Plagiarism is a growing and common problem for all students and educators. As
students and educators, we need to understand copyright laws, recognize
plagiarism, create assignments that help avoid plagiarism and learn how to detect
plagiarism. It is our task as students and educators to have an awareness and
understanding of plagiarism, know how to avoid it and understand why it is wrong.
Students should be encouraged to use the Internet for research, but should know
how to evaluate these sources, cite the sources properly, and paraphrase the
information.

Test your knowledge


WHAT is Plagiarism?

"The act of plagiarizing; taking someone's words or ideas as
if they were your own." http://www.dictionary.com
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/TM/curr390_guide.shtml

Avoiding Plagiarism

Use quotations for everything that is copied exactly from the text (include the quotes
when taking notes taken from original text.)

Make sure you paraphrase correctly. Replacing one or two words in each sentence is not
paraphrasing; it is delete and replace plagiarism. Read the original text, cover it up, write
it in your own words, and check your paraphrase with the original to make sure you have
not used any of the same words or phrases.

Be sure to give credit for paraphrased work also.

Include in your notes all the information you will need to cite the sources correctly.
Update the bibliography regularly. Refer to the citing sources link above.

Print all web pages that you use. Write the date that you accessed the web page on the
printouts. Keep all your notes and all the printouts.

Always cite any words, information, and ideas that you learned in your research. If you
did not know it before you began the research, you must cite it. If you are not sure, cite
it. Sources should be cited internally in the body of the paper and in the bibliography.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/TM/curr390_guide.shtml (page 2)

Commonly known facts (everyone knows it) do not have to be cited.
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml Provides examples of
acceptable and unacceptable paraphrases and simple instructions on how to
recognize and avoid plagiarism.
http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/mla/plagiarism.shtml Great examples of original text
and sample uses of these writings. Each example is rated on plagiarism or acceptable
use. Have students look at these before taking the following self-test.
http://ec.hku.hk/plagiarism/self_test.htm Take a self-test for understanding and
avoiding plagiarism. Students should take this test before writing assignments.
http://www.northwestern.edu/uacc/plagiar.html

WHY Do Students Plagiarize?

They want good grades, and they are very competitive. Whatever it takes to get into the
colleges they want to go to.

They don't think they will get caught.

Everybody does it.

They don't have time; they have too much homework or too many extracurricular
activities.

It is not a course they care about, and they don't think they will ever need to know the
information in the future.

It is easy to copy and paste from the Internet.

It is easy to buy entire papers from the Internet.

They don't think it is wrong.

They see adults cheat in business; examples Worldcom and Enron.

They wrote it better than I could.

They don't know they are plagiarizing.

They don't care.
http://www.accd.edu/pac/lrc/plagiarism.htm

WHERE Do Students Get Plagiarized Material?

There are many web sites that allow students to download research papers. Students are
often paid for putting their work there for others to use. Refer to the handout of some
of the sites commonly used by students.

WAYS For Educators to Help Students Avoid Plagiarism.

Teach students proper research techniques.

Teach a lesson on plagiarism and examples of plagiarism. Let them know the consequences
of plagiarism in your class. Show them Turn It In, a website that we pay for at Clark.

Let students know that you know about the paper mill web sites and that you check their
papers. Actually check out these sites (you will have to do it at home as NISD has
blocked all of these sites.) You might want to print out a poorly written paper found at
one of these mills and use it as an example in your class. Be sure the students know where
you got the paper. This might discourage them from doing the same.

Give very specific assignments.

List what should be included.

If possible, allow students to select the topic within guidelines. Include unusual
topics or recent current events.

Require some recent sources (magazines, newspapers, journals, etc.) printed or
online.

Examples from required sources (books, web sites, letters, interviews, current
events, etc.) Possibly require a specific number of each.

Require personal examples.

Require personal opinions.

Change topics and assignments from year to year.

Require outlines of ideas or graphic organizers (Inspiration).

Check rough drafts, corrected rough drafts, final copy.

Require specific formatting for the final typed paper.

Possibly require assignments to be e-mailed to you. This would make it very easy to
search the web to check for plagiarism.

Have students turn in printouts of all Internet sites used, photocopies of table of
contents from books used, photocopies of any articles used.

http://www.accd.edu/pac/lrc/plagiarism.htm
http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/faculty/deterring-plagiarism
Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers (Robert Harris) at:
http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm
Plagiarism and Anti-Plagiarism (Heyward Ehrlich - Rutgers University) at:
http://newark.rutgers.edu/~ehrlich/plagiarism598.html
Plagiarism.Org http://www.plagiarism.org/Tutorials

WEB Detection of Plagiarism. What are teachers looking for?

Check to see if the formatting matches what the teacher required.

Check the sentence structure, advanced vocabulary, unusual phrases.

Highlight keywords, unusual phrases, or sentences that could be placed in a search engine
to check for plagiarism. Check any paper that seems suspicious.

Check to see if all parts of the assignment are included. Do any parts sound like they
were just added in and don't match the rest of the paper.

Check to see if it is the right kind of paper; argumentative, analytical, etc.

Check the bibliography for dates of the references. Are they recent or old?

Check to see if your library has the books listed in the bibliography. Check a few of the
Internet resources.

Have students turn in copies of all sources used as mentioned in section 4.

Useful (free) Web Sites
http://www.google.com/advanced_search
http://www.alltheweb.com
http://www.altavista.com/web/adv
http://www.metacrawler.com
http://www.excite.com
http://www.hotbot.com