The self-detection program deletes every fifth word from the text and then asks the student to restore them. If a student correctly fills in 77 per cent or more of the blanks, then he or she is probably not guilty of plagiarism, Ms. Sundt says. The test is based on the premise that writers are more likely to remember words and phrases they wrote than those they may have borrowed from other writers. The tutorial and self-detection programs are sold by Glatt Plagiarism Services, a business set up by Barbara Glatt, a former writing instructor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and California State University at Sacramento. All three of the Glatt programs operate on I.B.M. PC-compatible and Macintosh computers.
Discounts are available when programs are purchased together.
Ms. Sundt, who says she wishes the instruction manuals for the programs were easier to understand, says she likes the programs because of Ms. Glatt's strict definition of plagiarism. Click here for a complete List of Publications that have reviewed Glatt Plagiarism Services. Click here for a partial list of academic institutions that have helped fight plagiarism with Glatt Plagiarism Services.