Turnitin, lit reviews & semester plans

Welcome back. 

This week, news of universities moving away from Turnitin made me reflect on where it has helped me as a lecturer, and what might replace it. I'm also sharing a little of my literature-review teaching as a preview of Submit by December. And on Wednesday, we'll take a step back from the semester's demands and make a plan together.

01 · In the field: If universities leave Turnitin, what replaces it?

Newcastle and Westminster are joining Southampton in moving away from Turnitin, and part of the question is whether it's still worth paying for: Westminster says its plagiarism checker offers diminishing value when students can generate coursework with AI, while its AI detector risks false positives (THE, 9 October).

I don't know what Turnitin costs, as I'm only on the side of the lecturer or professor using it. But it did help me quite a lot, particularly because it showed matches with essays submitted before.

I had cases where I suspected students were buying an essay online, changing it slightly, and submitting it as their own. For that, seeing the matches with earlier submissions was very helpful.

And yes, the AI detector isn't perfect, but I do think it helps. When you have a discussion with a student or bring a case to a committee or board, it helps to have evidence backing up why you believe there may have been cheating, rather than just saying that the language sounds like AI.

I also came across more suspected plagiarism and AI misuse when teaching anthropology as a minor at private business schools than among humanities and social-science students at public universities. That's just been my experience, and yours might be different.

So the question for me is: what will Turnitin be replaced with? Newcastle says it is evaluating alternatives but hasn't named a replacement in its statement (Newcastle University). I'd love to hear what you think, especially if your institution has already made a change.

02 · On the craft: Your literature review is a review, not a summation

One of the points I emphasise in my literature-review teaching is this: a literature review is not a summary. You're not simply telling the reader what you've read. You're helping them understand how that literature relates to the argument you're making.

That means organising the discussion around a question or debate, rather than giving each author a turn. What do these scholars agree on? Where do their explanations differ? And what does that conversation allow you to say?

There are three possible ways of entering that conversation. You might fill a gap by examining something the existing work leaves unanswered. You might extend an argument you find convincing, taking it into a different setting or working out its implications. Or you might challenge an explanation because your evidence supports a different reading.

These aren't boxes you have to squeeze your paper into. They're ways of getting clearer about what your engagement with the literature actually does. You don't have to declare everyone else wrong to make a contribution; building carefully on someone else's work is also a position.

Try this week

Make a list of the five scholarly sources most important to your argument, rather than the five you read most recently. Beside each, write one sentence explaining what your paper does with it: builds on it, takes it further, questions it, or addresses something it leaves open. Use those relationships to decide how to group the discussion.

This is just a tiny peek into the work we'll do in Submit by December, and I'm genuinely excited about the next round, which is officially launching on 26 October. If you have a journal article or book chapter you want to finish and submit before Christmas, this is the programme I've designed to help you work towards exactly that, with a clear process and support along the way.

The eight-week programme runs from 26 October to 20 December. You can explore Submit by December and its early-bird pricing (ends 22 October) here.

03 · This Wednesday: Let's plan the semester together

Courses to prepare, teaching to organise, emails to answer: a semester can fill up before you've made deliberate space for your own projects. If that sounds familiar, I'd love you to join our Semester Planning Workshop on Wednesday, 14 October.

In this relaxed 90 minutes session, we'll take a step back and make a realistic, intentional plan for the weeks ahead. You'll have time to reflect on your priorities, identify what needs protecting in your calendar, and think about how your writing and research can remain part of the semester rather than waiting until things become quieter.

You don't need to arrive with everything figured out. Bring your calendar or planner, and come as you are.

The workshop is free for all EMERGE Café members. If you're already a member, please RSVP via the workshop event in the Café. If you're not yet a member, join the EMERGE Café here, then RSVP via the event.

I'm looking forward to planning with you! You're welcome to share the invitation with friends and colleagues. Just forward this email to them. 

Warmly,
Melanie