I asked my question in good faith. I'm kinda amazed at how many people did NOT answer my question (about precedent re Turnitin), but treated it as a projective test. I am also amazed at some of the responses which basically say: "The way I teach, no one ever plagiarizes." Perhaps they are teaching in an alternative universe to mine. I have been teaching for 42 years, and I do most of the things I know of to avoid plagiarism: conferences, outlines, ask for raw work to be available. Yet, cases still crop up. Schmucks happen. In situations where I sense plagarism, I would welcome turnitin: not as a mass produced test, but as a way of acquiring more data. (Note that I did not say "information", much less "knowledge"). And then I would ask the student to come in and chat, bringing raw material, etc. And always with someone else in the room. Now, I have direct personal experience that Turnitin can be horribly misleading, so please folks never treat as definitive. A young colleague of mine sent a book chapter off to an inexperienced editor, the editor ran it through Turnitin, and without checking futher, accused the colleague of plagiarism. The colleague came to me in tears. What had really happened is that the colleague had included a bunch of quotations from prior publications, properly cited and indented, but all Turnitin does is show that the same quotation had been originally published before. (Of course.) When this was pointed out to the editor, she retracted her accusation, altho she never had the courtesy to apologize. This is a totally true story (as all of mine are), but the colleague has asked me not to use her name. Frankly, I think the editor should have been run out of her university for malevolent incompetence. (But if malevolent competence grounds, we'd lose 50% of university administrators). Anyway, thanks for your advice, which I have passed on to the folks actively involved in this particular situation. Next year, I will insist, as per Toronto policy, that Turnitin be used. I will also do a new one, insisting that I not be videoed, cameraphoned or audio-ed, unless there is a disability situation. I don't want to be YouTubed without my permission. And so it goes... Barry Wellman _____________________________________________________________________ Barry Wellman S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology NetLab Director Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman for fun: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _____________________________________________________________________