Critically evaluate the use of text matching software as an aid to developing good scholarship practice - Essay Example

The software used to identify data from various sources is the Text Matching Software. The software identifies lines of the paragraphs originating from different sources. This software is easy to install and can identify the matching text from different sources in a very short period. The software can be used in all operating systems by Microsoft. Another advantage of the software is that it can identify missing data on a document One can manage to differentiate columns that are up to date and those which are not updated.

The software can also be used to make comparisons of different spreadsheet originating from different sources. Universities and colleges have been discouraging plagiarism among students since it deteriorates learning practice and it has been considered as an offence. Therefore, software has been developed to detect cheating students who are unduly rewarded on their assignments, which is not their own work (Sutherland-Smith, 2008). The software has enabled universities and other institutions of higher learning to identify plagiarism and award students fairly at the same time punish those caught cheating.

The invention of the software has encouraged the student to do their own original work, and this has improved the scholarly system in colleges and universities. The school’s administration attempted to research on estimates of students being prone to plagiarism. However, their estimates did not have a correct tool to verify whether their estimates were accurate or not. Before the software was invented, most plagiarism was not detected the reason being there were no accurate means of identifying plagiarism.

University assignments submitted by student groups have also been a significant challenge because the data have also been found to be plagiarized. One of the categories is that undergraduate are ignorant and inexperienced or rather lack awareness of the repercussions they are likely to face. It is advisable that lectures should identify students who are beginning their studies and those who are on the verge of completing their career (MacDonald & Carroll 2006, p.233). Research records, which have been kept for five years, have proved that the work handed in by second year students of the business school from the university have been identified with a lot of plagiarism cases.

The person in charge of this research was a tutor and an assessor of the students. The research, which was to be carried out by the students, was to come up with a business plan that entailed the research of marketing and financial plans and conditions. The lecturer can hand in the assignment to his or her students and encourage them to use all available sources they can find including the internet. After the assignment has been submitted, the lecturer is supposed to scrutinize the assignment and identify any cases of cheating and plagiarism present.

He is supposed to identify any data that are matched to that of the internet. After the students have received the results, they should make corrections in the script according to the specified guidelines recommended by the lecturer and remove any mistakes that may be present. The student is then required to submit the final script, having made the necessary corrections. The lecturer is supposed to quote to the students the reference source of the data so as to verify if it was harmless or it was a serious case of plagiarism (Walker 2010, p.41). The lecturer then issues an indicator of the extent of plagiarism for instance the scripts issued, with more than 20% may be described as severely plagiarized, and those with less than 20% can be termed as less plagiarized.

There are instances where the data can be found to contain one or two lines of plagiarism, and in this case it may not be recorded, and it is assumed as ignorance of the student. However, the grading of the extent of