turnitin the gatekeeper

I heard a bizarre story which I'll just pass along with no comment. This actually comes from another universiy, but could have just as easily come from ours. A professor says he'll put all the exams through Turnitin and if any come out positive, they'll fail. A student writes the exam question on top of the exam; writes the exam and hands it in; the exam trips on Turnitin because the question is copied at the top of it. The teacher flunks the student. The student complains, saying, hey, I was just copying the question before I wrote the exam; that's different from copying on the exam. The teacher says, hey, you just flunked the exam, you didn't flunk the whole course. In other words, the teacher stood by the rule; gave her zero credit for the exam, and went on with life.

There's usually more to these stories than the blatant tyranny and stupidity that appear at first glance. But maybe not. As I said, no comment.

the beat goes on

the world is so full of comments, pro and con, i can barely contain myself. a slight break from dealing with my usual piles of lifted material from sources with connections to the kingdom, and the people thereof, but, two new writing classes started today, so i will certainly be inundated, shortly, with more.

in the meantime, much has happened on the SIUC front, and I will make an effort to keep up the documentation. First, the committee's report, which is linked to from here:

Plagerism report (sic), S. Thorne, Bytelife blog. Contains link to report on plagiarism.

Cohen, J. (2007, Oct. 12). Panel urges Poshard to fix thesis. Chicago Tribune.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-poshard_siu_12oct12,1,4220980.story. Accessed 10-07.

The controversy shows no sign of dying, though the latest news cycle is due to the committee's report and the ensuing decisions to stay the course. I would like to take a tape recorder around with me, just to pick up the comments I hear, but they are clearly on both sides of the issue, clearly getting stronger. For example:


Students on the DE (newspaper) are irresponsible- trying to ruin the university...should quit & go home (from a letter this morning)...

An informal style? Plagiarism is plagiarism...it's like Clinton denying he had 'sex'....(from another letter)


There you have it. It goes both ways. I'm sitting so firmly on the fence, I'm getting bobbed wire in my pants.