Internet Plagiarism

Plagiarism is cheating, plain and simple. Any time someone steals another person's words, thoughts, ideas, or theories, and tries to pass them off as their own- it's plagiarism. Click on the page title for a more in depth definition of plagiarism or visit

<>http://www.plagiarism.org/research_site/e_what_is_plagiarism.html
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As teachers in today's society, we have to come to terms with the fact that the internet is making plagiarism easier and more attractive to students. In order to help them see the error of their ways, and catch them when they refuse to, we as teachers need to educate ourselves. We need to first understand why students feel the need to resort to cheating. Next, we need to understand how students are plagiarizing and where they are getting their information. Also, we need to know what to look for- what are the red flags that alert us that plagiarism may have occurred. Finally, we need to arm ourselves with methods of prevention.

Why	How
afraid to fail pressure from teachers/parents/self to succeed don't think own writing is "good enough" time crunch poor planning many other assignments due at same time inadequate research overwhelmed too many choices not enough practice topic or assignment is over their head thrill wants to see if teacher will follow through with consequences wants to see if they can get away with it	copy and paste from various internet articles download paper for free buy paper citing incorrectly or not at all poor note taking skills (now quoting accurately) faking citations or quotations paraphrasing without giving credit <>just printing out the research
Where	Look fors
http://sparknotes.com/ http://termpaperclub.com/ http://www.antiessays.com/ http://www.schoolsucks.com/ http://www.homeworksucks.com/ http://screwschool.com http://allfreeessays.com/ http://www.cyberessays.com/ http://www.freeessay.com/ http://www.bignerds.com/ http://www.pinkmonkey.com/	doesn't seem like the student's usual writing weird formatting odd indents gray text random spaces uneven margins extra information is off topic information included does not fit assignment information included despite the fact that the teacher discussed that this information was not relevant to the assignment URls, other peoples names, database or journal titles, etc. at the bottom or top of the page inconsistent writing style throughout the paper

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Prevention

discuss plagiarism in class
http://www.turnitin.com/research_site/e_home.html
teach students how and when to give credit

anything that is not common knowledge
quotations
paraphrases
other's ideas, thoughts, theories, etc.

teach how to paraphrase, don't just tell them to

read, cover, write
use quotes in notes

think carefully about due dates

what other assignments are students working on (recognize they have more than just your class)
chunk up the process (set due dates for each part of the process or at least checkpoints along the way)

make help available

make sure students know who is available to help them and when
citation books or handouts
read/write gold software
using special features when searching in online databases

make sure students understand your penalties
discuss how citing sources can make their writing more credible and persuasive
be specific in your assignment

types and number of sources students are expected to use
steps they are expected to follow
require more than just reiteration of facts (that lends itself to cheating too easily)

ask questions throughout the student's writing process
require a bibliography and show students how to create one
have students write reflectively about what they learned while doing the project
explain how easy it is to get caught

all a teacher has to do is type a suspicious phrase or two in a search engine (like google) and presto cheaters get caught

model respect for copyright laws and the work of others

Other resources:
http://www.indiana.edu/%7Ewts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml
http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm

Created by Dedra Van Gelder
SLM 521
Elective #10: Legal
June 15, 2005