As announced in class and in the syllabus, you are required to provide a paper copy of your term paper on the due date and also furnish an electronic copy to turnitin.com as part of an anti-plagiarism project conducted by the University System of Georgia.

If you still have questions about what is and is not plagiarism, see your class syllabus and the Standards of Academic Conduct paper, or ask me. If you have questions about the consequences of plagiarism, see your syllabus or ask me.

You should connect to the Turnitin.com Web site and establish a user profile as soon as possible. That will allow time to deal with any difficulties, although I don't expect any.

You establish a user profile by clicking the New Users link in the upper right corner of the turnitin.com main page. (If you've used turnitin.com in a previous class, you can use the profile you've already set up.)

You will use your e-mail address as a user ID and you will create your own password. Your password must be at least six and no more than twelve characters long and contain at least one letter and one digit. Passwords are case-sensitive. Be sure you choose a password you can remember because I cannot help you recover a lost password.

Fill in your first and last (given and family) name and choose your country and state. Use your legal name, the name on your SPSU registration, so I can recognize who you are. On the "user type" screen, select "student." Read and agree to the terms presented.

When your user profile is complete, you can return to the login page or start the class enrollment wizard.

You will need a class ID and class password in order to "join" the class and be able to upload material. Your class ID is in the "Announcements" section of your class Web page. I will provide the class password in class. If you miss class, or want to test before the next class meeting, please send me e-mail.

I have set up a "Test Upload" assignment that you can use to try uploading something to Turnitin.com before the deadline. Be careful to use the test assignment for testing and the real assignment for your term paper.

Feel free to explore the Turnitin.com Web site to learn more about the service and what it does. If you need operating instructions beyond what is provided in the help section, there is a complete Student User manual available. Only pages 1-9 apply to this class as we will not be using the other features. You can see an annotated sample turnitin.com report at http://www.turnitin.com//static/popups/sample_report.html.

In brief, here is what will happen: Your term paper will be compared to a database of other papers, material from books, journals, and Web articles. Passages in your paper that are similar to text in the turnitin.com database will be highlighted.

Please remember that turnitin.com only identifies sources of material similar to yours; it doesn't make judgements about plagiarism. I do that. I will check those parts of your paper that turnitin.com identifies as coming from other sources to see that you have cited the sources properly. If you have, then plagiarism has not occurred. However, a term paper that consists primarily of quotations may receive an unsatisfactory grade because of lack or originality even though the quotations are properly cited.

You should know that your paper will be added to the turnitin.com database. It will not be republished, nor will it be identified as your work. However, if someone later turns in a copy of the same paper, it will be identified as a copy of a paper from SPSU. You should feel free to share copies of your paper with others; that's how scientific knowledge is spread. However, it would be courteous to warn anyone who gets a copy of your paper that it has been uploaded to turnitin.com. If you use material from your paper yourself in a later work, be sure to cite it just as you would cite any other work to which you refer.

Your paper is due at the beginning of class on the date shown in your syllabus. Remember that your approved proposal, outline, and definitions must be attached to your paper. The electronic copy of your paper must be uploaded by midnight (Eastern time) on the due date. Uploading a file that does not match the paper you give me in class will be considered cheating and will be penalized as such.

You will be able to see the same report that I see once the papers have been processed. This will not occur until after the due date.

If you have questions, please see me well before the deadline.