PLAGIARISM
A Guide
for the Elementary School Teacher
The
age of computers and the internet brings thousands of detailed resources to the
fingertips of today's student. This wonderful abundance of information
unfortunately also brings with it the ever increasing problem of plagiarism.
While this issue is a far greater concern for the middle school and high school
teacher, this is good topic to address with your students as they start to
learn the skills involved with research-based writing. A good overall review of
the issue can be found in an article by Robert Harris on Anti-Plagiarism
Strategies. The following are some basic tips you can use in dealing with
this issue:
1)
Make sure your students know the
definition of plagiarism.
Simply
stated, you commit plagiarism anytime you use the words or ideas of others
without giving them credit. Most older elementary school students understand
that they can not copy directly the words of others with quotations. They may
not realize, however, that it also considered plagiarism if they fail to
properly attribute the quote. In addition, if they paraphrase ideas they find, whether they attribute them or not, if
it is not done properly and in their own words, it is also a violation. See this article from
2)
Students should understand the
consequences.
As
you teach your students the proper methods of research and writing, it is also
the best time to make them understand the consequences of failing to use those
proper methods. First and foremost, your policy of what action you will take
for plagiarism should be clear. But they should also understand why plagiarism
is a form of stealing. It also would not hurt to discuss the benefits of
learning how to properly incorporate the works of others into your own.
3)
Use strategies that will help minimize
plagiarism.
The
article by Robert Harris offers several helpful strategies to minimize the
possibility of plagiarism, including having clear expectations with reasonable
deadlines. A most helpful hint, especially for the elementary school-aged
writer, is to require process steps for the paper. Have a series of due dates
through out the process for the various steps required for a research paper
such as topic selection, preliminary bibliography, outline, and rough draft.
4)
Know how to recognize plagiarism.
The
most obvious clue is writing that is inconsistent with the style or ability of
the student and is not properly attributed. While the use of the now prolific
web sites that allow students to purchase research papers is (hopefully)
unlikely in elementary school, awareness of their existence is prudent. There
are numerous web sites such as FastPapers.com which allow you to
purchase pre-written papers on specific topics for a fee. Other sites such as Paper Masters offer to write original
papers for you based on criteria you submit. A mixed use of citations, unusual
formatting, as well as dated information may all be evidence of plagiarism.
Finally, there are available websites such as Turnitin.com that offer plagiarism
prevention services such as research paper scans that search for possible
plagiarized work.