Encouraging good writing practice in first–year Psychology students: An intervention using Turnitin

There is growing concern among many regarding plagiarism within student writing. This has promoted investigation into both the factors that predict plagiarism and potential methods of reducing plagiarism. Consequently, we developed and evaluated an intervention to enhance good practice within academic writing through the use of the plagiarism detection software Turnitin. One–hundred–and–sixteen first–year psychology students submitted work to Turnitin and71 of these students evaluated their learning experiences. For the next assignment the students completed, there was a reduction in academic misconduct cases compared to the previous year and students evaluated the session positively. The findings have implications for teaching good practice in academic writing.