I hate this part of the job

I'm reading the proposals my students posted to Blackboard - which range all over the place from concise, well thought out questions, to vague 'I gotta get some books from the library' kinds of rambles - when I come across one that sends my radar into overdrive.

You see, the proposal sounds... well, it sounds like something a graduate student would write... not something a student who almost failed the midterm would write. Now, I accept that a midterm test which requires the application of learned facts to a problem (scansion) and memorization (match this passage to who wrote it) is a very different thing than typing up something at your leisure. But this proposal was just too slick to sound right.

So I set up the paper as a Turnitin assignment. It's a nifty new (and as I understand, expensive) service that scans papers for "originality" and gives you an "originality" score for the paper. I've never used the feature before, but it strikes me as a much more efficient way to check for overlapping sources than the old google it yourself routine.

I really hate it that I even have to do this.

I also realize that there is some controversy about this product. My alma mater has decided not to adopt it, but their reasoning strikes me as only partly thought out.

Dr. Patterson [Associate VP Student Affairs]also pointed out Turnitin.com can't distinguish between intentional and accidental plagiarism.

"I think it's really hard to determine where it's actual plagiarism--where there's an actual attempt to deceive--and how much of it is lack of information on how to do it properly," she explained.

What their objections ignore is the teacher. Hello? You know, the teacher? The person who has trained for a decade or more to be in the position they're in? I agree that Turnitin could produce false positives. This is partly the objection of a McGill student who challenged that school's use of the service. He objected to Turnitin's mission to "help students take more responsibility for learning, and let teachers focus on teaching." (which is why I'm using it - my time is much too valuable to spend hours googling phrases from papers!):

"That statement is basically saying that students, if given the opportunity, will plagiarize, and they're forced to prove they didn't plagiarize before their paper is even looked at"

But that's where the teacher's intelligence and discretion comes in. Just as in any other case of a plagiarism charge, the teacher needs to present evidence that the plagiarism took place. And the teacher still has the option to confront the student about unintentional plagiarism (and Turnitin has an option that allows you to resubmit a student paper in such a case).

The thing that the opponents at U of C seem to be ignoring is that Turnitin is just one of many tools a teacher will use during their career. Their knowledge of the subject matter, their evaluation of the student's performance outside the case in question, and institutional policies will all come into play in a plagiarism case. They're acting as if a bad score on Turnitin will AUTOMATICALLY translate into a failing grade, no ifs, ands, buts, or maybes. No teacher discretion. If there's no institutional policy that says that's the case, and no institutional mechanism intercepting originality scores before the teacher gets ahold of the paper, then the teacher has the option of examining the paper more closely and ignoring the report, or challenging the student about it at which time the student has the opportunity to respond to the charge.

Yes, in an ideal world, there would be no need for Turnitin. In an ideal world, there would be no need for traffic cops to enforce laws because everyone would obey them. In an ideal world, I could open any email message I receive without fear of damaging my computer.

But this ain't an ideal world. It's the real one. And sometimes, the actions of a few people, spoil it for the rest of us. That's life.