“Not All Plagiarists Are Bad People”, says Developer of PowerResearcher Software.
“Not All Plagiarists Are Bad People”, says Developer of PowerResearcher Software.
(PRWEB) June 10, 2004
As studies show that more and more students are being caught plagiarizing by lifting information from the web and other electronic media, and not citing the source of their work, an Atlanta-based company has written software that automates the citation process for students when they write papers.
ÂNot all students who plagiarize are bad peopleÂ, says Peter Steyn, COO of Computer Consulting Services Corporation (CCSC), a software services company that sells PowerResearcher. ÂInadvertent plagiarism is a major problem and weÂve taken a constructive approach in addressing this problem. WeÂve given the researchers and writers of papers a methodology and tools to avoid committing plagiarism. In this way, our software will help to protect the innocentÂ.
Many of the causes of plagiarism are not due to ethical misconduct. In a 2002 study by Weinstein and Dobkin of the University of California at Berkeley, it was noted that half of the plagiarism rate they observed was the Âresult of inattention by the studentsÂ.
ÂPowerResearcher will make it easy for the accidental and opportunistic plagiarists to produce honest resultsÂ, states Steyn. ÂIt will also incriminate the committed plagiaristsÂ.
Plagiarism is a growing concern amongst educators both in this country and abroad. In a 2003 Rutgers University study of 18,000 students, 2,600 faculty and 650 teaching assistants on 23 campuses, the study found that Âthirty eight percent of the undergraduate students completing the survey indicated they had engaged in one or more instances of cut-and-paste plagiarism using the internet in the past yearÂ. This represented, the study found, Âa dramatic increase from the 10% who acknowledged Âcut and paste plagiarism in a similar survey conducted only two years agoÂ.
PowerResearcher is a Windows-based desktop application that allows its users to do research, file information and write a paper all in a single interface. Automatic citations and bibliography creation, plus the automatic updating of a Research Log, give both teachers and students the citation information they need to prevent accidental plagiarism.
ÂWe are very excited about PowerResearcherÂ, says Steyn. ÂFeatures improve productivity and collaboration, but the plagiarism prevention benefit is attracting a lot of attention. PowerResearcher has been installed at several pilot sites at universities and schools in the USA and internationally and the feedback weÂre getting is very positiveÂ.
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