service" for checking, got a clean bill of health, and then handed the paper to her teacher (my workshop participant), who put it through Turnitin. Again, a clean report.<br /><br />A year later, the teacher got a request from another school on the other side of the world; a paper submitted by one of his students had been matched against a paper in the Turnitin database, so Turnitin had referred teacher #2 to teacher #1. The papers were 90% identical. My teacher, the original teacher, could not understand, her student would surely not have colluded, not have sold her work...<br /><br />Almost certainly, she hadn't. But her reputation could have been ruined, could still be ruined. <br /><br />Viper claims "Most students don't mind helping other students by offering their essay/work as an example - they're finished with the essay and it's of no value to them." That's just not true.<br /><br />At least, as you say, Viper has been open (in the small print) about the use it makes of submitted essays. How many "plagiarism checkers" are not so "honest" - but still profit from innocent victims?<br /><br />Even more than this, I wonder why one has to download Viper software to one's own computer in order upload one's work for checking? Most other "services" allow you to copy&paste your essay... Me, I'd be very wary about downloading software from a dodgy company to my hard drive.<br /><br />John<br />John Roycehttp://read2live.com/noreply@blogger.com