sly written work (Karasik). These sites are in direct response to Internet paper mills. The only problem is that at a cost of up to $1 per paper, in a class of 100-200 students, this cost can get very high pretty quickly.Even when professors do decide to use this method, unfortunately sometimes the detection procedure is not very accurate. Users must be very careful and cautious before charging a student with plagiarizing. In some cases, these sites may detect plagiarism in cases where it is clearly the student’s own thoughts and thinking. This is true as in the case of Andy Dehnart who tested his 30-page thesis on one of these sites and found that it stated his entire paper was plagiarized when in fact it was all unique. Andy realized that the service had discovered a copy of his own thesis online. Instead of realizing that it was his own work and ignoring it, the service had accused him of plagiarizing (Dehnart). Although he took the time to investigate the report’s charges, what if a professor hadn’t? Professors must be very cautious when using such services.Perhaps professors should place more emphasis on teaching students about academic dishonesty instead of punishing them for doing so. They should explain the importance of learning. If professors are going to be given the edge by using anti-plagiarism websites, students should also have the ability to make corrections when they inadvertently plagiarize. It seems as though the best way to correct this problem of Internet plagiarism is to have students hand in a few steps of the research process along the way, such as an outline, a thesis statement, rough drafts, or an annotated bibliography. However, with the Internet growing at such high speeds, unfortunately these may soon be available on the world wide web as well....
