A Few Ideas on How to Avoid, Detect, and Deal with Plagiarizing Students

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1 A Few Ideas on How to Avoid, Detect, and Deal with Plagiarizing Students Prepared by Ron Curtis, Vanier College English Department, Revision November 2009 Avoiding Plagiarism: Some Basic Strategies Clearly indicate if research texts or outside sources of information and ideas are required, permitted or optional in written assignments, particularly major essays. Provide a limited and specific set of topics for essays and research papers. Vary the topics, texts and assignments used from semester to semester. Make use of topics and texts that are not extremely common and for which cheat essays are not easily found. Clearly indicate the type or style of writing assignment - analytical, expository, persuasive, narrative, personal response or opinion, journal, etc. Make use of The Vanier English Writing Guide, the brochures on Plagiarism, and other information available on avoiding plagiarism during in-class discussions of writing assignments. Require students to use specific texts you are familiar with in their assignment, along with texts they have found themselves, and to document all texts correctly. Have students practice the skills they need to avoid plagiarizing before assigning a major essay or research paper. Have students write a short practice assignment/essay or complete a practice exercise - see sample activity attached: Teaching Students How to Avoid Plagiarizing Important Note: Many students, particularly newer students and students NOT in social science, may have never had to write a documented essay or assignment before coming to college or into your class. They are still developing the skills required to complete this task correctly, and many will need several opportunities to practice before learning how to write this type of essay or assignment correctly (that is, more or less correctly). Require students to hand in copies of some of the pages of the texts from which they have used ideas or information in their assignment or essay with the assignment. Require students to complete an outline and draft of the assignment. Have some of the assignment written in-class then completed at home, with the provision that both the in-class draft and at-home final copy be handed in. 1

2 Clearly explain what plagiarism is, why it is not acceptable, and what the penalties are, as per the College policy, for students who plagiarize: a zero grade on the assignment, no opportunity to re-write, and a letter placed in the student s college file. Remind students that it is in fact very easy to find Internet plagiarism and that in most cases an essay that has been plagiarized from the Internet can be found out within five minutes. Remind students that we are being very strict about plagiarism because it is a serious form of cheating, and that when a student plagiarizes, they are in fact cheating the other students in the class who have put in the time and effort to write their own assignments and essays. Remind students that cutting and pasting even one paragraph or a few sentences from the Internet into an assignment or essay, without quoting and documenting correctly, can result in the whole assignment or essay being considered plagiarized. Detecting Plagiarism: Some Basic Strategies Keep a sample of the students writing on hand to compare with that found in major essays or assignments if you suspect an assignment might be plagiarized. You can also ask the student for copies of earlier assignments to compare with the suspect assignment. Ensure that the complete assignment or essay is on the assigned topic, and that there are no significant shifts in style, focus and coherence as you read through the text. Watch for missing or incorrect citations and references for quoted or paraphrased materials within the assignment. Downloaded assignments from the Internet often do not include citations or include citations for versions of texts which are not being used in the course. Watch for a patchwork assignment - one that seems to be made up of a variety of different texts pasted together. Watch for the use of advanced vocabulary, sophisticated sentence structures or other signs of a level of writing that is beyond the skill level of most college students. Important Note: Some students are in fact very good writers, and will produce strong work, particularly in out-of-class assignments for which they have had time to develop and correct their writing. Do not assume that just because an assignment is well written it must be plagiarized. 2

