Internet Plagiarism: A Plague or a Nuisance?
It is definitely a plague!! In order to find out why
you need only look at the Internet. It is a huge resource full on anonymous
information that you can access in the privacy of your own home. The statistics
show that more and more students are using the Internet to cut and paste their papers. Published
statistics from a Turnitin.com test showed that almost a third of the students
at a major university had plagiarized directly from the Internet. This type of
plagiarism has become a plague of mythic proportions. As professionals, we need
to understand how Internet plagiarism works and find ways to solve the problem.
Why Do Students Cheat?
v
Peer
Pressure
v
To
maintain a high GPA
v
Anonymity
of the Internet makes it easy to cut and paste
v
Do
not think they can get caught
v
Do
not understand the copyright laws
v
Believes
that all information on the Internet is free to the public
Signs of Cheating
v
StudentÕs
writing style and/or grammar changes.
v
One
paragraph of the paper is more sophisticated than the other paragraphs.
v
Student
leaves web browser information on top or bottom of page.
v
Student
is unable to answer questions about the paper.
v
Bibliographic
citations are old or web links are inactive.
What to do with Suspected Material
v
Choose
a selected passage from the paper
v
Enter
a section from that passage into a search engine such as Google or Alta Vista
v
Check
the results for the passage in question
v
If
you do not find it with a search engine you can search databases on the web
such as Northern Light.
v
Learn
about Internet term paper mills. These are sites where a student may buy or
find free papers. There are a large number of sites such as:
4.
BigNerds.com.
Bright Ideas to Cure the Problem
v
Educate
your students about plagiarism. Give them a definition and examples of
plagiarism.
v
Teach
them about copyright and the Internet.
v
Teach
lessons on how to cite Internet and print resources.
v
Become
familiar with plagiarism detection software available from the following
companies:
1.
Turnitin.com
3.
EVE2 Plagiarism Detection for Teachers
4.
MyDropBox
As professionals, we understand that education and awareness are the most important tools available. Using these tools wisely will allow us to cure the plague of plagiarism in our schools.
Avis Horowitz
Elective #8
SLM521 Š Spring
2006