New sites created to detect forms of plagiarism

Plagiarism.org and EVE are two new Internet services that will help to find cheaters. Writing sent to these services will be examined and the sites will be able to determine if even phrases or inserted material have been plagiarized.

by John O'Donnell staff writer

One of the biggest problems on college campuses today is cheating. Cheating is not limited to furtive glances at your classmate's test paper. A more prevalent form is plagiarism.

Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines "plagiarize" as: to steal and pass off the ideas or words of another as one's own; to use without crediting the source; to commit literary theft.

Plagiarism has probably been present on college campuses as long as there have been college campuses. When our parents were in college, "word-ofmouth" networks were in place to help a searcher find just the paper he was looking for.

With the advent of computer technology, finding completed papers on just the topic you need is so much easier. A student can find a Web site, enter his topic, and download a variety of papers that he can claim as his own.

Probably more common is the student who attempts to write his own paper but finds that he just doesn't have enough material to stretch it out to fit the instructor's minimum requirements. Or, he doesn't think his work sounds good enough. This student will intersperse his own work with segments "borrowed" from works found on the internet.

So, what does a professor do when he suspects that his student's paper is not an original work? He may want to check out some of the new Web sites created to detect cheaters.

Dr. David Presti, a professor of neurobiology at the University of California, Berkeley, was suspicious of several of his students. Thanks to a new Web site, Pia- giarism.org,. Presti found that 45 of his 320 students had submitted plagiarized material. Plagiarism.org was created by are rized material into the middle of his own work, EVE will detect it. Dr. Janet Lohmann, a professor of Sociology, said that she has never used an anti-plagiarism Web site. She added, however, that if she suspects plagiarism, she does visit web sites on the topic of the paper to see if she can find evidence of literary theft.

Universities or teachers can purchase the services of Plagiarism.org for as little as $20 per year for a class of 30 students. Papers sent to Plagiarism.org are checked by a computer program that looks for phrases matching those from other sources. Submitted papers are also compared to papers from previous semesters and other universities. Reports are returned to the requester within 24 hours. The reports point out segments that should be examined by the subscriber as possible plagiarism.

John Barrie, a graduate student at U.C. Berkeley. Barrie said that his intent was to "level the playing field for honest students."

Another anti-plagiarism internet service known as EVE (Essay Verification Engine) can be found at www.canexus.com. EVE can detect even subtler forms of dishonesty. For example, if the student stole only a few paragraphs and tried to disguise his theft by changing a few words or inserting the plagia-

Catherine Yungmann, associate professor of communications, said, "Anti-plagiarism Web sites are one of the teacher's few lines of defense. I would definitely consider using such a web site if I felt suspicious about a student's paper." She added, "Students should give their professors more credit. It is possible to find something on the web, but a professor will spot a different writing style a mile away."