3 Perform a search for suspect text using the Google search engine, another good search engine or plagiarism detection software such as Turitin.com. See the attached document Using the Google Search Engine to Find Plagiarized Essays. A Note on Internet Plagiarism: Often this type of plagiarism is in fact the easiest to detect, provided the student has simply cut and paste from one or more web pages. A Google search will usually come up with the original text(s) with only a few tries in a few minutes. Plagiarism detection software should also find this type of plagiarism quickly with original sources indicated. In cases where the student has acquired the essay from a cheat site; however, the complete text may not be available through Google or with plagiarism detection software. Nonetheless, many cheat sites provide a sample portion, often the first paragraph or first few sentences, of their essays on-line. Cheat site essays are also often not clearly on topic (provided you have given clear and specific topics), and will often simply not look like they were written by your student for your course. Turnitin.com will also search its repository of student papers and if a student at another institution has already submitted the same cheat essay then the system will detect this. It is often more difficult to detect an assignment that has been borrowed from another student, or one that has been plagiarized or paraphrased from books, journals or web sites by a good writer. If you suspect an assignment has been plagiarized, but cannot find the original text, you can interview the student on the content of the assignment, particularly regarding the use of advanced vocabulary and more sophisticated concepts and ideas. A student who cannot explain the vocabulary or concepts he used in the assignment will often admit to plagiarizing the text. Similarly, you can ask the student to re-write the assignment, or a part of the assignment, in a controlled environment - your office or a resource centre - under supervision. If the supervised writing is significantly different from the original assignment, then there is strong evidence the assignment was plagiarized. Dealing With the Plagiarizing Student: Some Basic Strategies If possible, document all exchanges with students about work you suspect they cheated on or plagiarized. The college policy is not clear on what constitutes proof of plagiarism, but written documentation is often cited. Obviously a copy of the source material is ideal, but a failed test on the paper, or a comparison of the work you suspect was cheated on with other work by the student or a confession on the part of the student, could work just as well. Avoid confronting a student with plagiarism in class. Withhold the assignment and tell the student to see you in your office because there are problems with the assignment you need to discuss with him or her. 3

4 If you have not been able to definitely determine that the assignment has been plagiarized, you should approach an accusation of plagiarism carefully. No one who is innocent wants to be presumed guilty until proven otherwise. However, if you have taken steps to avoid and detect plagiarism as indicated above, many plagiarizing students will admit to their sins once confronted with clear evidence from the assignment and the original texts, if you have found them. If you have taken steps to ensure that students understand how not to plagiarize, provided opportunities to practice using resource texts correctly, and clearly explained what the consequences of plagiarism are, then confronting a student with a plagiarized assignment generally becomes less difficult. If you are certain that the student has intentionally plagiarized; that is, did not plagiarize because of a lack of understanding or the inability to use and document resource texts correctly, you can inform the student that you are required to follow the college policy on plagiarism - give a zero grade to the assignment, do not permit the student to complete an alternative assignment, and place a letter of offense in the college file. Although the student may plead or argue, you should state that the college policy is clear and you have been given no choice in the matter due to the student s actions in plagiarizing the assignment. A sample memo to the Registrar regarding a plagiarizing student is attached below. If you believe that the student has not intentionally plagiarized, but rather has not yet learned how to use and document resource texts correctly, you should explain why the assignment may be considered plagiarized and that there are clear and severe penalties for plagiarism. However, since the student is not attempting to cheat, the Cheating and Plagiarism policy would not apply in this case and the teacher has discretion as to how to deal with the assignment. An appropriate recourse is to have the student correct the problems that caused the unintentional plagiarism before assigning a grade to the assignment. Additional Information Because plagiarism is a major source of difficulty within the academic milieu, there are many good sources of information and resources on the Internet that deal with this topic. A quick Google search on plagiarism or plagiarism detection will bring up many useful sites for both professors and students. Currently, Vanier College has acquired a license to use Turnitin.com until Winter Contact your department coordinator or Marleigh Greaney, Vanier IT Pedagogical Advisor, for information, a user ID and password to use this system. More information is available on Marleigh s IT web site: The Turnitin.com web site also has much information and many tutorials for both teachers and students, along with good information on avoiding plagiarism and using correct documentation: 4

