Do you ever assign research papers, presentations, projects, or podcasts to your students? Do you ever have students who need extra support when conducting research or applied research? Do you ever have students who improperly cite sources? Do you ever have students who do not seem to understand the concept of citation or how to complete in-text citations and end references? Do you have students who struggle with academic integrity?

Avoiding Plagiarism

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Plagiarism is using someone else’s words or ideas without giving credit to that person. Not only is it an issue in academia, but it is also a real problem in the workforce (Jones, 2011). Sometimes plagiarism is unintentional, where the student simply does not know how to cite sources properly. Other times, plagiarism is quite intentional.

Avoiding plagiarism requires a suite of skills that require practice to perfect. We cannot assume that students have mastered paraphrasing, summarizing, quoting, or citing sources across different types of media upon entering post secondary. Likewise, we cannot expect first term students to come in having mastered the same skill level as a final term student (Duff, Rogers, & Harris, 2006). If we mark students on these skills, then students should receive some teaching on how to master these skills, just as with other concepts within the curriculum. Every assignment requiring some type of research provides a learning opportunity to improve on these skills through pre-assignment instruction and post-assignment feedback.

VariationsNone.

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Watch a two-minute video about plagiarism from CommonCraft

Plagiarism

ExamplesUse your imagination. What could your students conduct research about? What would be an appropriate research topic for your students? Only you know what would be authentic to your field of study, your curriculum, and your students. To get started, consider these ideas:

Visual Arts•Script proposal•Music review•Compare / contrast essay•Editorial

Health & Community Studies•Briefing Note•Policy review•Classification essay•Grant proposal

Science & Technology•Hypothesis and method•Patent review•Lab report•Technology report

Business Administration•Product pitch•Travel review•Sales report•Marketing plan

Humanities & Social Sciences•Proposal and annotated bibliography•Book review•Cause and effect essay•Article

MeritsWhen we set up students for success by teaching good research and documentation skills, we can reduce the incidence of unintentional plagiarism. Changing the way we design assignments, can impact the quality of student writing and citing. Using higher order thinking creative topics and scaffolding assignments lead to better quality student work. It is

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important to embed writing skills in the curriculum and provide early interventions for at risk students. One day citations may be as simple as an electronic click (Mazar, 2013).

Higher Order Research. Targeting only low order knowledge and comprehension leads to plagiarism because it has already been written and regurgitated. If students can simply complete the assignment by cutting and pasting from the Internet, what incentive is there not to? Use a twist - use an original idea - use a creative approach. Cheat proof your students’ assignments by making them “much harder to plagiarize” (Mazar, 2012). Ask students to include personal reflection in their papers. Compare unlikely events from different eras like the invention of the printing press meets the 3D printer. Use current media as topics, such as TV episodes, to prevent essays from being sold from senior to junior students year after year. For literature essays, students can write a prequel or sequel, retell the story from another character voice, or combine characters from various genres (Hamalainen, 2007; Mazar, 2012). Not only does this creative approach avoid plagiarism, but it also improves the quality or writing, raises academic standards, reflects well on the profile of professors, and elevates the institution’s reputation.

Scaffolding. When designing an assignment and a rubric or rating scale, scaffold the process into manageable chunks with grade checkpoints for providing formative feedback, assessment, and evaluation; provide grades for the process steps. First, show students samples of what the assignment and its process steps should look like; make the expectations clear and ensure all students received the same information and definitions. Then, have students start with a proposal and annotated bibliography - the more original the proposal parameters the less opportunity to plagiarize. Make class time for researching and writing or allocate some in-class time for writing workshop or one-to-one with you. Next, have students submit their rough notes, summaries, and paraphrases with citations. After that, have students submit their outlines and eventual first drafts. Finally, have students submit their polished final copy. Scaffold the rubric or rating scale to reflect the process versus the product and award marks for creativity, originality, and proper citations (Duff, Rogers, & Harris, 2006; Hamalainen, 2007).

Embed in Curriculum. To contribute to the development of an ethical, respectful, conscientious mindset, embed research writing skills into the curriculum (East & Donnelly, 2012). Teach students to develop attention to detail, writing, and critical thinking. Show them how to research and how to write. They do not arrive at post-secondary with these skills. Scaffold assignments and have meetings with students (Okoro, 2011).

