Marketing to both sides of the arms race
Turnitin brand software helps teachers nail students who plagiarize. Having listened to my brother, associate professor at a large university, describe tedious research involved in exposing a cheater, it sounds like a needful product.
But the same company also makes software called WriteCheck, which students use to find out if their plagiarisms are detectable by Turnitin. Thus alerted, students can edit their plagiarisms until they pass Turnitin’s muster.
Needless to say, some institutions of higher learning are neither amused nor pleased. I suppose it would be like a window replacement company selling errant baseballs, a toothpaste company selling sweets, or a police radar maker selling consumer radar detectors. (Having heard rumors about that last one, I researched it and found no evidence of it. Readers?)
—Steve Cuno
Turnitin brand software helps teachers nail students who plagiarize. Having listened to my brother, associate professor at a large university, describe tedious research involved in exposing a cheater, it sounds like a needful product.
But the same company also makes software called WriteCheck, which students use to find out if their plagiarisms are detectable by Turnitin. Thus alerted, students can edit their plagiarisms until they pass Turnitin’s muster.
Needless to say, some institutions of higher learning are neither amused nor pleased. I suppose it would be like a window replacement company selling errant baseballs, a toothpaste company selling sweets, or a police radar maker selling consumer radar detectors. (Having heard rumors about that last one, I researched it and found no evidence of it. Readers?)
—Steve Cuno
RSS Feed
