Details below of a seminar looking at Turnitin. Later today (Friday).
Dave Clemens

Title: Don’t copy that copy! An overview of a plagiarism detection tool
used at UC.

Speaker: Moffat Mathews

Time and place: 21 August 2009, Friday, 3:10 pm, Erskine031 (Math/Comp
Building)

Abstract:
Plagiarism is a serious offence, which at UC could lead to expulsion.
Although the definition and reasoning behind the rules that control
plagiarism is easy to understand, the guidelines that define what
constitutes plagiarism (and how to detect or avoid it) are vague and
rely on the judgement of the reviewer. For academics, plagiarism is an
issue they have to deal with on a regular basis, either as a writer or
reviewer, as strong scholarship often requires the use of others’ work
and ideas. In recent years, tools that claim to be “plagiarism checkers”
have entered the academic market to help with this problem. In this
talk, we overview one such tool available at UC (namely, Turnitin) and
discuss the applicability, use, and implications of utilising such a
tool.

Biography:

Moffat is a PhD student and part-of-the-furniture (a coffee table?) at
CSSE. He is often seen lurking in the corridors, coffee-in-hand,
eliciting conversations with CSSE members on various diverse topics, all
in aid of unified research and collaboration. He dangerously walks the
tightrope of being a dabbler in all things, yet expert in none. Having
received the prestigious “mug of the year” award from Peter Glassenbury,
he takes on this latest challenge to investigate a serious issue.
Completing the abstract and biography, he now proceeds onto the
presentation …