5 Using Google s Search Engine to Find Plagiarized Essays One simple procedure to find an essay plagiarized from an online source is to use the Google search engine to locate the original text(s). Although this is not guaranteed to find every source of a plagiarized essay, Google will very often find essays on cheat sites, as well as articles posted on most web sites. The procedure: 1. Go to the Google search engine: 2. Click on Advanced Search 3. In the search box entitled With the exact phrase, type a phrase (5 to 10 words) from a sentence you believe was plagiarized. Example: at the behest of international finance 4. Hit GOOGLE SEARCH 5. If the results are negative, try two or three more phrases from different sentences. 6. If you get several hits, click on the link and once it is loaded, go to the edit menu of your browser, chick on Find in Page, and type in the a few words from the sentence. If this is the source of the plagiarism, you will be brought to the sentence. 7. You can then bookmark, save or print the source document to have when dealing with the student. Note on the example: The search came up with four hits, one of which was the article CALLOUSED CONSCIENCES: The Limited Challenge to Child Labor by Vijay Prashad, which could have been used inappropriately in a plagiarized essay. Alternative Search Strategy: You can use Google Search (the first page you encounter on Google) and enter your phrase, in which case you need to use quotation marks. Example: at the behest of international finance Also, a more determined and sophisticated student may paraphrase and significantly change the original text. The above strategy will not work in this case. Although more difficult and time consuming, searching for combinations of specific terms and synonyms can often find this type of plagiarism. Additional note: R Curtis plagiarized parts of this text from M Prentice s memo on the same topic. 5

6 Teaching Students How to Avoid Plagiarizing In order to learn a skill, a student must have opportunities to develop and practice the skill. In order to avoid plagiarizing, a student must be able to quote, paraphrase and summarize ideas and information from resource texts correctly, and to correctly document the ideas and information they are using. There are a number of ways we can give students the opportunity to learn how to correctly use and document resource materials. In-class activities: Once the teacher has fully explained what style of documentation is required for the course, a simple in-class activity can reinforce the requirements and language skills the student needs before the major paper is to be completed. Using an appropriate sample resource text, such as a journal or magazine article related to the topic of the course at the time, the teacher selects a paragraph from the text to use as a starting point for the activity. The following is then done in-class: the whole class discusses the important ideas and information in the paragraph and how these support and connect to the overall focus of the text and topic being dealt with in the course the students are then instructed to paraphrase or summarize one or two important ideas or pieces of information from the text. Each student writes one sentence which accurately maintains the meaning of the ideas or information from the paragraph students are then asked to take the same or different ideas or information and, in one sentence, present the ideas or information as a correctly integrated direct quotation. once they are finished writing their sentences, students are told to add the correct citation for both their paraphrase and quotation sentences students are then asked to write up a correctly formatted bibliography entry for the sample text they are using (the teacher must ensure that the sample text includes the author, title and publication information, and that students have with them, or have access to, the style guide being used for the course, such as the Vanier English Writing Guide) once the students are finished, the teacher can call on students to write some sample paraphrases and quotations on the board, and then look at the strengths and weaknesses of the sentences, or have the students work in small groups to select one very good paraphrase and quotation from their group to write on the board. These are then discussed by the class, including whether the citation is correct or not. when examining the sentences, the teacher can emphasize which sentences may cause the writer to unintentionally plagiarize and how the sentences could be improved to avoid plagiarism after the sentences are discussed, the teacher elicits the correct bibliographical entry for the text, noting errors and omissions and how the bibliography entry works with the citation to enable the reader to connect the ideas and information in the paper with the complete information on the resource text in the bibliography 6

7 the teacher emphasizes that paraphrasing, summarizing, using integrated quotations, and including complete and correct documentation does take time and effort, but all are required in order to have their research paper avoid plagiarism. If class time is very limited, a similar activity can be done as a homework assignment. The teacher can then select sentences which do and do not avoid plagiarizing and put these on an overhead to discuss in-class, as well as give the students feedback on their assignments indicating if they have or have not successfully avoided plagiarizing from the sample text. For an example of what this exercise may look like, see the attached Careers for the New Millennium - Paraphrase, Quotation and Citation Exercise. Additional or Alternative Activity - Short Practice Essay or Research Paper: Before the major paper is assigned, have students complete a shorter practice paper to determine that they understand your requirements and do not plagiarize unintentionally. One way to ensure that the teacher is completely comfortable that the student is not plagiarizing this practice paper is to give the students a very specific topic, as well as a limited set of resource texts to use for the paper. These may be texts which the teacher selects and which the students are required to use. While the papers the students produce may not be very exciting to read, and the students may grumble about not being able to use resource texts they find themselves, the teacher is easily able to see which students are having trouble using resources texts and documentation correctly, and can work with these students as they revise the paper so that there is no unintentional plagiarism. Another possibility for this activity is to have students find, for example, two resource texts they will use in the paper, but also require that two texts selected by the teacher must be used. Copies of the texts found by the student should be handed in with the paper to ensure that the student is not unintentionally plagiarizing from these texts and has included correct documentation for them. 7

