Plagiarism a Problem Plaguing Our Schools
As
teachers we have to have an idea of why students cheat before we can come up
with strategies to prevent plagiarism. As teachers it is our job to educate
students about plagiarism. We have to help prevent not just catch.
Why do students cheat?
- To save
time
- They
procrastinated and ran out of time
- They feel
they are not good at writing
- They do not
fully understand what plagiarism is.
Ways to help Prevent Plagiarism…
- Educate students on what plagiarism is. Many say
they know but do not truly understand.
- Teach
students how to cite resources
- Create
unique assignments with specific components such as a certain number of
each type of resource.
- Let
students choose a topic that interests them
- Have a
series of due date to prevent procrastination
- Have
students present an oral report on their topic
- Explain
that citing your sources helps to prove your point
- Give clear
consequences for plagiarism in advance
Clues that students may have plagiarized…
- The writing
style or vocabulary
- Lack of
quotations
- Mixed
citations
- Odd margins
- Old
resources
Checking for plagiarism
- Ask
students questions about their work
- I was
surprised by your work, so I looked into it, and before I tell you what I
found is there anything you want to tell me.
- Type a 4 to
6 word phrase for a paper you think may be plagiarized into a search
engine such as Google or Yahoo.
1.
If it is plagiarized it will be found
http://www.turnitin.com/static/home.html?sessionid=04bcac24d15ab1896be46aff3ecc7395
For more information on plagiarism visit the
sites below.
http://www.indiana.edu/%7Ewts/wts/plagiarism.html
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html
As a teacher you
want to prevent plagiarism not simply try to catch it.