The posted section on the battle of Antietam is
an example of plagiarism. I copied the following phrase to the clipboard:
" And it nearly resulted in Lee's entire army, with its back to the Potomac
River, being cut off from retreat across the Potomac (through Shepherdstown)
and being captured by the stronger Union force." I then went to Yahoo and
pasted the phrase into the search box. My search gave me an exact match
at the following URL- http://www.nps.gov/anti/battle.htm
In the past, plagiarism entailed a student typing word for word from a resource without citing the source. Now with the internet, students can submit research papers and essays that are not there's. There are two ways students can cheat with technology. One way is to cut and paste from various sources, piecing sections together to from a paper. The other method is for students to simply download a paper from one of many paper mill web sites. These web sites have papers for students separated by subject area and/or topic. Teachers must be aware of these two methods of plagiarism to know how to detect them.
Some strategies for preventing or detecting plagiarism:
1. Require a hand written rough copy of the student paper prior to the due date of the finished product.
2. Most online term papers have out of date resources. require students to have several resources from the past 2 years.
3. Provide several internet links for students research. Require students to use information from 1 or 2 of the sites you have provided.
4. On
the day the paper is handed in, have students write a reflective essay
on their paper. Have students write about what they learned
while doing there paper, what gave them the most trouble, what type of
sources were the most valuable.
5. Use
your teacher instincts. If one of your students has suddenly become a writer
of James Michener's talent, take a closer look at the
paper. Pick several phrases from the paper and search for them on
the internet with Yahoo or LookSmart. See links below for additional
information.
6. Try
to vary your writing assignments. Instead of having students report on
a topic, require students to also personally respond to the
information or topic. Many online papers do not include this.
Web links for further information:
Anti-Plagiarism
Strategies for Research Papers this articles gives many tips
and strategies on how to detect and prevent plagiarism.
Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers
Internet Plagiarism this site gives an overview of electronic plagiarism. Tips and strategies are provided for teachers. Links are included on statistics on plagiarism, plagiarism detecting tools, and a list of internet paper mills. http://www.infotoday.com/MMSchools/jan02/lincoln.htm
Plagiarized.com A helpful site that provides information on various topics concerning plagiarism. This site also addresses what to do if you find an instance of plagiarism. http://www.plagiarized.com/index.shtml
Plagiarism Detection Links An index of links to help detect plagiarism in an expensive paper. Some of the links are for software that can be downloaded for a free demo. http://divcom.otago.ac.nz:800/Com/InfoSci/SMRL/people/andrew/links/textauth/author.htm