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The pressure is on during the fifth week of the quarter, and with midterms and papers due, some may see plagiarism as an effortless alternative to genuine work.

Increased usage of the Internet has brought with it higher levels of plagiarism cases on campus, according to Assistant Dean of Students Heidi Hanzi.

“With the Internet, there’s more of a temptation and more accessibility to work on so many different topics,” Hanzi said. “And when it is late at night, it is tempting to take something off the Internet, even when the paper is almost done.”

Adding to the temptation are Web sites selling completed papers to students.

“You can use one of our papers to lessen your stress level,” says TermPapersRUS.com, one such site that describes itself as a research aid for students.

“If it isn’t in our database of more than 25,000 sample term papers, essays and research studies, then we will write one for you,” the site says.

Third-year economics student Anand Sambhwani said he has heard of online term paper services, but thinks they are counterproductive to being a student in the first place.

“If you got into school here and you’re paying $15,000 a year (in expenses), it’s not worth it to buy papers. You have to live up to the UCLA standard,” Sambhwani said.

Where academic integrity alone will not deter plagiarism, detection services step in to help.

Professors at UCLA and other universities are using sites like turnitin.com. to detect plagiarism in their students’ work.

Founded in 1996 by then UC Berkeley graduate student John Barrie, this self-described “eclectic mix of former teachers, doctoral students, designers, computer scientists and business professionals” has organized services on the site to detect and deter plagiarism.

When professors register with turnitin.com, students submit their assignments through the Web site, which then compares it to other students’ papers and to information on the Web, to highlight similarities between a person’s work and work that already exists.

Within 24 hours, the result is a custom, color-coded “Originality Report,” complete with internet source links for each paper where plagiarism is found.

Steven Kim, a lecturer in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, used turnitin.com last year and said he will continue to use the site this year.

“If most students are aware that we are capable of detecting plagiarism,” said Kim, “then most students are intelligent enough not to jeopardize the rest of their careers.”

“It causes both students and faculty to have additional work, but if it means protecting the integrity of the student’s work and the grade they earn, then such measures should be taken,” he said.

Possible cases of plagiarism are sent to the Office of the Dean of Students for review. If plagiarism is confirmed, the consequence is typically a two-quarter suspension, with the more severe cases resulting in a year’s suspension.

Hanzy says there seems to be a larger number of younger students sent to the Dean for review, usually because of uncertainty about what constitutes plagiarism.

“Some students don’t know how to properly cite, but it’s still plagiarism,” Hanzi said.

Professors sometimes take it upon themselves to help remedy this situation. Astronomy professor Mark Morris dedicates an entire lecture to clarifying the meaning of plagiarism to students in his GE Cluster, Evolution of the Cosmos and Life, which consists of first-year students only.

Morris believes students use the Internet irresponsibly because of “the naive impression that the Internet is not the same as books.”

“Instead of bringing things into the brain and remitting them with an individual interpretation, plagiarism short-circuits the process and works against actual learning,” Morris said.

Morris’ approach to combatting plagiarism has worked.

“Plagiarism in my classes used to be depressingly common; but, maybe because we are trying so hard from the beginning, we do not see it so much anymore,” Morris said.

The number of students caught for plagiarism ranges from two to 12 people per quarter.

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