I.
Introduction
III.
Defining Plagiarism
VI.
Consequences at St. Andrew’s
VII.
Further Resources
Introduction
“Cut-and-paste plagiarism” is epidemic, thanks to computers
and the web. This age-old problem
is not only more prevalent, but also harder to detect. Universities are taking action … honor
codes are on the rise … and anti-plagiarism
websites and software abound.
Why has the web contributed to the rise in plagiarism? It provides a fast, convenient, and
extensive resource for obtaining fully written term papers, or other scholarly
material, which can be pasted into a document, without attribution. Online term paper mills number well
into the hundreds. Academic,
government, and private institutions regularly post research papers on the
web. With a few clicks in a search
engine, a student will find tens of thousands of lines of reasonable text
written on almost any topic.
Term Paper Websites: “Know thine enemy.”
It serves us well to educate
ourselves about this phenomenon. Term papers have always been for sale, but
never so readily; it used to take a little effort. Now it’s virtually instantaneous, and in many cases, you
don’t even need a creditcard.
Schools often puttheir students’ papers and projects on the web, and
several websites offer freeterm papers such as PlanetPapers(http://www.planetpapers.com).
Sources of online material include:
·
free
term paper websites,
·
commercial
term paper mills,
·
online
subscription research databases and encyclopedia,
·
informational
websites
·
Popular term paper mills (check with
the Library for a fuller listing).
Termpapers.com(http://www.termpapers.com
Internet Paper Mills(http://www.coastal.edu/library/mills.htm)
Defining Plagiarism
As with many wrongdoings, we can pick any point along a continuum to situate our breaking point for accusing a student of plagiarism. The better informed we are as teachers, and the clearer our expectations for students, the less definition is a problem. A strictly legal definition eliminates all paraphrasing without a citation. “But I changed three words!” is not an adequate defense. The current prevalence of plagiarism has caused a trend in schools towards heightened vigilance and much tougher standards.
A clear definition (which eliminates all the gray area of paraphrasing) is a great service to students. Plagiarism, as defined in The American Heritage Dictionary, is “to take and use the ideas or writings of another as one’s own; to appropriate passages from another and use them as one’s own”. The key element in this definition of plagiarism is the impression left on the reader; if there is any confusion about the author of the words, then plagiarism has been committed. This is a reasonable way to steer around the questionable area of paraphrasing.
Much of the recent material written on plagiarism indicates several student variations:
1. Inadvertent plagiarism – This is committed by students who have never really understood the issue. They may copy material word-for-word, without quoting or documenting it, or fail to cite their sources. When confronted with the charge of cheating, these students may strongly defend themselves because they have not grasped the importance of their wrongdoing.
2. Premeditated plagiarism – This involves cutting and pasting a collage of material from various sources, often manipulating the language, while not clearly citing those sources. This is the most difficult form to verify, and the student knows that. They also understand that plagiarism is wrong.
3. Panicky plagiarism –The procrastinator who has run out of time for an assignment may rush to the internet for something to hand in. This student likely understands plagiarism but in feeling overwhelmed, makes a very poor choice in weighing the risks of cheating versus not handing in an assignment. This is the easiest form of plagiarism to check.
Plagiarism is perennial, but the temptation andopportunity have increased a thousand-fold. Tolerance beyond high school is zero, and we have to teachour students how to avoid it.
An ounce of
prevention… is the best help for our students. Here are some points on preventing plagiarism.
- Talk about it early in the year
when it is relevant, just as students are preparing to write a paper for you.
- Be clear, even unequivocal, in
your definition of plagiarism.
“Avoid paraphrasing! Quote and cite everything.” sums up my advice
in this area. When students
include the ideas of others in their papers, as academic researchers, they
MUST give
the original authors credit with 1) quotation marks, 2) a reference in
their bibliography or list of works cited, and 3) a parenthetical reference
in the text.
- Have a class discussion of
plagiarism, using examples and personal stories to illustrate. Solicit their experiences, and
opinions. Remember to include
why
plagiarism is
wrong. They will obviously remember
the issues involved more accurately, if they become passionate about them
in discussion.
- Assign papers earlier in the
year, when other assignments have not piled up.
- If possible, offer a choice of
topics, or even a student-chosen topic. Students are less apt to cheat if they have a personal
stake in their topic.
- Try to give your assignment and
topics a unique angle, so that students will not be able to find a paper
to satisfy the requirements.
Require certain specific elements in your assignment – certain
sources, current time period, personal interview….
- To help students with time
management, structure your research assignments so each element has a
separate deadline – topic, initial research/works cited list, outline,
first draft….
- Require oral reports, or a student
interview on the project. A student who has plagiarized is either
reluctant to share his/her work publicly with classmates, or will present
the paper inaccurately.
- Require an annotated
bibliography. The students
will have to have used the source to include and describe it.
- After the project, have an
in-class writing exercise on what they learned from the assignment,
including specifics about all aspects of the process.
- Include several prior in-class
writing assignments so that you are familiar with the students’ abilities
and writing styles.
- Take a positive approach to the
project, emphasizing the process, so that students who do not trust their
writing abilities will not be intimidated.
