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Coursework.Info adds essays to Plagiarism Detection software

Those of you who have had the pleasure of my rants are aware how strongly I feel in the legitimacy of www.Coursework.Info as a valuable academic resource that can really help people learn.

You will also know that I acknowledge that www.Coursework.Info (like most of the rest of the Internet / text books etc) can be abused by people wanting to cheat.

Today we have taken a major step to differentiate ourselves from those sites that do encourage cheating. All our essays are now available on the most prevalent Plagiarism Detection Software in the world. For more info see - http://www.coursework.info/cgi-bin/e/page.cgi?p=press_releases

We are also calling for a Code of Conduct (ultimately supported by legislation) to ensure that cheat sites are cornered out of the market, and legitimate services like Courswork.Info can continue. We are in discussion with various members of the Government and Educational Bodies on this subject.

If you want to get more of a feel for why teachers and students find Coursework.Info useful then these comments may help - http://www.coursework.info/cgi-bin/e/page.cgi?p=testimonials

I'd really like to hear your views on this step we have taken.

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

FadeToBlackout

There is a lot of difference between looking at an example of a good essay to get the feel of what to work towards, and copying and pasting large chunks of it to try and pass it off as your own. This is, in my opinion, a positive step because it should help to take Coursework.info out of it's admitedly rather dodgy position before and hopefully give it some credibility. This means that you can stay away from the rather dodgy washing your hands position you've had before ("We don't condone plagiarism, if you try and pass this off as yours to cheat it's not our problem") to a more open one that is better.

Reply 2

Bismarck

Excellent idea. :smile:

Reply 3

Schmokie Dragon

I'm all for it. It is really helpful to read actual essays (not just sample answers) and to see the level of detail necessary and the tricks that get you better marks. As long as the work you eventualy produce is your own, and you have only used the other essays as a guide, I fully support it.

So an attempt to seperate the legitimate from the down right dirty is a welcome step.

Reply 4

always + forever

I'm not surprised you support coursework.info considering the company that owns TSR also owns coursework.info! Seriously though, I never found those kind of sites that useful, but I accept others might. However, registering the site with the plagiarism regulator thing sounds a good move.

Reply 5

bluenoxid

Push it on the homepage of coursework.info, makes it more legitimate

All I see now is a load of boring waffle justifying your position at some lnk in your menu

STATE IT IN BIG LETTERS THAT IT IS A RESOURCE NOT A CHEATS BANK

Reply 6

Stick Man

A positive step, no doubt. And I have to say The Guardian was quite nice to you, which I'm sure will keep your PR guys happy for a while.

But I do have a problem with this page.

•

We know what plagiarism is. But pronunciation keys? Seriously? Maybe if you were helping poeple with their Year 6 SATs that would be useful, but otherwise... just no.

•

You plan to reduce plagiarism by education? Forgive me, but that's like the government saying it'll tackle burglaries by defining "stealing".

•

Your own users view your site as ethical. This needs no further explanation.

•

You need to substitute this filler for expansion on the technology and co-operation fronts: how do they work? Do AQA put every other essay through some kind of Turnitin scanner? Are you spending gillions of pounds on it?

Reply 7

Mustard-man

I don't think there is such thing as 'cheat sites'. All sites can be legit, but a student can always cheat, even if some software is being used. It's just some sites make it harder to cheat... I know a friend who cheated in all of his A2 courseworks. I mean, on like coursework.info you pay a fee and you're allowed a certain period of unlimited access. Someone could easily get hold of 20 pieces of the same coursework title and take little bits out from each one, and re-arrange some of the words and use a thesaurous. Does that count as plagarism? (Not technically I suppose...)

Reply 8

ChrisN

TSR Group Staff

Noxid

Push it on the homepage of coursework.info, makes it more legitimate

This will come over the next week or so, we are still agreeing with them the wording/logos etc. to use.

Reply 9

ChrisN

TSR Group Staff

Mustard-man

I don't think there is such thing as 'cheat sites'.

If someone has an essay custom written for them for several hundred pounds, or a dissertation for several thousand pounds, which comes with a guarantee that it will not be detected by plagiarism software, what are the chances of them just using it as a piece of research?

Reply 10

ChrisN

TSR Group Staff

Stick Man

You need to substitute this filler for expansion on the technology and co-operation fronts: how do they work? Do AQA put every other essay through some kind of Turnitin scanner?

This will come over the next week - again the wording needs to be agreed with all parties, but FYI now Edexcel are a client, as are 80% + of universities. How they use the software will vary, but I think it is fair to say that if they are paying all this money for it then they will use it comprehensively. (Again I believe it is quite normal for every single essay to be run through it.)

Reply 11

~Kirsty~

I think its a brilliant idea. Our university has brought in the capability to do plagiarism scanning but so far our department hasn't used it. Plagiarism detection needs co-operation from all sides, the academic institutions and websites like coursework.info. This is a step in the right direction. :smile:

Reply 12

Mustard-man

Ah right, yeah you're right. I was only thinking about the coursework database websites as opposed to custom essay websites. Its probably more common for people to pay a small fee for unlimited access compared to paying one big fee for one custom piece. A plagarism system for those custom essay sites would be an effective idea. But still, personally if I used a custom website I'd edit the piece before handing it in because my teacher could obviously make out that the work wasn't written by me.

Reply 13

TSR Community Staff

Some good changes here. There needs to be the system in place to catch people who simply copy essays (or parts of essays) to pass off as their own.

More needs to be done now to highlight what has been put in place to discourage people cheating. Also more people need to be encourage to check essays and written work.

You seem to be doing a fair bit with these. Keep at it and hopefully all concerned with essay banks an essay marking will follow suit and either check essays or have essays available for checking against :smile:

Sounds wonderful.

Ok CN, you want my opinion so I'll give it to you - although I can't guarantee you'll like it.

A site like Coursework.Info gives a blatant opportunity to cheat/plagiarise, whatever you want to call it. You can add whatever 'anti-cheat' software you want, but not everywhere uses it and so any cheating will not be picked up. What is the need of such a site? - there is no need to provide pre-written essays, there not helping anyone think independently, but instead provide an opportunity to cheat. If sites like this didn't exist then it would help cut down on the cheating which does occur. In my opinion, examinations should be all exam based and no coursework. This would help cut out the cancer of cheating which seems to be plaguing our education system at the moment.

By providing such resources you are allowing people ready access to cheat - this in my view is wholly unacceptable.

Reply 16

shinyhappy

It seems to be a good step, although I would question whether it is being done to reduce cheating, or to increase profits by making the site more 'legit'.

Reply 17

Spacecam

I think its helpful for ideas, but fully agree to it being added to the plagerism bank - people have to work hard to get good grades - but to be fair, its only people who cut and paste that get found out, and even then its the suspicious changes in the grammar structure. (btw everyone in my year used coursework.info to do their GCSE Bio!)

Reply 18

DoktaUH

Great news, my Uni uses it, and told us about it several times in the first week that if wer Plagiarised we would be caught. Hopefully that'll cut down the amount of people on my course, bloody chavs.

Reply 19

bob_54321

shinyhappy

It seems to be a good step, although I would question whether it is being done to reduce cheating, or to increase profits by making the site more 'legit'.

does it matter? it's a business, it's got to make money. if it improves its profits and also benefits academic institutions and prevents cheats then surely it is a win-win situation . . .

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