Early Interventions. Workshops to support students in transition reduces unintentional plagiarism by teaching North American expectations for research writing through workshops and tutorials. Most libraries offer workshops on how to search for and cite

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sources. Identify at risk students and refer them to a peer workshop like a “writer’s circle” or to a learning tutor (Duff, Rogers, & Harris, 2006). Set the stage for student success by previewing and reviewing documentation expectations for each and every assignment in terms of research skills and note-taking skills as well as in-text citations and end references. Additionally, build a grading rubric or rating scale that encourages and rewards originality and creativity along with proper citations rather than penalizing students who are still learning how to cite properly.

Discuss Ethics. When students recognize that plagiarism is serious, they may be less inclined to commit intentional plagiarism. Talk about the value of accreditation in our society and the ramifications of copyright and patent infringement. Provide students with subject-specific scenarios of plagiarism. Examine a list of resources, discuss if attribution is necessary, and create a citation for each. In the arts, this might be a movie, a song, a video game, or a photograph whereas in technology, this might be a code segment, software, patent, or blueprint.

Academic Integrity Ambassadors. Have students act as academic integrity ambassadors by having upper year students mentor their first year peers. Conduct a role play with a student, professor, dean, family, and friends before a judiciary panel. Let students decide the verdict and penalty. Ask students to create a plagiarism webquest, game, or app!

Collaboration. Working collaboratively is a cultural norm in some societies. To accommodate our many international students, consider collaborative papers, presentations, projects, and podcasts. Not only will this inclusive practice invite students into the North American style of education, but it is also beneficial to all learners. Collaborative or group writing enhances discovery, problem-solving, audience, and voice. It also reduces editing errors and parallels professional writing in the real world (Woolever, 1991).

Social Media. Compare and contrast citation habits of social media like Twitter and Tumblr with the documentation styles used in academic research. Social media has a long history of a community-driven need to credit owners of original work and ideas (Mazar, 2013). Alternatively, use short paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting practice through blog entries. Turn those blog posts into reflective papers. Students could even collaborate on and build a blog or wiki (Mazar, 2012).

ChallengesThere are multiple causes for acts of plagiarism including cultural, social, and/or financial pressures. Writing skill levels and language barriers complicate the issue. What constitutes plagiarism varies widely amongst students. Antagonistic attitudes from students towards

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writing skills leads to an apathetic view towards citation, particularly when students do not see the skill set as relevant to their career path. For educators, there is a lack of in-class time which is necessary to teach skills for avoiding plagiarism.

Transition to Post Secondary. Students entering post secondary often lack study skills, time management skills, research skills, and writing skills (Rolfe, 2011; Duff et al, 2006). Even students who have earned a grade twelve English credit in high school, may not have learned how to write a strong essay or use proper citations. In addition, for some students, there is also a transition from exam-based curriculum to writing research reports (Duff et al, 2006). We need to teach these skills to students and review on each and every assignment.

Internationalism. For international students, the transition to North American academic expectations can be particularly challenging. In some cultures, the collective - the group is more important than the individual. Therefore, collaborating on work is the norm. The notion of the self and asserting your own opinions, may be quite foreign for some cultures. Further, in some cultures the norm is not to cite due to the notion that the authority of the authority and his or her knowledge is so commonplace that it belongs “to the realm of collective ownership” (Duff et al, 2006).

The Internet. Internet usage is up, and, likewise, cheating from the Internet is up (Jones, 2011). Students believe that because information online is public they do not need to cite it, just include the hyperlink. Students see research as cutting and pasting from the Internet (Rolfe, 2011), and it is just so easy to do (Jones, 2011). Rochelle Mazar suggests that one day, we might cite the way we do with social media re-tweets, re-posts, and re-pins that link back to the original source electronically (2013). In the meantime, it is important to reinforce digital citizenship at school where “academic honesty” mirrors “workplace ethics” (Jones, 2011).

Attitudes about Plagiarism. Many students admit that they would cheat if they thought that they would not get caught. Few students avoid plagiarism for ethical reasons. Most students have or know someone who has cheated (Jones, 2011). As a result, most academic institutions have academic integrity policies, tutorials, and originality checking software. Some have adopted academic integrity ambassador programs.

