SLM521

Plagiarism (Elective 9)

Richard McFarland

November 27, 2005

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a problem that most educators face today. Plagiarism.org defines plagiarism in the following terms:

Turning in someone else’s work as your own.

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.

Copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the

majority of your work, whether you give credit or not.

The use of plagiarism has grown in recent years. According to a U.S. News and World Report survey, 80% of successful high school students admitted to cheating and 95% of those who cheated had not been caught. The internet makes it easy for students to plagiarize as they can simply cut and paste information into their assignments or reword information without citing the source. Although plagiarism is a problem it can be reduced. The following information can help you stop plagiarism.

Look for the following signs that a student has plagiarized.

• Grammar, vocabulary, and writing style are better than student’s usual work.
• Sentences or paragraphs within a paper are dramatically more or less advanced than the rest of the document.
• Poor page layout, gray letters within the text, or references to things not contained within the paper such as charts or graphs suggest material may have been copied and pasted from a website.
• Bibliography contains old citations or websites that are not active.
• Student cannot answer questions about the work submitted or summarize the main points of the work.

The best way to stop plagiarism is to explain proper citation procedure to your students. Inform students that they must give credit to any source that they use for facts, graphs, drawings, statistics, quotations, opinions, theories or ideas.

If you think a student has plagiarized a phrase within the text of their paper you can go to a search engine such as Google or AltaVista, type in the phrase in quotes in the search box and then review the results. Sometimes the source of the phrase will come up.

If you think a student has plagiarized an entire paper you can go to the following detection sites and do a search. These sites usually charge a fee for their software so examine them first to educate your self on potential costs.

Turnitin.com – Plagiarism detection site.

http://www.canexus.com/ - Essay verification engine.

Students may purchase papers online from some internet sites. To view a few of these sites, visit the three listed here.

http://www.freeessay.com/, http://www.schoolsucks.com/, http://www.cyberessays.com/