Over the centuries, teachers and professors all have had a problem with academic dishonesty. The advancement in technology has made plagiarizing so much easier, and because of this, many professors have resorted to using software programs which detects any sort of plagiarism. One popular program many professors are enforcing their students to use is Turnitin.com. When a paper is submitted into Turnitin, the program compares it to previous submitted essays saved in its database and the content available on the internet. However, in recent years, there has been much controversy between the ethics of Turnitin and student’s rights. According to Merriam-Webster, plagiarizing is defined as, “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of
Without giving any credit or compensation to the owners of that intellectual property, Turnitin has contradicted its business model and has become its own hypocrite.
Besides academic learning, education also teaches students about the value of academic integrity. Donald L. McCabe explains in his essay that, “integrity cannot be divided… college teaches values to students by the standards they set for themselves”( McCabe 575). Since childhood, students are instilled with the negative connotation associated with cheating. They learn that it is unfair to other students around and there are heavy consequences which can include failing the course, or worse, expulsion from the school. Students also learn that when they cheat, they often they not only end up cheating themselves out of a learning experience, but they also lose their sense of academic integrity as well as their professor’s trust. However, when professors enforce their students to use Turnitin, a program that is clearly is its own hypocrite, they devalue academic integrity. When the education system place so much emphasis on the importance of academic honesty and then enforces students to use Turnitin, a business built on a foundation of the usage of unauthorized work of students, they show students that they support a business which goes against the very standards in which they value.
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