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that specify guidelines about various print and non-print resources which represent current research that is not outdated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:
• http://www.google.com
• http://northernlight.com
• http://altavista.com
• Familiarize yourself with common sites that offer term papers and other academic shortcuts to students:
• http://sparknotes.com/
• http://cyberessays.com
• http://www.termpaperrelief.com
• Type in “term papers” to search Google for a plethora of additional sites

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:

• http://www.wiu.edu/users/mfbhl/wiu/plagiarism.htm
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html
• http://www.web-miner.com/plagiarism