By Casey Parkhurst/reporter
Students cannot submit a paper for one class that they have submitted to a previous class without permission from their current teacher, according to the TCC Student Handbook.
Sandra McCurdy shared this little-known rule and other advice in Copycat: Preventing Plagiarism as part of the NW Campus Student Success Conference Sept. 14.
McCurdy, NW’s library director, also discussed other parts of TCC’s plagiarism policy and introduced students to Turnitin.com. The handbook defines plagiarism as presenting writings of others as one’s own idea.
Turnitin.com is the leading academic plagiarism detector used by teachers and students to ensure academic integrity, McCurdy said.
“The point of Turnitin is to help you write better papers,” she said.
Turnitin.com allows teachers to spot plagiarism on student essays.
Instructors can upload a document to the site and receive a report with the percent, if any, of plagiarism.
“Turnitin is easy, but people make it harder than it seems,” she said.
McCurdy said just as teachers can upload to check submitted essays, students can upload to check their own work before submission.
“Turnitin is a great tool to assist students to write better papers,” she said. “They should take advantage of it.”
McCurdy also explained LibGuides, a tab on the Library Research Overview page.
The guides offer assistance with research, subject guides, plagiarism and documentation.
