Jen Pohl

SLM 521

Elective 5: Plagiarism

 

Internet Plagiarism:

 It’s Everywhere but We Can Stop It!

 

          The Internet is a wonderful advance in technology that has enhanced every aspect of our lives.  We have any type of information that we could even dream of at our fingertips twenty-four hours a day!  But all of this power is not a good thing.  Internet Plagiarism is on the rise.  Students have new ways and resources to cheat from, but luckily, teachers can educate themselves about this problem and help prevent it!

 

What is it?

There are different types of Internet Plagiarism. 

  1. Students can download or buy entire essays and papers. 
  2. Students can order a custom paper to be written.
  3. CD ROMs and other information found from an Encyclopedia.

 

Why are they doing this?

  1. Trying to save time.
  2. Don’t understand the assignment.
  3. Do not want to do the work.
  4. Poor writing and research skills.

 

What can we do as teachers to prevent this?

  1. Form student integrity committees to help catch cheaters.
  2. Have anonymous places for students to report violations.
  3. Review the guidelines for plagiarism.  The website  “Plagiarism: What it is and How to Recognize and Avoid it” http://www.indiana.edu/%7Ewts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml is good to show students before they start their assignments.  This gives very clear definition of plagiarism and even discusses some that students might not even consider, such as not giving credit to a source in your bibliography.
  4. Use websites such as Turnitin.com http://turnitin.com/static/index.html and EVE Plagiarism Detective System http://www.canexus.com/ to test any suspicious papers.  Turnitin.com is free if you sign up and EVE is a one-time cost of $29.99 for unlimited uses.  This might be good to use if a whole department, such as a high school English department, could use this. 
  5. Set clear penalties for plagiarism.
  6. Require an annotated bibliography.

 

 

One other way to prevent this is to keep yourself informed. As time goes on, students will be finding more advanced ways to cheat.  Make sure you are able to recognize and put it to a stop before they have the chance to use it!

 

 

 

Information adapted from:

http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm