The Advantages and Disadvantages of Turnitin.com
Anti-Plagiarism Software Not Foolproof or without Controversy
May 19, 2009
Turnitin.com is an anti-plagiarism software service which uses an extensive, proprietary database to help schools catch students who cheat on essays and term papers. Turnitin.com also monitors content available on the Internet, as well as on publicly accessible databases, for use in its analyses.
How Turnitin.com Finds Plagiarism
Schools subscribe to Turnitin's service, and courses where students are required to write essays have the option of submitting student work to Turnitin.com for evaluation.
Instructors, or the students themselves, then upload their completed assignments either onto Turnitin.com directly, or through a course webpage such as WebCT or Blackboard. Turnitin compares the content of the essays with all the other essays in its database, then gives each assignment a score based on how much phrasing is identical to other previously published sources.
The system makes it very easy to spot essays copied from other students' work, or essays that have lifted sections from outside sources. However, Turnitin should not be used instead of an instructor's own judgment, since, without context, the software can misinterpret the data.
Turnitin.com Anti-Plagiarism Software Can Mislead Instructors
Some essays can get a high plagiarism rating from Turnitin.com even if they are properly cited. Anything with long, direct quotes taken from a source already in Turnitin's database will raise the rating. However, there are instances when lengthy quotations are legitimate and necessary, such as when dealing with literature essays that require close reading.
Conversely, essays with no research at all may not get a high plagiarism rating. When facts are made up or sufficiently vague, Turnitin reads such essays as original. Usually, essays written by students who have no idea what they're talking about are easy to spot, but Turnitin has no way to differentiate real citations from those that are made up.
Instructors using Turnitin.com should be aware of these drawbacks before trusting the system's analysis of student papers. It is still necessary to make clear to students the proper expectations for essay writing and how not to plagiarize, even accidentally.
The Controversy over Turnitin.com and Students' Rights
In recent years, there have been a number of challenges from students as to the legality and ethics of Turnitin.com. Some feel that the use of Turnitin implies a presumption of guilt, while others feel that the system's use of student work constitutes copyright infringement.
In the early 2000s, two students at Montreal's McGill University refused (in separate instances) to submit their essays through Turnitin.com. They were given no alternative and failed the courses in question, but a university Senate committee ruled in their favor when they filed formal complaints.
However, a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals (Fourth Circuit) upheld an earlier ruling that Turnitin's use of student essays constitutes fair use under copyright law. High school students in Arizona and Virginia had sued Turnitin, alleging that storing their essays in the Turnitin.com database prevented them from potentially profiting from their own work.
Is Turnitin.com Anti-Plagiarism Software Worth It?
It is ironic that in some institutions, it often isn't up to individual instructors whether Turnitin is used either. But even if Turnitin is mandatory, teachers can rely on it as much or as little as they see fit.
Like any other tool, Turnitin.com, and similar anti-plagiarism software, has it benefits, and its drawbacks. When instructors are aware of them, they can use such tools most effectively, and supplement them with their own good sense.
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