Plagiarism
This is a handout designed to inform teachers about
Internet plagiarism. This handout should answer major questions concerning
plagiarism and provide additional resources for teachers seeking more
information.
What is
Internet plagiarism?
Plagiarism.org
defines plagiarism as copying words or ideas from someone else without giving
credit; failing to put a quotation in quotation marks; giving incorrect
information about the source of a quotation; changing words but copying the
sentence structure of a source without giving credit; and copying so many words
or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you
give credit or not.
How bad
is Internet plagiarism? And why is it bad?
A survey
done in 2002 found that out of 12,000 high-school students, 74 percent of them
had cheated on an exam at least once in the previous year. That is up from 61
percent a decade before. Plagiarism is so easy to do with the Internet.
Students can access so much information and sit at their computers at home
where nobody can see them cheating. The Internet is partly to blame for the
rise in plagiarism since anything can be found on the web.
How to
stop Internet plagiarism?
It is
important for students to be aware of what exactly plagiarism is. There needs
to be some clear consequences for students who are caught plagiarizing. In
order to catch plagiarism, teachers need to utilize websites and search engines
designed to detect plagiarism. There are also many ways teachers can structure
assignments in order to avoid plagiarism. It is also important for teachers to
educate their students on how to properly site information for assignments and
papers.
Internet
resources for more information:
http://www.plagiarismdetect.com/
http://www.kalama.com/~zimba/plag&cheat.htm
http://www.fno.org/may98/cov98may.html