Marty wrote: >My thanks to everyone who responded to my call for help on a possible >plagiarism situation. For those interested in the details of the case, >the student cited only two sources: the P. E. Salles Gomes book on Vigo >and an online review of _Zero for Conduct_ at >www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Bungalow/1204/zfc.htm. (This latter item, by >the way, is the only external-review link at the Internet Movie Database's >entry for this film.) The student handled these sources properly; it's >the unattributed material that worries me. The sample excerpts that I >posted the other day don't come from Salles Gomes, the online review, the >William Simon and John Smith books on Vigo, or any of the miscellaneous >French cinema books I examined in my school's library. As a number of >respondents have suggested, it may well be impossible to track down the >sources, and I must say that I've grown weary of the whole thing. I >haven't met with the student yet, but, when I do, I'll use a combination >of approaches suggested by Ken and others. At this point, it's the only >sensible thing to do. My hope is that if I speak with the student in a >non-accusatory way about the sources that he/she used, etc., it will be >clear in a matter of minutes if the paper was plagiarized or not. Thanks >again for your thoughts. hi Marty, i hope you'll let us know, or at least me, how things went. i've been through similar situations numerous times and each situation seems to require an individualized approach. i'm curious as to how these suggestions will work. if the info hasn't already been passed along--although i do think i read all the posts under this thread heading--i've attached, below, some refs we've got on our web pages devoted to life in the knowledge factory. we have a section for students which points them toward the cheater's sites but we've included a note about the plagiarism sites, as well :-). kelley ~|~|~|~|~| P U L P C U L T U R E |~|~|~|~|~ a web site for theory/research/practice, a listserv for exploring the nexus of media/culture/politics http://www.flash.net/~oudies/pulp_culture.htm Genevaplagiarism.orgGeneva: "Our computational processes for 'finger-printing' papers and determining degrees of originality will detect plagiarism." 0000,0000,fefehttp://www.plagiarism.org/ Or maybe not. Wrongly accused because the plagiarism detection systems don't work: "These are key issues, it turns out, in the brave new world of plagiarism detection online. Like other things on the Web, it's a prospect alluring in its simplicity, but devilishly difficult to accomplish in reality. It remains to be seen how many people might be unjustly accused before the kinks are worked out." 0000,0000,fefehttp://www.salon1999.com/tech/feature/1999/06/14/plagiarism/ Dead Giveaways (Tips for Teachers) 0000,0000,fefehttp://rideau.carleton.ca/~gsenecha/guide/Givups.htm Programming profs may have a solution in MOSS (Measure of Software Similarity) "Moss is being provided in the hope that it will benefit the educational community. Moss is fast, easy to use, and free. Access to Moss is restricted to instructors and staff of programming courses. To obtain a Moss account, send a request to [log in to unmask] Processing requests for accounts may take up to a day; once you have an account queries are processed as soon as they are received." MOSS System for Detecting Software Plagiarism 0000,0000,fefehttp://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~aiken/moss.html "In a 1993 survey of 500 University of Oregon students, 91 percent said they had cheated on a test or written assignment. The UO was among 10 universities surveyed by Rutgers University, which found that 89 percent of students overall admitted to cheating." Electronic Plagiarism article and links 0000,0000,fefehttp://otn.uoregon.edu/eisenhower/internet_learning/internet/plag.html The New Plagiarism: Seven Antidotes to Prevent Highway Robbery in an Electronic Age 0000,0000,fefehttp://www.fno.org/may98/cov98may.html Guide For Students: Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It. Information you may want to link to a course page. 0000,0000,fefehttp://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html Guide For Faculty: Cut-and-Paste Plagiarism: Preventing, Detecting and Tracking Online Plagiarism 0000,0000,fefehttp://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~janicke/plagiary.htm ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]