My favorite quote on this topic is “no matter how terrific
the coroner is at determining how or why a person died, the damage has been
done.” [1]
Teachers all have their own favorite methods of picking up
plagiarism the old-fashioned way. If the teacher picks up a change in writing
style, it is important to discuss this immediately with the student, asking if
he or she had any help with the current project.
Students may find material to cut-and-paste, either in whole
or in part, from hundreds of sources on the web. Here are a few warning signs that should put you on the
alert to possible internet plagiarism…
- Inconsistent citation style –
the paper mixes citation styles, and is a mélange of work from various
sources.
- Long, informational passages,
with no quotations or citations
- Poorly organized formatting
– including uneven margins,
wrong pagination, indentation, poorly aligned tables, different fonts or
sizes, subheads, etc.
- Out-of-date - the paper refers to older
theories, sources, and information. (Nothing more recent than 1995)
- Empty references – the paper
mentions graphs, charts and tables that are not included.
- Off topic – the paper does not exactly
address the assignment
- Variations in use of vocabulary
and language – the paper mixes sophisticated usage with mundane, or is
written above the student’s normal writing level.
- Misplaced sentences / passages
– certain areas in the report seem disconnected from the rest
- Headers, footers, and markings
– In haste, the student has failed to erase previous titles, names, tag
lines, web addresses along the lower or upper margins of the pages, and
other identifying phrases.
- Dead web links listed in Works
Cited list
- Students cannot identify or
discuss materials in the bibliography
- Students cannot summarize the
paper, or discuss it.
How
tosearch online yourself for material you suspect is plagiarized:
- Enter a phrase or entire
passage from the paper into a search engine such as Google (http://www.google.com),
enclosing all of it in quotes, and click ‘search’.
- Try several other search
engines and websites and repeat the process, using different suspicious phrases
each time.
- Include distinctive or unique
phrasing…whatever triggered your suspicions…and do not include too much
text, not more than 10-20 words.
- Try other search engines:
- NorthernLight (http://www.northernlight.com),
- FastSearch (http://alltheweb.com),
- Lycos
(http://www.lycos.com),
- IXQuick (http://ixquick.com),
- AltaVista
(http://www.altavista.com),
- FindSame (http://www.findsame.com) (excellent
for finding plagiarism)
- Use a commercial service to
compare your student’s work with more online material, on the ‘hidden
web’. SAES has a trial
subscription with Turnitin
(http://www.turnitin.com) to review papers. You MUST check with the Library before sending a paper
to get the ID and password.
- Investigate other commercial
anti-plagiarism websites such as:
- Eve2 (Essay Verification Engine) (
http://www.canexus.com/eve/ )
- Plagiarism.org (http://plagiarism.org)
- WordCHECK
(http://www.wordchecksystems.com)
- Integriguard
(http://www.integriguard.com)
- Glatt Plagiarism Service
(http://www.plagiarism.com)
NOTE: If you do try any of these on a free trial, pleasegive
the Library a report on your experience.
Consequences at St. Andrew’s
The penalties for plagiarism are the
same as cheating at St. Andrew’s, and can be found in the school handbook. There are four specific steps that must
be followed, and no teacher should act on a suspicion without following these
procedures. The handbook reads
asfollows:
- Discuss the issue with the
department AND the division heads.
Share with them the “evidence”. DO NOT TAKE
INDEPENDENT ACTION ON YOUR INITIAL SUSPICION.
- If the dept. head and Division
heads agree that there might be an incident of plagiarism, then discuss
the issue with the student.
- If you are convinced that the
plagiarism was an act of ignorance without any intention to “cheat”,
accept the student’s explanation, re-teach him/her to prevent any future
incident and speak to the appropriate dean of students to record the
incident.
(Then, if there are other incidents in the same course, or
in other courses taught by other teachers, the school will know that there is a
serious problem and can begin to deal with it.)
4. If you are convinced that the plagiarism was “deliberate” – ie, that there was intent
to deceive, then refer the issue to the appropriate dean of students for disciplinary action.
The penalties for offences are:
1st : F
plus phone call home
2nd: possible
suspension
3rd: possible
expulsion
The
administration looks at each case separately.
Further Resources
Harris,
Robert. “Anti-Plagiarism
Strategies for Research Papers” Home Page. 2 Oct. 2000. Vanguard
University. 20 Nov. 2000. http://www.vanguard.edu/rharris/antiplag.htm
Much
of the information in this document is based on this article.
McKenzie,
Jamie. "The New Plagiarism:
Seven Antidotes to Prevent Highway Robbery in an Electronic Age." FromNow
On, May, 1998. http://fno.org/may98/cov98may.html
Interesting
classroom suggestions for avoiding plagiarism.
Renard,
Lisa. “Cut and Paste
101:Plagiarism and the Net” Educational Leadership. Dec.
1999/Jan.2000. Platinum
Periodicals.ProQuest. Dreyfuss
Library, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Potomac, MD. 17 Nov. 2000.
GoogleDirectory
on Plagiarism
http://directory.google.com/Top/Reference/Education/Educators/Higher_Education/Plagiarism/
Useful
collection of websites.
Search
Proquest (http://www.umi.com/pqdauto) for articles on this
topic. There are many
recently published in Time, and other periodicals.