Academia and Text Matching Software Essay Example for Free

Academia and Text Matching Software Essay Critically evaluate the use of text matching software as an aid to developing good scholarship practice Introduction Academic dishonesty such as plagiarism has been a major factor in education that has affected students’ success and academic achievements in recent years. Plagiarism according to Park (2003) is the act of appropriating or copying another person’s work and passing them on as one’s idea without acknowledging the original source. Park (2003) noted that plagiarism is a growing problem and has been a misuse of the writings of another author, their ideas, hypothesis, theories, research findings and interpretations. Furthermore studies by Chao, Wilhelm and Neureuther (2009) emphasised that the rising trend of plagiarism among students can be attributed to several factors such as academic literacy, language competence and the technological advancements in the world today in terms of high speed internet facility available in hostels and computer labs. These factors according to Chao, Wilhelm and Neureuther (2009) has enhanced the ability of students to plagiarise a whole assignment by obtaining papers on the internet relating to their assignments which is as easy as copying and pasting. Park (2003) stated that students have different perceptions towards plagiarism. He noted that students view plagiarism as a minor offence which is different from cheating in exams. He further discovered that plagiarism could be unintentional (ibid). This is because some students possess a mental illusion in which they believe they have produced something from their own perspective while infact they are reproducing something which they have read from another author. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the effect of text matching software as an aid to developing good scholarship practice. This paper will begin by briefly describing what good scholarship practise is. In addition the use of text matching software for detecting good scholarship practice will be critically discussed and a conclusion will be made based on the evaluation. Good scholarship practice can be referred to as a formal study which involves academic learning and achievement. It involves acknowledging where information used to support ideas in a particular context is gotten and citing the sources (Locke and Latham, 2009). Britag and Mahmud (2009) pointed out that different strategies whichinclude the use of electronic software tools such as turnitin have been derived for detecting plagiarism with the intent of allowing students’ take responsibility of their learning and also work hand in hand with their tutors in the drafting stages of their assignments. According to Britag and Mahmud (2009) manual detection of plagiarism is difficult because it is time consuming and this is the reason why some tutors are reluctant in pursuing potential cases of plagiarism. However both the manual method of plagiarism detection and the electronic text matching method should be employed (Britag and Mahmud, 2009). Scaife (2007) argued that the electronic text matching software is not the solution to eliminating plagiarism because the software only focuses on text matching of paper under review with documents (journals, articles, e-books and conference papers) found on the internet or which has been previously submitted and this is a limitation because the only detection are focused on electronic materials without considering some non-electronic paper based documents which could still be plagiarised. Walker (2010) stated that with the development of text matching software such as the turnitin plagiarism detection was made easier, however he emphasised that the turnitin detection software is not 100 per cent efficient, it merely identifies and matches materials present in a document uploaded to turnitin website to materials available on the internet. Walker (2010) describes the electronic text matching software as a tool only suitable for detecting word for word or direct plagiarism in electronic form and the refined ones from the paper based sources are not easily detected. Moreover Carroll and Appleton (2001) argued that the turnitin is just an option for measuring plagiarism and that alone cannot be used as a basis for judging good scholarship practice. In addition Carroll and Appleton (2001) insist that the use of electronic software for detecting plagiarism requires human application and interpretation and that using turnitin alone as a medium for plagiarism detection is not proficient. According to Barrett and Malcolm (2006) the electronic text matching software (turnitin) only indicates possible plagiarism without any certainty, it is left to the tutor to determine the extent to which the writer has plagiarised or included some sources in the paper without acknowledging where they were acquired. In conclusion the concept of plagiarism cannot be overemphasised. It has become a factor that has affected good academic scholarship practice and has  created an avenue for educators to develop methods for detecting and dealing with plagiarism. The development of the electronic detection software such as the turnitin has enhanced the detection of plagiarism however it cannot be relied upon completely because it is not effective. In addition it is important to understand that the best way to detect plagiarism is to use both the manual method which involves educators and the use of electronic text matching software such as turnitin. Students could also be assisted in understanding the criteria for academic writing such as the code of conducts which requires them to acknowledge any source from where data is derived when writing academically. References Barrett, R. Malcolm, J. (2006) Embedding plagiarism education in the assessment process, International Journal for Educational Integrity, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 38-45. Bretag, T. and Mahmud, S. (2009) A model for determining student plagiarism: Electronic detection and academic judgement. , Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 50-60. Chao, C. , Wilhelm, W. J. , Neureuther, B. D. (2009. ) A Study of Electronic Detection and Pedagogical Approaches for Reducing Plagiarism, The Delta Pi Epsilon Journal, Vol. 51, No. 1, pp. 31-42. Carroll, J. and Appleton, J. (2001), Plagiarism: A good practice guide, Oxford: Oxford Brookes University. Locke, E. A, Latham, G. P (2009) Has Goal Setting Gone Wild, or Have Its Attackers Abandoned Good Scholarship? , The Academy of Management Perspectives, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp.  17-23. Park, C. (2003). In Other (People’s) Words: plagiarism by university students—literature and lessons, Assessment Evaluation in Higher Education, Vol. 28, No. 5, pp. 472-488. Scaife, B (2007) IT Consultancy Plagiarism Detection Software Report for JISC Advisory Service. [Online]. Retrieved from:www. plagiarismadvice. org/documents/resources/PDReview-Reportv1_5. pdf [Accessed 24th October 2012]. Walker, J. (2010) Measuring plagiarism: researching what students do, not what they say they do, Studies in Higher Education, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp. 41-59.

