Written Events and Turnitin Every year so far students seem to have trouble getting logged in, and turning a paper in to Turnitin. Don t get us wrong. The problem is not the program, but the users... YOU You actually have to READ the instructions! And follow the rules! Students who already have a Turnitin Account: Your school may use Turnitin, or you were a DECA Writtens student last year or the year before, using the same email address. You will not get an email, but a class such as 2019 FMP Fashion Merchandising Promotion Plan will appear in your list of classes Log in and upload a test paper (more about this later) Who will get enrolled: Only one student per group will be enrolled If Vicki Moore, Olga Plagianakos and Kim Alexander are a group, the person who is first alphabetically by last name will be enrolled That means that Kim Alexander will be the only person enrolled and able to upload the group s paper If Kim drops out, then Vicki needs to contact DECA and let them know so she can be enrolled, and Kim deleted. Send an email to Vicki@deca.ca New students to Turnitin and students using a new email: You will receive Click on the red button The next email you receive will look like this
Note the click here button On my end... We see the list of students enrolled in a class. Students who have not logged in are highlighted in pink so we know if you have not logged in Last year: Last year, in the week leading up to the due date Vicki received 1134 emails from students who had not logged in, or couldn t upload a paper. About 500 of those were on the due date. The major reason they hadn t logged in? Was because they had given an email to DECA which was not a real email or it was one they never checked because they didn t want to get all of the DECA emails (For some, their email was entered incorrectly by accident. You need to correct this with vicki@deca.ca ASAP.) Hmmm... They didn t want to get the information reminders about due dates the information about formatting rules, the information about what the category is supposed to be about reminders about things to do with your paper reminders of what to bring / wear to the competition Why? Really? And this becomes MY problem how?
The solution? I am downloading the problem to you By December 6 you will need to have logged in. By December 15 you will need to have uploaded a test paper. Our recommendation is that you upload the title page, table of contents and the first page of your paper, with the number 1 at the bottom of the page, no numbers on the first two pages, but you can upload a paper with the word test on it. Things to know: When Turnitin is not busy, you will get a plagiarism report in about 5 minutes When Turnitin is busy it can take 24 48 hours You can upload your paper as many times as you want. Look at the plagiarism report and annotate anything that is flagged by the program. i.e. put in a bibliography entry. The system does not save the trials and does not give me a report. Your report SHOULD have between 8% and 13% plagiarised. This is because your table of contents will be the same as EVERY other paper handed in to DECA, and your bibliography entries should be the same as the Library systems bibliography entry if you actually follow the directions in the YouTube video that is available (later in the presentation) Some sentences like The City of Toronto has a population of 2.81 million, is hard to rewrite in a way that won t be flagged. We don t worry about those. A paper with 0% is one we look at carefully! How often can you hand in a paper? As many time as you like! And we recommend that you hand it in repeatedly before the due date. In fact at least 2 days before the due date you should upload your latest greatest paper... Just to be on the safe side.
Where can you get help for formatting Go to YouTube Search Vicki M DECA There you will find information on how to format the bibliography, do page numbering, Generate a Table of Contents, and you can prepare for going to ICDC! Issues from last year: We had a student contact us because she was on the bus on her way home and wasn t going to get home in time for the due time. The due date and time are the same for everyone. Sorry. We had students who had not logged in, had not uploaded a test paper and were having difficulty with 15 minutes to go. Sorry. We had students who honestly thought that I would give them an extension because they hadn t read the emails and thought the due date was 3 days later. Sorry. Excuses: Always look at DECA.ca for dates, times, and rules. Not DECA.inc Excuses are not worth the time and effort. What is the Due date. Look it up. Don t ask us to look it up for you. What are the format rules. Look it up on DECA.ca Don t ask us to look it up for you. Because of the markers time, we cannot change due dates even if you are special. It is more important to be fair and consistent with every student in the province than it is to give only you a break The first part of the process after the due date: The first thing that happens after the due date is that Vicki and Kim go through the Research Operations Events or the Professional Selling Events and make sure that they are doing the correct topic. 98 students/groups last year had not checked the current DECA Guide which is available on DECA.ca and did a previous year s topic. Sorry. Formatting issues: Then Kim and Vicki start going through the rest of the papers and evaluate for formatting errors, and for plagiarism. In terms of formatting, you have the YouTube Videos. The bottom line is that you lose 5 points if your page numbering is incorrect. That will mean that you probably/most likely won t go to ICDC. Any points lost means you will probably not go to ICDC. Your parent calling will not get you those points back. Yes it has been done. One yelled at Vicki because his son had not done the right topic, or followed the formatting rules and was not allowed to compete. In this case the paper was all in 24 point, 2 inch margins, and the 30 page paper was 5 pages total... Including the title page and the table of contents. Your teacher calling will not get you those points back. Yes it has been done. You are being given the information. The YouTube Videos are really basic and show you graphically how to do it. We will not allow you to compete if you have not met basic requirements. Plagiarism: So the plagiarism issue is bigger We give you the results in Turnitin so it is not a surprise, as long as you have uploaded regularly and often.
What you need to understand it that we are all pros. We know how to cheat. We have seen it all! You will have a great deal of difficulty getting past us. Plagiarism includes using your own paper from last year or using the work of another person and claiming that it is your own work We caught students using photographs or screen shots for their paper and uploading it to Turnitin One student/group entered 20 pages of Life of PI for everything past their Executive Summary A number of students shared their papers with other students who then submitted it. The second student was cut from competition, as well as the first student. Cheating includes both the cheater and the cheatee. What gets marked: Markers are given a log in to Turnitin.com and are assigned a group of student papers to mark for the written portion of the grade They get the paper you handed in to Turnitin The presentation for this same group of papers are evaluated by a single judge at provincials. That way the final combined grades for each judge pair are fair marks. The students invited to ICDC are the top student(s) for each judge-pair so it is done the same as at ICDC It is important for the markers that you submit your paper as Last names(in Alpha order) and School Name, so Alexander Moore Plagianakos Ontario School so they mark the correct paper, in case there is Smith PeelSchool and Smith LambtonCountySchool Honestly... Vicki, Kim and Olga have more than 100 years of teaching experience combined, and 54 years of being students. If you think we have not seen something that you think will get you past the plagiarism check, think again! We are way older, and more experienced than you! If you have questions: Your first line of defence is your own teacher advisor. They know things! If they don t know you or your teacher can contact Vicki@deca.ca or Kim@deca.ca When you email us, the first question we will ask you is what you have done / tried to solve the problem yourself so include your self-help efforts from the get-go. We will help you only if you've tried to help yourself first. We will help. But please only email one of us, not both of us and Olga!