It is pronounced like the verb "close" and is derived from "closure." The last term is one gestalt psychology applies to the human tendency to complete a familiar but not-quite-finished pattern ... (Taylor, 1953, p 415)Taylor, W.L. (1953). Cloze procedure: A new tool for measuring readability. Journalism Quarterly, 30. 415-433 (D.H. Hill Libraries Call No. PN4700 .J7)
Brown, J.D. 1989 Cloze item difficulty. JALT Journal, 11, 46-67 The Japan Association for Language Teaching
To this day it is used by teachers to measure readability of text.
The earliest reference I can find about its application in detecting plagiarism:
Glatt, B.S., & Haertel, E.H. (1982) The use of the
From the Conclusion: "Our experimental results indicate that, in fact, the cloze procedure can be of substantial value in distinguishing plagiarized from non-plagiarized papers. ... due to the seriousness of the offense, accusations of plagiarism should not be made unless there is considerable cause for suspicion. ... The only definitive evidence of plagiarism remains a direct comparison of the the submitted work to the plagiarized source."
Note that the surname of the senior author is the name of one of the
plagiarism detection services Glatt
Plagiarism Services, Inc. I have written to ask them if there is a
connection, but have not received an answer.
This company offers a
free "Self-Detection
Test" which appears to use the Cloze procedure.
Another paper on this same topic is:
An Evaluation of the Cloze Procedure as a Test for Plagiarism
Standing, Lionel & Donald Gorassini 1986 Teaching of Psychology. Vol.
13, No. 3. 130-132. (found in ACADEMIC SEARCH FULLTEXT ELITE database
AN 6384895)
Abstract: Two experiments that evaluate the effectiveness of the cloze
test as a method for detecting plagiarism are reported. The first
experiment employed student essays on the same topic, and required
subjects to fill in missing words from either their own or another
student's work. The second study repleated this design, but using a
"plagiarized" essay on a new topic that had not been studied by the
subjects. In both studies, cloze performance was significantly better
in "nonplagiarizing" than "plagiarizing" situations. Used with due
caution, the cloze test appears to be potentially helpful in detecting
plagiarism."
Interestingly, this testing procedure has also been perverted by a paper mill to help prepare students for challenges! (This source says, "Essays are to be purchased for information purposes only and can be thought of as examples. They are meant to be used as reference, to get ideas for sources, thoughts on structure, and inspire creativity. They are not intended for plagiarism." It is left to the reader to interpret the effect of this disclaimer. :-)