Whether plagiarism-detection software becomes a fixture of college admissions remains to be seen. But it’s safe to say the odds of more institutions’ embracing such a tool just increased.
On Wednesday, Hobsons, a marketing and technology company that serves colleges, and iParadigms, which provides plagiarism-detection services such as Turnitin.com, announced a new partnership that will allow colleges to bring “automated content authentication” into the admissions process. Translation: The partnership will merge Hobsons’ popular online application system, ApplyYourself, with an iParadigms service called Turnitin for Admissions.
The latter runs essays through a database of Internet content, journals, books, and previously submitted writing. It then provides a report listing the number—and type—of matches that might indicate all sorts of word-recycling. In one study Turnitin for Admissions reviewed 450,000 personal statements and found that 36 percent contained a significant amount of matching text (more than 10 percent). Those matches tended to come from Web sites offering “sample” personal statements. Other tests have found questionable similarities among 8 to 20 percent of applications.
Pennsylvania State University’s M.B.A. program was among the first to sign up for Turnitin for Admissions. More than two dozen institutions worldwide have used the service, and some colleges (as yet unnamed) have incorporated it into their review of undergraduate applicants, according to Jeff Lorton, product- and business-development manager at Turnitin for Admissions.
“A lot of jaws are dropping,” Mr. Lorton said of admissions officials surprised by the levels of matching they’ve seen. “There are people seeking an advanced degree at the most selective institutions who can’t even write their own personal statements.”
The Common Application already uses ApplyYourself, so incorporating Turnitin for Admissions would seem to be a cinch. Over the last year, Mr. Lorton has spoken to officials at the nonprofit organization about the possibility of using the service. Robert Killion, executive director of the Common Application, Inc., said on Tuesday that the organization was still in discussions with Turnitin for Admissions, but that the group might or might not choose to use the service in the future.
Some enrollment officials have raised both practical and philosophical objections to the use of such a service in the admissions process. In June, David A. Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, told The Chronicle that “shadow writing”—help from teachers and parents—was a bigger problem than plagiarism on admissions essays.
And then there is the question of interpreting what a “match” means. “The opportunity to track down a false positive,” Mr. Hawkins said, “might be somewhat elusive for admissions officers who are pressed for time.”
7 Responses to New Partners in the Plagiarism-Detection Business
joneseagle - January 26, 2011 at 9:24 pm
I love it.
adjunctus_defunctus - January 27, 2011 at 9:03 am
Yes–a good idea, but how much of a “personal statement” (and even a “teaching philosophy statement”) is going to use fairly generic language? Probably a lot. Thus, I would be very concerned about false positives and determining the extent and significance of the “matching” rather than jumping to the immediate conclusion that “people seeking an advanced degree at the most selective institutions … can’t even write their own personal statements.”
Remember that computers apprehend only patterns, not context, and certainly not ideas.
morganalefay - January 27, 2011 at 5:05 pm
They just need to drop standardized tests entirely from the official admissions criteria. It’s such a racket. All these tests show is that these people can take standardized tests. Who cares? I had a student in a class once who had a scholarship because she had a perfect ACT score. She also took the tests 6 times (or was it 8 times?). She was a classic D student and she had no study skills. I have students who got fine SAT/ACT scores who can barely write a coherent sentence.
Instead admissions offices should just look at each student’s grades from grades 9 through 12 and consider their extra-curricular work if that really matters. Yes, it’s more work, but you can get an impression from students’ report cards and maybe high schools could compile the grades in a transcript format of some sort to make it easier to evaluate. If a college really wants an essay from applicants, they can contact the high school to select a random recent essay from a file that is kept for each student. That way the parents can’t help write it and the students can’t get it online. It’s an essay they write in a class for a grade.
I just don’t see the point of the standardized exams or the essays. Just look at their grades from their high school years. High SAT and ACT scores don’t impress me. What impresses me is sustained excellent academic performance, over several years, in a variety of subject areas. That’s a student who is ready for college, not someone who can copy/paste or ask Mommy for help.
liquidyuan - January 27, 2011 at 5:32 pm
I think it is a great idea. I used it for my classes and it saved enormous my time to check Plagiarism. Of course, you have to realize the limitations of the software. So the software check is the first step and you still need to screen it.
caveat - January 28, 2011 at 11:03 am
This is just the “intellectual fraud” that the current applicants are using in colleges. They have not been held accountable for the past 15 years in most areas of their lives– not at home, not in school, and not by the courts. This entitlement generation needs to be held accountable. They are sloven, disingenuous, and grossly disrespectful to society, themselves, and each other. I refuse to hire any of these intellectual vermin.
fergbutt - January 31, 2011 at 9:40 am
morganalefay: High school grades for high-risk students are often inflated, in a misguided attempt to make students feel better about themselves. Admissions needs to cross-check the data they get.
ndkchk - February 6, 2011 at 10:11 am
adjunctus_defunctus: It’s actually worse than that. Turnitin keeps copies of every essay submitted to it and includes those essays when checking for future plagiarism. This new service, according to the link, does the same thing.
When applying to grad school, I wrote one statement of purpose and modified it for each school. If this system were used to check those essays, every one after the first would be red-flagged as plagiarism.
This becomes a real problem when the system is being used as the article suggests it now is – schools just feeding essays into it. If students have to sign up and use Turnitin’s website themselves, then it’s easy to see that two “plagiarizing” essays were written by the same student for two different schools. If Turnitin can’t connect the essays to the students properly, it gets very messy.