Finish watching the Ippolito video and discuss at least 2 concepts or issues raised in his lecture that intruiged you and why. How do they effect you directly? Have these issues been resolved since the time of the lecture (2004)?

In the John Ipolito video, he mentions students plagiarizing when writing papers. One issue he brings up is how universities are paying tens of thousands of dollars for some software to recognize when a student turns in a paper that includes plagiarism. He also mentions that this money could be spent on some other academic programs instead of this software. The reason this software is necessary is because a lot of students don’t understand that what they have just included in their paper was plagiarized. Ipolito later mentions that if students use Turnitin, it tells the professor if the paper has any plagiarism and where that piece came from. He argues that it is an unfair concept because professors should be assigning papers knowing that we have access to the internet. There are websites where students can sell their previously written papers for money, but when another student buys it and turns it in, it’s caught under plagiarism because another student has already written those exact words. Ipolito also argues that if those “buy my paper” websites go out of business, then Turnitin also will.

I recently took English 160 here at UIC. Just like any other paper for any other class, we had to turn it in via Blackboard which is run through SafeAssign. SafeAssign helps prevent plagiarism by notifying the student or professor what has been used in previous documents throughout the web. It also has the function of telling what percentage of the paper was the same on previously turned in drafts. For example, in English 160, I turned in a first draft and because there was no previous draft for that same paper, it said 100% was the same. We then had to turn in a second draft and a final draft. Both papers required editing between turning in, so it was common that my second draft would say something like 80/100% was the same as my previous paper, because I had only edited so much of the first draft. The final paper would usually be closer to 50/100% meaning that I probably edited at least half of the paper between the first draft and the final paper. SafeAssign also helps students identify sources and where the quote or phrase of text came from, so it doesn’t come up as being plagiarism.

This concept intrigued me because I have realized that the only reason universities need and use this software is because there is bound to be students that will break these plagiarism rules for many reasons. Some students may not have time to write their own paper, so they may pay someone else to write it for them. They may also buy a previously written paper from a website that someone is selling in order for them to make money. These students may be caught up in other school work or a job as well. I think professors should be assigning papers that bring these reasons into consideration. Seeing as UIC and many other universities still use software for preventing plagiarism, such as SafeAssign via Blackboard, I don’t think this issue has been resolved since the time of this lecture. In 2004, the idea of using the internet for sources was just beginning so I think it has only gotten worse. Most universities have a policy on plagiarism these days, some in which are very harsh consequences. 

Another concept that Ipolito mentions is the idea of using a “pool” where we put diagrams and other ideas. The example that he mentions is when diagrams are used to show who contributed in a specific project. These diagrams also show how much effort they put into the project and if they have collaborated with other students or artists on other projects as well. I think this effects me because it would show how much I did in a collaborative setting versus on my own. I tend to work better on my own, but if its a large project, I would prefer to work in a group. I try my best to do equal amounts of work, but I only worry about my part. If another student doesn’t pull their weight for their part of the project, then the diagram on the pool would show that. I’m not sure if this issue has been resolved, but I know that I have never used this concept of the “pool” in my entire life. I would say we don’t use it anymore, so there really isn’t an issue anymore.