I have a minor pet peeve about using turnitin.com. Teachers need to understand how should be used. Too many professors will just run your paper through the si

I have a minor pet peeve about using turnitin.com. Teachers need to understand how should be used. Too many professors will just run your paper through the site, conduct no other checks at all, and assume that if turnitin says your plagiarized, then you did. Turnitin has several major weaknesses. First, it cannot detect whether or not you've properly cited sources. Secondly, if you've published your own writing anywhere and use it in your paper, it will detect it as plagiarism, though it's not. Third, it is very limited to what it can detect. Fourth, major parts library depends on the violation of student copyrights. It keeps a copy of every paper submitted for comparison with future submissions. This is a violation of student copyrights. Now, I'm against these kind of copyright restrictions, but since students are many times on the losing side of copyright battles, this is one which should be an easy win. Cheating detection is far from a solved problem. Plagiarism is just one part of it, and turn it in only covers the basics. Students using an essay mill will not be detected by the site. The best way to fight cheating is an engaged instructure. Of course, with the movement in education towards automated courses, there is no way that's going to happen.