Press Release Details

Anti-Plagiarism, Writing and Research Learning Tool Now Available with Thomson
                          Higher Education Textbooks

BELMONT, Calif., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Thomson Higher Education, a global provider of teaching solutions for higher education and part of The Thomson Corporation (TSX: TOC; NYSE: TOC), today announced a strategic alliance with iParadigms, LLC to be the exclusive higher education provider of Turnitin, an online program that can help detect plagiarism, promote fairness in the classroom, and help students improve their writing and research skills. Turnitin, currently offered as a popular feature of Wadsworth's acclaimed InSite for Writing and Research program, is now available to instructors and students when packaged with any Thomson Higher Education textbook.

Numerous studies cite plagiarism and cheating as becoming rampant on college campuses and as the source of growing tensions and frustration among faculty, administration, students, parents and potential employers. And Internet plagiarism in particular, according to the Center for Academic Integrity (CAI), is sparking a host of new challenges as increasing numbers of students make use of information online while struggling to understand what constitutes acceptable use of such sources. In a recent CAI study, results show that an astounding 70% of students admit to cheating of some kind. Half of the surveyed students admitted to cheating on written assignments.

By making Turnitin's online plagiarism prevention tools immediately available to all of Thomson Higher Education's academic partners and customers, Thomson will give professors and students the resources they need to identify potential and existing instances of plagiarism and facilitate responsible research and sourcing strategies.

And such strategies are sorely needed. Recent research from the CAI, which is affiliated with the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University in Durham, N.C., and works to promote commitment to academic integrity in educational institutions, finds "cut-and-paste" plagiarism -- using a sentence or two (or more) from different sources on the Internet and weaving this information together into a paper without appropriate citation -- a growing practice. While 10 percent of students admitted to engaging in such behavior in 1999, almost 40 percent admit to doing so in the organization's most recently updated June 2005 Assessment Project surveys. Moreover, a majority of students (77%) believe such cheating is not a very serious issue.

Similarly, a 2004 study of 24,763 high school students conducted by the Josephson Institute of Ethics in Los Angeles reported that 62 percent reported cheating during the year.

"Without Turnitin, knowing immediately whether a student has plagiarized from the Internet is next to impossible. The quality of writing, as opposed to when students plagiarize from print sources, is often quite the same, making it indistinguishable," said Dan Ferguson, an English professor at Amarillo College. "Turnitin allows me to determine immediately whether or not plagiarism has occurred, but more importantly, whether or not my students understand how to document sources correctly. For me, it has been an invaluable tool for helping me teach proper source integration, a major component of freshman composition."

Turnitin's technology has enabled tens of thousands of instructors and millions of students around the world to tap the Internet's potential to streamline the writing, research, and evaluation process. Once students upload their papers to a personalized web page, the program's proprietary search engine checks the paper against three extensive databases: a constantly updated archive of over 9 billion web pages; a collection of millions of published works, including a number of Thomson Higher Education texts; and over ten million student papers already submitted to Turnitin. In moments, any suspect content is highlighted and the annotated paper appears in the instructor's Turnitin inbox. Turnitin currently screens over 40,000 student papers per day, and that number is projected to grow to over 100,000 student papers per day by the end of 2006.

"We're very pleased that we can now offer Turnitin's powerful program to all instructors and students and believe it makes their jobs much easier," said Susan Badger, CEO of Thomson Higher Education. "The Turnitin program takes advantage of collaborative electronic learning to help students refine their writing and research skills. It is a fine complement to our high- quality selection of teaching and learning resources."

Recently, iParadigms released a new version of Turnitin, which includes new, more effective search technology, a simplified "side-by-side" view and improved numbering system that make it easier for professors to compare the student's paper with the source material, and new functionality that allows the Turnitin database to search through Microsoft(R) Word, Excel, PowerPoint(R), RTF, and PostScript documents from the Internet.

For professors interested in a more robust solution, Thomson Wadsworth offers InSite for Writing and Research. In addition to the Turnitin originality checker, InSite offers a full suite of writing, peer review, online grading, and e-portfolio applications. This all-in-one tool allows instructors the opportunity to manage the flow of papers electronically and allows students to submit papers and peer reviews online. (For additional details, see http://insite.wadsworth.com ).

Beginning this fall, professors will be able to package Thomson Higher Education textbooks with access to Turnitin for a nominal fee. (Institutions interested in purchasing site licenses will continue to do so directly through iParadigms.)

About The Thomson Corporation and Thomson Higher Education

The Thomson Corporation ( http://www.thomson.com ), with 2004 revenues from continuing operations of $8.10 billion, is a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to business and professional customers. With operational headquarters in Stamford, Conn., Thomson (NYSE: TOC; TSX: TOC) has approximately 38,000 employees and provides services in approximately 130 countries. Its learning businesses and brands serve the needs of individuals, learning institutions, corporations and government agencies with products and services for both traditional and distributed learning. Thomson Higher Education is a leading provider of higher education textbooks, software, and Internet materials for the humanities, behavioral and social sciences, mathematics and the sciences, and business and economics. It publishes under the brands of Thomson Wadsworth, Thomson Brooks/Cole, Thomson South-Western, Thomson Heinle, and Thomson Schirmer.

About iParadigms, LLC

iParadigms, LLC ( http://www.iparadigms.com ) is the creator of Turnitin, an Internet-based service used by millions of students and faculty in over 80 countries. Turnitin helps students make the most out of their education by aiding in the acquisition of reading, writing and research skills. Turnitin adds value to honest student work and aids faculty in teaching good research skills by identifying instances where plagiarism may have occurred. Turnitin also saves faculty significant amounts of time in and out of the classroom by using the power of the Internet to create collaborative learning projects and to efficiently assess student work. Turnitin has experienced exponential growth over the last four years and has a customer renewal rate of over 95% -- Turnitin is becoming the next-generation spell-checker and the worldwide standard for vetting student work for originality.

SOURCE  The Thomson Corporation
    -0-                             08/05/2005
    /CONTACT:  Adam Gaber, Sr. Director, Public Relations, of Thomson
Learning, +1-203-539-8663, Adam.Gaber@Thomson.com; or John Barrie, Creator of
Turnitin, of iParadigms, +1-510-290-7077, or jbarrie@iparadigms.com /
    /Web site:  http://thomsonlearning.com
                http://www.iparadigms.com /
    (TOC TOC.)

CO:  The Thomson Corporation; Thomson Higher Education; iParadigms, LLC
ST:  California
IN:  CPR STW HED EDU PUB MLM
SU:  PDT

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