If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from
many, it’s research.
Wilson Mizner (1876–1933)
Ever
since the first teacher required students to turn in assignments, there have been
those students who have tried to pass off someone else’s work as their own. In
years past charges of plagiarism were hard to substantiate. Students’
resourcefulness made it difficult for teachers to track down the original
source. With the advent of the internet, students had even more options and
opportunities to commit plagiarism. The net abounds with web sites dedicated to
providing students with papers to be used as “resources” as they conduct their
own independent research. While these sites have disclaimers stating the
materials from their storehouses are to be used as part of independent research
and to be cited properly, many of them promise quick turnaround time for
requests or papers written to student specifications. How is an educator to know
which papers are truly the product of a student’s hard work and which are the
product of desperation and a credit card?
A charge of plagiarism is
difficult for any teacher to make. S/he wants to believe that any work
submitted is the student’s own. Unfortunately, sometime this is not the case.
Rarely do elementary school teachers have to face this problem. Students in
elementary are just beginning to learn to do research and the question of
plagiarism is rarely asked. The question becomes more important to consider as
a student passes into middle and high school. At this age, a student is old
enough to understand the implications and ramifications of a breakdown in
ethics when plagiarism occurs. A teacher who suspects a student has committed
plagiarism needs to handle the matter diplomatically. Leveling an unfounded
charge is harmful and unprofessional.
Guidelines for Determining and Dealing With Plagiarism
As long as teachers assign
written reports, plagiarism will continue to exist. The following links list
ways of detecting and dealing with plagiarism.
Dead Giveaway's at
plagiarized.com lists several indicators of possible plagiarism for educators.
Lisa Hinchliffe’s
article gives reasons why students commit plagiarism, ways to detect
plagiarism, and what to do if you catch a student committing plagiarism.
Ronald
B. Standler explains the legal ramifications of committing plagiarism. His
site lists several court cases involving professionals and students who were
convicted of committing plagiarism and the outcome of these cases. This is a
lengthy and in-depth article about this issue.
Indiana University concisely lists the hallmarks of plagiarism and what to do if you discover a student has committed plagiarism.
Google.com’s
search engine allows you to type in a suspect phrase and return with all the
places this phrase occurs.
In the same manner, Yahoo.com and MSN’s
advanced search engines can be used to detect suspect phraseology.
Plagiarized.com’s home page lists an articles page. At this link you
will find an article titled How Cheating
Drives Better Instruction. This article challenges us as educators to
rethink how we present lessons and how we assess students and develop methods
of instruction and assessment where plagiarism is impossible.