Term Paper Sanity
After years of having to rely on trying to keep track of older siblings' term paper topics, running Google searches to determine if papers are plagiarized, close reading dozens of term papers each year to determine whether Student X could really write that well, and students themselves not knowing if they have done an adequate job of paraphrasing and attributing quotes, a technological wonder came into my life a few years ago when the district began to subscribe to Turnitin.com. For those non-English teacher nerds out there who might be reading this, Turnitin is a subscription Website that tracks plagiarism and allows students to view their similarity scores to online sources and other students' papers. The recent addition of grading software to the program allows teacher the capability to view suggested grammar and mechanic corrections.
Student Advantages and Best Practices
Because the program allows teachers the option of setting a choice for resubmission, students can submit a rough draft (even more than one) and make changes and then resubmit for a better paper. There is immediate feedback for the student, and the teacher can load the program's suggested corrections if he or she doesn't have time to read all 125 rough drafts the same night!
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| Image from Smudgem.blogspot.com |
In Praise of Turnitin
Turnitin.com has made my life as an English teacher easier when it comes time to grade term papers. A year or two ago, there was some talk among the administrators of cutting the subscription. We English teachers protested so loudly that they decided to keep it, thankfully.
Turn it in sounds like a great tool for you! Thanks for sharing.
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