by:
  Michael Donnelly,
  Rebecca Ingalls,
  Tracy Ann Morse,
  Joanna Castner, and
  Anne Meade
  Stockdell-Giesler

  The Role of the WPA

As an instructor, I have until recently been able to resist the alluring pull of Plagiarism Detection Software (PDS) such as Turnitin.com. As a writing program administrator, I have often counseled others, usually part-time instructors and/or graduate students, on dealing with specific cases of plagiarism. Most often, this has meant dealing with plagiarism post facto. Less frequently, I've talked with instructors about "prevention," which, in general, means "make the policy clear on your syllabus," and even less helpfully: "give good writing assignments."

I have never once recommended the use of Turnitin or any other such software. Nor have I necessarily been very emphatic in my objections to it. At best, I might say something like, "I have serious reservations about the ethics involved in using it." Yet I have used Turnitin recently, in a limited fashion-which is, I daresay, perhaps less ambiguously unethical. What has made it easier, though not easy, to temporarily suspend my reservations, is the institutionalization of Turnitin. Indeed, the fact that Turnitin is now an institutional presence on my campus has forced the issue.

As the Director of First-Year Writing, I can't simply ignore it. I must, instead, to confront it. It would be easier, no doubt, to follow the university's lead, which is to say, to simply make faculty aware of the availability of Turnitin: "Use it or don't, it doesn't matter." But it seems to me that the very serious ethical and pedagogical issues raised mean that it does matter.

The issue of plagiarism is one with which good teachers, teachers of conscience and of care, must struggle. It is not, as often seems to be assumed across the university, a simple matter of catching dishonorable students and prosecuting them. We have to ask questions about why students plagiarize, make distinctions between kinds and degrees of plagiarism, and, ultimately, endeavor to teach more effectively.

Let's be clear about this point: much of the tension arising from plagiarism and the use of Turnitin is based in the fact that we hate to receive plagiarized essays. And I don't believe hate is too strong a word here. We hate it for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it seems to signal some kind of failure on our part. In some cases, perhaps many though certainly not all, I believe this to be more or less true.

The student has not been prepared or equipped to deal with the assignment I've given, did not have the needed resources available, and did not feel that I could provide those resources. It is also partly true, at least, that the student has to some degree now robbed me of the opportunity to provide those resources, to teach, and for that I am now resentful. The student has, in effect, told me I am inadequate as an instructor, and has further insulted my intelligence by trying to pull one over on me. Thus it's easier to simply lay down evidence and pass judgment than to engage in deep conversation with students about their work, their motivations-indeed, their fears.

• Introduction: A Writing Program Director's Dilemma
• Flying, Finally
• The Role of the WPA
• The Problems with PDS
• May the Conversation Continue...
• Dissimulation in the Writing Classroom
• The Devaluing of Growth?
• A Lack of Ethics
• An Ethos of Academic Integrity
• Students Consenting to Turnitin.com: What Are We Asking When We Ask Them to Sign Away Their Work?
• The Concept of Intellectual Property
• Roots of Consent
• Why "Consent" May Not Be Sufficient
• Turnitin.com: A Teaching Tool
• Responsibility for Writing
• A Focus on Revision
• Turnitin: Oversimplified Answer to a Complex Problem
• Skill and Creativity
• Self-Fulfilling Prophesies
• A Stimulus to Creativity
• Engagement and Success
• Conclusion
• References
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