Dare I Discuss

The chapter of Lanette's book that I was given is called "Turn It Down, Don't Turn It In: Resisting Plagiarism Detection Devices by Talking about Plagiarism Rhetorically" by Stephanie Vie. As you can tell from the (long) title, the author argues against universities' using services like Turnitin.com and suggests instead that teachers do more discussion and analysis of plagiarism and the social constructs surrounding it.

Can't we do both? Does using Turnitin necessarily mean that we as teachers and students are not thoughtfully considering the issue of plagiarism or realizing that it can be unintentional? In some ways, Vie makes it sound as if professors who use Turnitin.com take one look at the originality report generated by a student's paper and decide then whether to fail the paper--as if most professors do not customize the reports, do not discuss plagiarism in class, and do not talk to the student or permit the student to revise.

Toward the end, Vie mentions using Turnitin as a tool for teaching revision and citation, but she does not take this hint any further (22). I think that so much of the ethics of Turnitin--as with other software we have discussed in class--depend on "how you use it." I have used Turnitin.com for two years now, and I have never failed a student or given a student a zero on an assignment because of the service. In fact, it is much easier for me to show students where they have incorrectly cited (intentionally? accidentally? lazily?) and give them pointers for revision because of how Turnitin.com labels words from other sources.

I could talk more about this topic, but the most important part for us to realize is that plagiarism detection services are worth discussing. They should neither be overtly rejected nor blindly accepted.