On Mon, 22 Nov 1999, Paul Brandon wrote:
> <http://www.plagiarism.com/> takes you to the source for the software.
>
> At 12:53 PM -0500 11/22/99, Kenneth M. Steele wrote:
> >On Mon, 22 Nov 1999 10:12:21 -0600 Rick Stevens
> ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> >> This is a snippit from the CNN Technology section:
> >> http://cnn.com/TECH/computing/9911/21/plagerism.detective/index.html
> >>
> >
> >The text report made an error. The correct address is
> >www.plagiarism.org not com.
> > ^^^
This is confusing! It seems to me that these are two different sites,
with different services. www.plagiarism.com appears to use a CLOZE
test method, in which significant words are deleted, and the student
has to supply them. www.plagiarism.org uses a search engine to check
the document against others on the web.
I think Ken Steele is right, and the CNN news item meant to refer to
www.plagiarism.org (the search the web service) but instead listed
www.plagiarism.com (the CLOZE service). The names given in the news
item correspond to the org site.
For what it's worth, I think the CLOZE test can work well when the
student fails it (low risk of false positives) but not so well when
the student passes it (high risk of false negatives). I don't have
evidence, only the opinion that a plagiarizing student motivated to
avoid detection who has typed his own (plagiarized) paper has a good
chance of passing the test. The studies I've seen validating the
method use students who know it's a game, and who haven't typed in the
material themselves, so they're unfamiliar with it.
-Stephen
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Stephen Black, Ph.D. tel: (819) 822-9600 ext 2470
Department of Psychology fax: (819) 822-9661
Bishop's University e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Lennoxville, QC
J1M 1Z7
Canada Department web page at http://www.ubishops.ca/ccc/div/soc/psy
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