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I wish I thought of this back in my high school english classes and got everyone together to not submit anything. However, all the teachers I remember did give

I wish I thought of this back in my high school english classes and got everyone together to not submit anything. However, all the teachers I remember did give failing grades for assignments not submitted to turnitin. If you had enough failing assignment grades, obviously, you fail the class. The reasoning would be that you had to complete your entire assignment, which involved submitting to turnitin and physically to the teacher by the due date, to receive the maximum amount of credit. Failing that, not turning it in made the teacher question your "academic honesty". Very frustrating, especially as I remember there were some students that found it very difficult to get access to a computer to even type up their essays, let alone internet connections to submit online.

briansmith 18y ago
There is another way to protest: attack the credibility of turn-it-in. Publish drafts of your papers all over the web where the Turn-it-in bot is sure to find them. Wikipedia would also be a great place to submit fragments of your papers. then submit fragments of your papers and your friends' papers directly to turn-it-in seperately before you submit your own paper. Then all your papers will come up as false positives. When the instructors confront you, produce the original papers as evidence that you were just copying yourself (which is totally allowed). As far as I know, Turn-it-in doesn't really provide the instructor with a good way of verifying the original source of a paper. So, it is difficult for instructors to use turn-it-in as evidence of plagerism when students are gaming the system like that. It is also why anybody that challenges an accusation of plagerism based on evidence from these services will always win (at least in court).
- silencio 18y ago
  I am so incredibly sold on that idea, it's just such a shame I don't have classes where turnitin is used :( However, I do remember that most of my HS english teachers were aware of the possibility of false positives. Their first reaction wasn't to accuse anyone of plagiarism, they just asked to see drafts and research related to the paper in question - or any sort of evidence to show that you were legitimately working on something. Turnitin for them was just automated checking to see if anyone was stupid enough to buy an essay or copy something near verbatim.

briansmith 18y ago

There is another way to protest: attack the credibility of turn-it-in. Publish drafts of your papers all over the web where the Turn-it-in bot is sure to find them. Wikipedia would also be a great place to submit fragments of your papers. then submit fragments of your papers and your friends' papers directly to turn-it-in seperately before you submit your own paper. Then all your papers will come up as false positives. When the instructors confront you, produce the original papers as evidence that you were just copying yourself (which is totally allowed). As far as I know, Turn-it-in doesn't really provide the instructor with a good way of verifying the original source of a paper. So, it is difficult for instructors to use turn-it-in as evidence of plagerism when students are gaming the system like that. It is also why anybody that challenges an accusation of plagerism based on evidence from these services will always win (at least in court).

silencio 18y ago
I am so incredibly sold on that idea, it's just such a shame I don't have classes where turnitin is used :( However, I do remember that most of my HS english teachers were aware of the possibility of false positives. Their first reaction wasn't to accuse anyone of plagiarism, they just asked to see drafts and research related to the paper in question - or any sort of evidence to show that you were legitimately working on something. Turnitin for them was just automated checking to see if anyone was stupid enough to buy an essay or copy something near verbatim.