Turnitin and the Anti-Plagiarism Debate

Turnitin educator story by Andrew Holmes, Innovation Specialist and Library Director at Parker High School

Today Im going to be sharing my thoughts on Turnitin and the Anti-Plagiarism debate, which was
recently featured on NPREd.
Ive used Turnitin in the classroom for many years now, and I have nothing but good things to say about
it. It is easily one of the greatest reasons for my success as a teacher.
I have taught English for 10 years, the last 7 at a high school in Southern Wisconsin. Ive used Turnitin in
a variety of classes, from general English 9 and 10 to Senior Composition Honors and AP English
Language and Composition.
It has always been received well by my students. But the key is in how you use it.
Let me caution you on this point: If you are using Turnitin.com as a tool to catch plagiarism if you are
using it as a hammer, like the professor at American University, of senior, Emma Zaballos, who,
according to Zaballos relished in catching students and turning them into campus authorities, asking for
their expulsion, well then you are entirely missing the point.
Whereas Turnitin was initially designed and created to catch plagiarism, it is now so much more than
that. This year, the buzzwords in my district were all about assessment: formative vs. summative. Writing
is a creative process. A process. Writing assessment, therefore, in order to be authentic, should be
formative. There is a time and a place for summative assessment in writing, but generally, that time is
when we are dealing with a final exam type of paper, one written by hand, in a blue book or exam form,
turned in for a final exam grade. Turnitin doesnt even pretend to address that situation. In fact, the days
when Turnitin was used to catch a student cheating, is commonly referred to by Turnitin staff as The
Dark Period.
So when I introduce Turnitin.com to my students, I introduce it as their ally. It is their personal tool to
learn how to cite sources correctly. In addition, I play down the originality reports, and instead focus
on the digital assessment and feedback made available to them through the program.
Upon completion of my courses, students have received technical college credit, as well as credit at
distinguished universities through the AP program. Last year, my students AP scores were among the
highest in the nation.
Writing is a process, and when students see something in their papers that is similar to another source,
they can learn from that situation, fix their paper, and truly grow as a writer.
When Rebecca Moore Howard, professor of writing and rhetoric at Syracuse University says the use of a
plagiarism detecting service implicitly positions teachers and students in an adversarial position, she is,
of course, right if thats the way the instructor uses it.
Tom Dee, professor in the graduate school of education at Stanford, refers to Turnitin as either a
hammer or a scalpel, and he is right. But this is true of every tool. There is a right way to use the tool,
and a wrong way. If you use the tool incorrectly, someone can get hurt. Turnitin is not a hammer; it is a
scalpel. It is meant to carefully guide students to improve their writing skills.
And that isnt even getting into the amazing digital assessment tools that really make Turnitin great.
Finally, there is the issue of copyright. Turnitin is very clear in their policy on the issue. Student work
remains the property of the student. As a teacher, I cant even see papers written by students not in my

classes. Turnitin is not using student papers in a way that infringes on copyright. In fact, what they are
doing is protecting the students rights to their intellectual property. If anyone else tries to use another
students words, it will be marked similar, and if the offending student does wish to use the content, he
or she will need to cite the source properly.
As you can see, this is a benefit to the initial writer of the paper.
Turnitin has always worked well in my classroom, but I have never used it to oppose students. It has
always been a learning tool. Students love the formative aspect of the program. They appreciate getting
a chance to correct their workand in the end, they ALWAYS tell me they have learned a great deal in
my classes. Im confident that the instruction I give my students is top-notch. Im always confident that
my students have learned how to write when they leave my class. Rough drafts are just that rough
drafts. The final product speaks for itself: some of the highest test scores in my district, and students
who are scoring in the top 25% in the nation as well!
Im Andy from TeachingMuse.com and this has been my vlog with my take on Turnitin and the antiplagiarism debate.