<p>so comfy, they actually turn in all our essays into turnitin.com? interesting.</p>
<p>yeah, that's what she said and betterday55 2 adjectives...IMO, that's not stealing</p>
<p>i don't see how turnitin.com would be very effective if people are stealing essays from other people...it'd only work if people are stealing essays from online sources</p>
<p>the way turnitin works is it checks your essay against all the material online as well as past essays turned into the site. So if you stole an essay from someone and both copies were submitted to turnitin it would show up as having plagerized of that person because turnitin also keeps track of who turns in which essays. To clarify, X hands in legit history paper, X's little brother hands in same history paper 4 years later, turnitin would pick up on that and be able to identify who specifically was involved inthe plagerism.</p>
<p>Well it really depends on what you mean by "stealing." For example, say I have a friend who says he's going to write about how superman was his favorite character when growing up and how his life compares to superman's, etc etc (actually this is an actual essay topic a friend of mine did :P ) and I happen to use the same exact topic..but of course, using different words, styles, and relating it to my own life, etc. Would that be considering stealing if I used the same topic but have different content in the essay? Or what if another friend of mine wrote his essay in a Haiku form, and I used the same form in mine..would that be stealing? Or what about on the "choose your favorite word" essay, and you choose the same (original) word as someone else?I think its pretty subjective.</p>
<p>that's very true shobhit2006...i think we have to determine where plagiarism starts...does it start with taking a good word from an essay? does it start with taking an idea from someone else's essay? does it start with copying a whole essay?</p>
<p>question for bidkid...lets say a school like georgetown inputs an essay into turnitin.com, and then a person steals that essay and uses it to apply to lets say...tufts. now if tufts inputs that essay, will it show plagiarism?</p>
<p>that's crazy about turnitin. with that as a deterrent, you wonder why people still plagiarize.</p>
<p>although, i'm kinda unnerved that they have the potential to go through people's online journals (i.e. \xanga, blogger, etc.) that's scary stuff. they haven't been sued yet? i mean what if someone posted similar thoughts to what they wrote in their personal statement, the school finds it, and discovers other entries that are...not so innocent. haha.</p>
<p>Im doin good to get the essays sent to the colleges, let alone sent to lazy ppl who won't write them themselves.</p>
<p>yep people finally get what i mean in this forum...last time i said not to post essays on the "College Essays" forum i got blasted...:(</p>
<p>I don't get how anyone could steal something so personal as an essay. Most essays (if they're good) should be too personal and unique to the individual who wrote it to mimick. My essay, for example, talks about Pokemon, homeschooling, Internet schooling, and Running Start. Who will ever do all of these things? I don't get it. Theives are dumb.</p>
<p>i think it's safe to have CC people who have a lot of posts and who have already graduated from HS read your essays (read their back posts to see they are the real deal... and make sure they have a lot of posts). Either way, it's dumb because many people apply to 10+ schools nowadays, and if you're gonna copy, well it's wouldn't be unlikely for an admission officer to say, "hey this sounds awfully familiar..."</p>
<p>Yeah but who's to say who wrote the original?</p>
<p>the thing is, its not just people who steal essays from other people who are applying the same year. people might steal essays from people who have already graduated high school who simply give people their undergraduate essays. if the top schools like HYPSM,penn,columbia,etc. use turnitin.com, i guess that'd really suck for the essay stealer. auto-rejection+call to guidance counselor? i think so!</p>
<p>What I've never understood is how their parents don't find out (assuming they wouldn't like their kid buying essays...)...I mean, if they use their parents' credit card to buy the essay, wouldn't they find out? I don't think most high school students have their own credit cards</p>
<p>At my school, most kids 16+ work. In most families here, it's customary to open a checking account for that kid when they get their first job. Debit cards are issued/requested most times, too. It's convenient, so they're used for everything: shopping, eating out, buying souvenirs, travel, etc.</p>
<p>I know the names of the people that steal from CC, there not even sneaky about it.</p>
<p>*********************************************************************************************************************************************<strong><em>The best way to find out if someone is stealing essays is to see if they requested to look at essays in the past posts and if they have like 5 or 10 in a row, then they most likely did or you should be suspicious of them. Do the 1 minute search to save your essay from getting stolen. Worth the minute. *</em></strong>************************************************************************************</p>
<p>I never really got why people would share essays in the first place. I mean, really, unless it's someone you know, sharing your essay isn't a good idea, especially when it's someone you <em>just</em> met in the CC forums.</p>
<p>kyledavid80, the reason why people share essays here is because it's with someone you don't know. That's the reason why I've been trying to get people here to read my essays, at least.</p>
<p>I mean, think about it--adcoms are, essentially, strangers. That means that your essay needs to have meaning and make sense to strangers. Having a friend or family member that knows you and quite possibly the story behind your work read your essay doesn't tell you ANYTHING about how a stranger'll react to your work.</p>
<p>" For example, say I have a friend who says he's going to write about how superman was his favorite character when growing up and how his life compares to superman's, etc etc (actually this is an actual essay topic a friend of mine did :P ) and I happen to use the same exact topic..but of course, using different words, styles, and relating it to my own life, etc. Would that be considering stealing?"</p>
<p>Yes. Basically, you'd have stolen your friend's creative idea. Even though you wrote about your own life, you still would have stolen your friend's idea of comparing one's life with Superman. Your idea wouldn't seem as creative once your friend did something similar.</p>
<p>This is a good example of why it's not a good idea to share essays with other students who are applying to college.</p>