8 Careers for the New Millennium - Paraphrase, Quotation and Citation Exercise Original Text, Paragraph 2: According to the most recent figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor, the total labor force in the United States is projected to increase by 16 million over the 1994 to 2005 period, from 131 million to 147 million. This is a slower rate of growth than experienced in the past, reflecting a decline of the labor force. Women and non-caucasian men are expected to make up the fastest growing segments of the workforce, symbolizing a more diverse society (BLS 2472). Sample Paraphrase: The United States Department of Labor statistics indicate that number of workers in the U.S. will increase to 147 million, a jump of 16 million workers, between 1994 and 2005 (Scheetz and Gratz 1.1.1). Sample Quotation: According to Scheetz and Gratz, Women and non-caucasian men are expected to make up the fastest growing segments of the workforce (1.1.1). Sample Paraphrase and Quotation: Although there will be new jobs available, the slower rate of growth points to a decline of the labor force (Scheetz and Gratz 1.1.1). Exercise: Write your own paraphrase, quotation, and paraphrase and quotation combination for ideas and information from the following paragraphs. Include parenthetical citations. A. Paragraph 4: Original Text: When looking ahead at careers offering the most opportunities to future job seekers, students should examine rates of growth, turnover, and technological changes. Data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that some jobs will grow and prosper, but others will die. Many new graduates, those majoring in areas of growth, will encounter great job opportunities in their fields, while other graduates, those in dying areas, will face fierce competition and discouragement because of lack of demand for their type of work. The fastest growing occupations requiring college decrees include computer professionals, teachers, counselors, corrections officers, and health-related occupations. Occupations requiring college degrees and expected to add the most jobs will account for more than one-fourth of total employment growth (BLS, World Wide Web). 1. Your Paraphrase: 2. Your Quotation: 3. Your Paraphrase and Quotation: 8

9 B. Paragraph 6: Original Text: The year 2000 lies in an era that many have termed the "information age." All aspects of life are being affected by technological advances. Increases in technology and automation have changed the work we do, replacing many manual labor jobs with computer-related occupations. As our values shift from production and manufacturing to technology and knowledge-based assignments, the types of careers people select will be changed because of the changing needs of our society. According to the Occupational Outlook Quarterly, "The number of workers employed in any occupation depends in large part on the demand for the goods or services provided by those workers" (1996). Because of technological advancements, changes in production and the overall decline of manufacturing work, certain occupations will experience a slower rate of growth, including the following: administrative support positions, precision production, craft and repair occupations and operators, fabricators, and laborers (BLS, www). In addition to technological changes, employment will also be affected by corporate restructuring and foreign trade (BLS 2472). 1. Your Paraphrase: 2. Your Quotation: 3. Your Paraphrase and Quotation: C. Write a correctly formatted Works Cited entry for this article. Include the appropriate information, including authors, article title, publication, and publication information, in the correct order. Publication Information: Title: Careers for the New Millennium: How You Can Prepare Journal: Black Collegian; New Orleans; October 1996 Authors: Scheetz, L Patrick; Gratz, Rebecca; Volume: 27, Issue: 1, Start Page: 32, ISSN: Full Text: Copyright Black Collegian Oct

10 MEMO To: Thomas Ingerman, Registrar From: Ron Curtis, English Department RE: Student s Name and ID Number - Plagiarism Date: The above student, John Doe, plagiarized, in whole or in part, his book project assignment on the novel The Bluest Eye, from the following Internet site: Attached is a copy of the plagiarized portions of the student s assignment and the copy of the original source text from the web site. Please record this offense as appropriate in this student s file. Thank you. 10