Submitted by
Tina L. Thomen
SLM 521:
Telecommunications & The Internet
Elective 8:
Plagiarism
October 28, 2005
Preventing
Plagiarism ~ A Teacher’s Guide
Part I: Internet Plagiarism
The
Internet offers easy access to information, empowering students with a vast array
of resources at their fingertips.
However, according to several statistics available at http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism_stats.html,
students at both the high school and undergraduate levels are increasingly
plagiarizing from each other and from the Internet. Furthermore, students seem to understand that
educators are challenged in detecting these acts of cheating. The availability of term papers for free or
for sale on the Internet yields a staggering amount of material about many
topics. Even when students compile their own papers, they can easily cut and
paste from websites without proper citation.
Part 2: Plagiarism Prevention Techniques
- Explicitly teach students about
the definition of plagiarism and your awareness of potential cheating methods;
set expectations that you are on top of these trends
- Explain the consequences of
plagiarism to others’ intellectual property
- Emphasize how cheating
detriments students’ personal learning and future work performance
- Reinforce proper citation
skills on an ongoing basis
- Develop assignments that
specify guidelines about various print and non-print resources which
represent current research that is not outdated
- Offer students a choice of
relevant research topics that will engage them and connect them to your
specific unit of study; avoid generalized topics
- Make writing a valuable and
credible process, providing guidance for each step and holding students
accountable for multiple stages of planning, drafting, peer collaboration,
and revising
- Incorporate an oral and/or
visual (such as PowerPoint) component of research to ensure students share
their own ideas and build presentation skills as well
- Stipulate that students
annotate their works cited, including a personal reflection about why
given sources and research methods proved valuable
- Know your students’ individual
writing styles by maintaining a portfolio of their work – compare
suspected plagiarism with these samples
- Look for mismatched writing and
citation styles, variant fonts, and other obvious red flags that indicate
someone has cut & pasted without giving proper credit
- When in doubt, cut & paste
a suspected phrase into one of the following search engines:
- Familiarize yourself with
common sites that offer term papers and other academic shortcuts to
students:
Part 3: Additional Information
I
summarized the above suggestions from various sources such as http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm,
http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan02/lincoln.htm,
and http://www.plagiarism.org/. Plagiarism.org offers numerous handouts that
teachers can download and incorporate into lesson plans.
In
addition, I located other useful websites that address this issue for students
and teachers: