Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Web sites help detect plagiarism Technology makes it easier to cheat and to get caught BY ALEXIS STRATTON THE GAMECOCK New technology and widespread Internet use make pla giarism easier for college students to commit, but also easier for pro fessors to detect. Mary Ann Byrnes, assistant dean for undergraduate studies in Liberal Arts, said that, while pla giarism continues to become sim pler to do than it used to be, it is “actually pretty easy” to get caught. “What students fail to realize when they’re plagiarizing is that their faculty members do read, their faculty members are famil iar with the material in their dis cipline, and they’re also trained researchers,” Byrnes said. “And they’re pretty good researchers on the Internet as well.” Byrnes said that, because all USC faculty have been trained in research techniques, “there’s a high likelihood that a faculty member is going to be able to find something that’s been plagiarized and be able to find the source.” “I occasionally have a problem with it (plagiarism), but not very often,” said Keen Butterworth, an English professor who has taught at USC since 1970. “Usually, the problem for the professor there is not whether we know or can de termine whether it’s plagiarism or not, but to find the source that the student used, which some times takes a good deal of time.” But because of new technology, this lengthy search is getting shorter. Not only can professors, themselves, search the Internet and major paper mill sites for pla giarized writing; they can also download or buy programs that compare a student’s work to simi lar papers and similar-style works, a process much less daunt ing and time-consuming than tra ditional means. These faster methods include using the Web site www.plagia rism.org to compare student pa pers to sources, archives of free online cheating sites and other pa pers. The site also performs Web searches and sends professors e mails with possibly plagiarized sentences flagged. Programs include the Essay Verification Engine, available at www.canexus.com, which frag ments essays and finds parts that have been plagiarized, and the Glatt Plagiarism Screening Program, which randomly deletes parts of students’ work, then requires them to fill in missing information. MOSS, available at www.cs.berkeley.edu/ -aiken/moss, htiftl, specializes in finding plagia rism in work from computer science classes. The site searches lines of computer code to spot similarities. The fees for these programs start at about $20 a year for a class of 30 students. While these programs have been beneficial to faculty mem bers, some students have said it violates the trust between profes sors and students. The final judgment on plagia rism comes down not to a com puter program, but to the faculty and university members involved. USC has a “code of academic re sponsibility that prohibits aca demic dishonesty of any sort,” Byrnes said. When plagiarism is reported, she said, a student faces a warning, a reprimand, suspen sion or expulsion. “Plagiarism is a serious matter with serious consequences,” Byrnes said, “and it really is a way of cheating themselves out of an sducation.” While Stacey Ivol, a first-year computer engineering and marine science student, says she hasn’t seen much plagiarism yet on [JSC’s campus, she agrees that pla giarism is a waste. “It’s not worth the money” to plagiarize, Ivol said. “I think policies should be harsh for people too lazy to do their own work,” she said. Comments on this story?E-mail iamecockudesk@hotmail.com Judging CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 most people probably wouldn’t take the time to vote, and judges are more qualified,” said Marie Tennyson, a second year art education student. “If it weren’t for the judging system, it would just be a popularity con test.” Another issue addressed was Greek dominance over Homecoming events. Grove says one of the hardest parts of her job is getting smaller organizations to feel they can compete with larg *r organizations. She said the commission worked hard this year to encourage smaller orga nizations to participate. “One of the biggest misconcep tions of Homecoming is that a per son has to be nominated by some one else and they have to be a member of an organization,” Grove said. “They can actually nominate themselves and they do not have to belong to any organi zation at all.” Third-year marine science stu dent Kiley Patteson said she didn’t know Homecoming applications had been available or when they were posted. “I figured you could nominate yourself, but I never re ally thought about it,” Patteson said. One thing there was no debate about was that whoever is select ed to be king or queen should best exemplify the student body and, according to Patel, “They should bleed garnet and black.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com — -- • The Beatles • The Beach Boys , ve^ • limi Hendrix .**'’'*' Jl°'V0,h at 8»,m' X Irint am"IHmidia trip through the most influential JET- °J Roek "'Roll history. -1 h°re? Russell House Ballroom „J7sL73LP Taped threat is aired in Egypt BY RAWYA RAGEH THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CAIRO, EGYPT-The Arab satellite station al-Jazeera broad cast an audio tape Sunday in which a male voice attributed to Osama bin Laden said the “youths of God” are planning more attacks against the United States. “By God, the youths of God are preparing for you things that would fill your hearts with ter ror and target your economic lifeline until you stop your op pression and aggression” against Muslims, said the voice in the audio tape. It wasn’t immediately clear when the tape was made. The man on the tape said his message was addressed to the American people, whom he urged to “understand the mes sage of the New York and Washington attacks which came in response to some of your pre vious crimes.” “But those who follow the ac tivities of the band of criminals in the White House, the Jewish agents, who are preparing for an attack on the Muslim world ... feel that you have not under stood anything from the mes sage of the two attacks,” he said. “So let America increase the pace of this conflict or decrease it, and we will respond in kind,” he said. The reference appeared to be to the U.S.-Iraq confrontation many believe will lead to war, which could date the tape to re cent weeks. Qatar-based al-Jazeera has be come known for its broadcast of audio and videotapes of al-Qaida leaders. Last month, it aired ex cerpts from a videotape in which a voice said to be bin Laden’s is heard naming the leaders of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers. Mold CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 tling down after the effects of move-in day, when high traffic brought in lots of outside hu midity. He says his staff is per forming humidity checks across the dorm to keep it at its mini mum level. Housing is also preparing to make some changes in South Tower to combat the problem. Luna said that, during fall break, Maintenance will re place the shower pans — wa terproof barriers that direct wa ter down the drain pipe — on a few floors that have had prob lems with leaks. Housing is also looking to replace the coil units within three years. Maintenance will thoroughly clean the building this summer. Luna has conducted three meetings with residents of South Tower — two with th Sorority Council — to allow them to voice their concerns. “The staff in Housing has re ally taken this to heart and has worked really hard,” he said. Luna says Housing has agreed to let any students in South Tower who have legiti mate health concerns to be re leased from their housing con tract or be moved to another res idence hall on campus wherev er space is available. He reminds students that this is not the sort of home that Housing aims to provide. “My concern is the hin drance to their academic and so cial life. We want you to be the most successful you can be,” he said. Comments on this story? 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