Faculty can do many things to fight this capital crime against academia, composition specialist Edward M. White argues in "Too Many Campuses Want to Sweep Student Plagiarism Under the Rug." To combat plagiarism, White believes that educators need to work on "prevention through education” and “punishment for violations."  In the years since White wrote that article, technology has made the task of preventing plagiarism even more challenging; nevertheless, we can explain the problem to students, teach tactics to maintain academic integrity while avoiding plagiarism, design assignments in ways that discourage plagiarism, and then punish violations with consistency.

Define the Term

This is an explanation of academic integrity that I use to help students understand their responsibility as writers in training.

Words are very powerful. Therefore, it is important to use them truthfully, accurately, and responsibly. Writers should use be truthful in the use of content and claim of ownership.  They should be accurate both in terms of how they manage information and how they credit its origin.  And they should be responsible in their use of such a power as the written word, striving to use it for good.

This statement of ethical management of information is a positive departure point for a discussion of ethical information management and its violation, including by plagiarism.

 

Students also benefit by realizing that plagiarism can take many forms:  One way to look at these is to consider the origin of plagiarized materials.  Here are some:

other students’ papers: copying (with or without permission), taking another’s previously written paper and claiming it.

commercially written documents:  purchasing from a paper mill or downloading from an internet source. 

researched sources: failing to give credit to others’ for their intellectual property

self-plagiarism: submitting a copy of a previously written document as an original paper for an assignment that stipulates original, timely work

Another way is to think about the extent of the plagiarism:

	Copying an entire document
	Copying a portion of a document word for word
	Claiming key words or phrases of another as your own
	Echoing without attribution the concepts of others

Sometimes we confuse listing the consequences of plagiarism with defining it and explaining the seriousness and ramifications of it.  Even if other teachers have provided the basic information for their classes, students may not understand that the information transfers to your class as well.  Moreover, plagiarism is a concept that is affected by cultural and disciplinary mores; therefore, individual teachers are wise to answer the basics: 

What is plagiarism in this class? 

What is the penalty for plagiarism and the consequences to a student’s course work?

What are the potential ramifications to the individual’s careers as student and later as a professional?

Explain the Problem

 

Some students commit plagiarism with full knowledge of what they are doing:  in that case, they are committing fraud.  Many, however, plagiarize out of carelessness, ignorance, or misunderstanding.  Here are some tools students need to fully understand the problem and how to prevent it:

   

1. Students frequently do not understand the value of incorporating outside resources into their writing; in fact, some students may regard such outside material as a sign of weakness on their part. They need to think beyond knowing the facts of a lesson to synthesizing the material, and they need to practice the moves that weave their insights with the knowledge of others.  
   

2. Students may not understand that they need to develop their own insight or perspective about what they are thinking. Otherwise, they will be reduced to parroting information that they have collected—a prelude to plagiarism.  White reminds us that students need to learn that "sources should support, not substitute for, their own work."  Students learn that in Composition I and II, but do they know to transfer what they are learning to their other courses? 
      

3. Students need to know how to manage information. They need to know how to use writing practices such as paraphrases and summaries as well as punctuation and documentation systems to attribute credit for ideas.  White observes that "even when the composition course does a careful job, that instruction must be reinforced by other courses before students will take the message to heart. Further, different disciplines follow different systems...in the ways in which disciplines pose and solve problems and what they accept as 'common knowledge'."
   

4. Students need to learn how to give credit where credit is due.  They may not know the discipline-appropriate options for incorporating outside sources into their writing.  

 

The different documentation styles are not arbitrarily interchangeable; their standards reflect the values and functions of the fields for which they were developed. Consequently, a style that works efficiently for English Studies (the one students are most likely to be taught formally) is less efficient for psychology or science.

Design Assignments That Discourage Cheating

Teachers can create assignments that discourage plagiarism.  Here are some strategies that will help:

	Review with students appropriate citation standards for the discipline.
	Segment a large assignment so that students submit evidence of their work as it progresses.
	Require a prospectus and timetable for the project.
	Assign an annotated bibliography of research sources.
	Give a specific topic or sets of topics rather than making an open-ended assignment.
	Tie the assignment to specific course material or to teacher-assigned articles.

Assign papers and projects that depart in structure and content from the traditional research paper.

	Request photocopies of title pages of books or part of an on-line service cited.
	Vary the assignment from year to year.
	Incorporate in-class writing with the out-of-class assignment.
	Include an oral presentation component.

	Ask an exam question that requires students to state and define the thesis of the paper that they have submitted.
	Establish assignment-specific grading criteria and grading according to them.

Develop a Consistent Institutional Response

Enforce consistently:  Although many institutions publish strong policy statements, White notes that, they are often not enforced by either individual teachers or the institution: "We give too much weight to the passive adoption of others' ideas, to the mindless repetition of slogans as if they were thoughts, to the view that education is merely a means to a degree or a certificate, not something important for its own sake.”  Is the program and school’s policy known to both faculty and students?  Are policies consistent school-wide?  Are they enforced?

Maintain a consistent learning environment:  Schools create a pressure that can lead to student plagiarism when they do not adhere to their own placement policies. Placing students in classes they are under prepared to complete increases the pressure to succeed.  Plagiarism may seem a viable risk to take in order to avoid failure.  

References:

White, Edward M. "Too Many Campuses Want to Sweep Student Plagiarism Under the Rug." The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 24, 1993. A44.