Dr Barbara Glatt, who used to be a writing instructor at the University of Illinois has developed software to snare prose plagiarists - a group that some say may include as much as 80 per cent of all students.
The package, an onscreen fill-in-the-blank test, is based on the assumption that students are more familiar with their own words than with those they've misappropriated. The screening program takes a sample of the composition and replaces every fifth word with a blank. The missing words are to be supplied by the student.
The test is then sent to Dr Barbara Glatt's Sacramento, California, office, where it is run through a statistical analysis program. The number of errors, the time taken to complete the test, and 'various other factors' determine the paper's originality, according to Glatt. She claims that the system is 98 per cent effective and that no student tested on it has yet been falsely accused.
Dr Barbara Glatt (tel 916 483 8773).
Previous / Next / Table of Contents