Resources for Writing and ENWR

For ENWR | Detect plagiarism | Plagiarism education

Using technology in composition courses

Grading and comments: although marking directly on student papers is essential, there are good reasons to use a word processor for your final comments:

• typing can be faster and more legible than handwriting
• preserves records of your comments to help grading at semester's end
• record useful if student later asks for a review or recommendation
• printed comments, stapled to papers, look professional

Workshopping and collaboration: class emails and Toolkit offer basic functionality when sharing papers to workshop. More interesting to instructors may be the next generation of Toolkit (currently) called Collab. It offers a more flexible platform for sharing files, for students to deliver finished papers online, and for linking out to other resources. You can attend a regular weekly demo of Collab around grounds; see the schedule on the front page. Interested parties can, as of October 2007, start their own collaboration sites. Course sites that would replace Toolkit sites will be available January 2008.

Detecting plagiarism

There are different strategies for detecting plagiarism in student papers, especially if they have used materials from term paper farms.

• Search engines: the simplest and most straightforward detection tool is an Internet search engine, such as Google. Search by using quotation marks around specific phrases, or clusters of keywords. You may also want to try dogpile, which runs your search over multiple engines.
• Commercial software: while some universities license commercial plagiarism detection software, UVA currently does not. Sites like turnitin require you to upload student papers to check against their database. Downloadable software like EVE (essay verification engine) also checks papers against Internet sites. Both have associated costs.

Plagiarism education

Not every student is well-versed in proper use and citation of sources. Here are some resources to serve as preventative medicine.

• Fraud and the UVA Honor System: an official statement of what constitutes academic fraud at UVA, including plagiarism and false citation.
• Plagiarism.org: an online clearinghouse of information and resources about plagiarism for students and instructors. Includes introductions, FAQs, advice about using the Internet, citation guides, etc.
• Handouts and quizzes: some instructors have found it helpful to provide handouts with specific details and examples on proper use and citations. Here's an example handout from an ENWR course. A follow-up quiz can help complete the learning process.

ENWR sites:

UVA Writing Center
Contact info, hours and schedules, appointments, staff directory, and interactive essay workshop.

Writing Instructor Site
LRS exercises, course policies and requirements, syllabi suggestions, new teacher orientation.

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