Americans Love Capital Punishment :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Americans Love Capital Punishment      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is one question that has always brought about controversy. Should capital punishment be used as a way of disciplining criminals?   Over the past twenty years, there has been an enormous increase in violent crimes. It seems logical that a person is less likely to commit a given act if by doing so he will suffer swift and certain punishment of a horrible kind.   As most Americans agree, death is the only appropriate punishment for such crimes.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In ancient times' executions were not uncommon.   Even the Bible teaches capital punishment.   It states, â€Å"Who so sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man† (Bible). In ancient times a set of laws were written which specified many crimes punishable by capital punishment.   These laws were the Code of Hammurabi.   Some of the punishable crimes mentioned included adultery, robbery witchcraft, and murder. During the Middle Ages, the Church assumed the responsibility of administering punishments. During the late 1700's the death penalty steadily grew in acceptance.   Over 200 crimes were punishable by death at the beginning of the 1800's.   There were just as many methods used to execute wrong-doers as there were crimes.   Some of the techniques used included beheading, stoning, drowning, hanging, crucifying, and burying people alive. Also used were many nontraditional forms of execution.   One type of execution utilized elephants to crush the criminal's head on a stone block.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As times changed, so did the death penalty.   Laws aimed at abolishing the death penalty began to evolve at the turn of the century.   Even with the changes made, the effectiveness of capital punishment stayed right on track. The crimes punishable by death became more specific, while some were eradicated completely.   For example, there are different types of capital murder that have been specifically defined, but vary from one jurisdiction to another.   These include murder carried out during the commission of another felony, murder of a peace officer, corrections employee, or firefighter engaged in the performance of official duties, murder by an inmate serving a life sentence, and murder for hire (Contract Murder).   Other crimes worthy of death include espionage by a member of the Armed Forces (communication of information to a foreign government), tampering where death results by a witness, and death resulting from aircraft hijacking.   While hangings and firing squads remained in use, many forms of execution were done away with. Methods such as electrocution, lethal gas, and lethal injection soon replaced the annulled ones.   As with almost everything, there were exceptions made.   Some states the prohibited the

Americans Love Capital Punishment :: Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Americans Love Capital Punishment      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is one question that has always brought about controversy. Should capital punishment be used as a way of disciplining criminals?   Over the past twenty years, there has been an enormous increase in violent crimes. It seems logical that a person is less likely to commit a given act if by doing so he will suffer swift and certain punishment of a horrible kind.   As most Americans agree, death is the only appropriate punishment for such crimes.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In ancient times' executions were not uncommon.   Even the Bible teaches capital punishment.   It states, â€Å"Who so sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man† (Bible). In ancient times a set of laws were written which specified many crimes punishable by capital punishment.   These laws were the Code of Hammurabi.   Some of the punishable crimes mentioned included adultery, robbery witchcraft, and murder. During the Middle Ages, the Church assumed the responsibility of administering punishments. During the late 1700's the death penalty steadily grew in acceptance.   Over 200 crimes were punishable by death at the beginning of the 1800's.   There were just as many methods used to execute wrong-doers as there were crimes.   Some of the techniques used included beheading, stoning, drowning, hanging, crucifying, and burying people alive. Also used were many nontraditional forms of execution.   One type of execution utilized elephants to crush the criminal's head on a stone block.      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As times changed, so did the death penalty.   Laws aimed at abolishing the death penalty began to evolve at the turn of the century.   Even with the changes made, the effectiveness of capital punishment stayed right on track. The crimes punishable by death became more specific, while some were eradicated completely.   For example, there are different types of capital murder that have been specifically defined, but vary from one jurisdiction to another.   These include murder carried out during the commission of another felony, murder of a peace officer, corrections employee, or firefighter engaged in the performance of official duties, murder by an inmate serving a life sentence, and murder for hire (Contract Murder).   Other crimes worthy of death include espionage by a member of the Armed Forces (communication of information to a foreign government), tampering where death results by a witness, and death resulting from aircraft hijacking.   While hangings and firing squads remained in use, many forms of execution were done away with. Methods such as electrocution, lethal gas, and lethal injection soon replaced the annulled ones.   As with almost everything, there were exceptions made.   Some states the prohibited the

Spanish & Russian Empires

The age of exploration, a period of expansion for many Eurasian empires occured between 1450 and 1800. During this period both the Spanish and thep Russian empires were able to advance economically from their connections with societies westward. Both empires used some form of a labor system in order to support their social structures, despite the fact that where the laborers originated was different within the two empires. From a political standpoint, both empires were run under an autocratic government. This period was extremely crtical to the development of both the Spanish and Russian empires. Both the Spanish and Russian empires were goeverned by an autocratic body of government. The Russian empire was ruled by a czar, while the title of the head of Spain is a king. The set up of the government of the Spanish empire was probably was developed by the catholic church, while the Russians probably modeled their government after ideas borrowed from the west. From a pollitical standpoint the major difference between the empires was that the Spanish was a maritime empire while the Russian were a landbased empire. While the Spanish focused primarily on expanding overseas, the Russians felt it was better to expandm without traveling overseas. Since the Spanish also controlled land overseas they developed a system known as viceroyalty, where a govenor was put in place to oversee the control of the Spanish colonies in the new world. The Spanish and Russian empires both developed a similar social structure. At the bottom of social structure within both empires were the labor workers. Since both economies flourished based on agricultural successes, both societies required a group of people to work the lands. The Spanish relied primarily on forced laborers from outside of their colonies, typically consisting of slaves from Africa and the native Americans. Unlike the Spanish, the Russians looked towards locals to take part in a form of serfdom. Both the Spanish and Russian empires looked westward for ways to move foreward. The Spanish focused on economical advancements while the Russian empire focused mainly on social aspects. The Russians focused on social aspects because they felt that thier submission to the mongols had put them at a severe disadvantage to the europeans. The Russians borrowed estern ideas such as those used in art, architecture, and justice. The Spanish and Russian empires were both agricullturally based. The Spanish was an empire that not only developed domestic trade but also traded overseas. The Spanish basically single-handedly brought the new world into the worldwide economy. The Spanish were at the forefront of the triangle trade which pumped alot of money into th e European economy. The Columbian Exchange brought a lot of new cash and staple crops into Europe such as potatoes and tobacco. The Russian empire however focused on developing a local economy. The local peasentry was forced into serfdom. The strict enforcement of serfdom was put in place to work the land that supports Russian economy. The age of exploration, from 1450 to 1800 was a critical point in the development of many of the Eurasian empires. Despite being seperated by vast expanses of geographical features, ideas were able to blend profusely within seperate cultures. Clearly no amount of division can stop the bridge between the building of two different empires. ———————————————————————————–

Socrates And Aristotle s Life - 1491 Words

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