Lack of Student Time. Many students cheat because they have no time to research and write an essay. Some students work part time and even full time jobs to pay their way through school. Others, work to contribute to the family income as well. Today students may have children at home to take care of or even elderly parents to care for. As Silverman says, they “are not bad guys, they’re just guys trying to get by “ (Silverman, 2002).

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Lack of Professor Time. Unfortunately, for many of us, there simply is not enough time to teach academic skills like research writing. There is so much content to cover, that it is difficult to devote class time to learning about researching and writing. Therefore, this is often done as homework without guided feedback from peers and professors. When we embed and scaffold research skills into the curriculum and the classroom, we get a better quality of writing from our students. The more guided practice we give, the more opportunity for early intervention we have.

Instructional DesignUse a backwards design approach. First, start with your learning outcomes. Second, create your assessments. Third, plan your instructional activities. Finally, choose a technology to enhance the lesson.

Design. Consider your curriculum; look carefully at your accreditation standards, graduate attributes, program learning outcomes, course learning outcomes, and lesson learning outcomes. Will a research paper, presentation, project, or podcast fulfill the learning outcomes? How will you evaluate what the students research? What technologies will you and your students need to learn in order to conduct research? Will research enhance the learning experience?

Develop. Review the kinds of research practices common in your field of practice, for example, correlational, causal-comparative, experimental, narrative, ethnographic, and action. Reflect on your own research practices in your academic and professional career. Consider what writing formats and technology platforms are common. Examine the kinds of academic journals that exist in your discipline and the type of documentation style commonly used.

Types of research writing. While most academic research papers follow a similar format of introduction, thesis, premises, and conclusion, there are various styles of writing. Some rhetorical modes include description, narration, definition, exposition, exemplification, process, classification, compare/contrast, cause/effect, persuasion, and argument. In business writing, a student might write a proposal or a report that may include bulleted lists and charts. A report for social sciences might be a briefing note. For science writing, students write lab reports using IMRaD - Introduction, Method, Results, and Discussion and include graphs and tables. LabWrite is a software application from North Carolina State University that guides students through the process of writing a lab report using IMRaD.

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Types of documentation styles. Many disciplines use the publication style of the leading academic journal in the field. Otherwise, there are four leading documentation styles commonly used:

• American Psychological Association (APA)• Modern Language Association (MLA)• Chicago• Council of Science Editors (CSE)

Social sciences, including education, often use name-citation style of APA; however, for sociology there is also the American Sociological Association (ASA) and the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA). Literature uses name citation style of MLA. Humanities, in particular history, often use the footnote style of Chicago. The sciences and engineering often use CSE, which has multiple styles including a number citation style - Vancouver and a name citation style - Harvard (not the same as the Harvard Law style).

Deliver. Decide what students will do before, during, and after their research paper, presentation, project, or podcast. For instance, you may require that students submit an annotated bibliography, proposal, research notes, outline, and draft. During the research process, you may have students do peer review on each other’s drafts. Consider including a checklist and grades for the research process in addition to a rubric or rating scale with heavy points weighted for originality and proper citations in addition to content and style. Model, teach, and review kinds of writing and presenting, documentation styles, and unintentional plagiarism for each and every assignment. The research process and product should be authentic, active, and applied.

Look at what Sheridan College is doing with academic integrity! Faculty assigned librarians can host in-course workshops on finding sources in

the Library and on the Web; choosing and evaluating sources; and citing properly. The Library has an Academic Integrity Tutorial video in four languages: English, Hindi, Punjabi, and Mandarin. Academic Integrity Remediation Librarians can work with students who have plagiarized. Students can also get help from their Faculty assigned librarian and Lib

Guide or meet with the English Tutors from The Learning Centre.

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TechnologyFor students to research or collaborate on research, there are some great Google tools. in addition to the Library databases, Google Scholar is a great resources for finding journal articles, book, and even patents. With a Gmail account, students can collaborate on a group paper using Google Docs; similarly, they can use Zoho Docs by setting up an account with the email of their choice. Likewise, to compile a list for an annotated bibliography, students can use social bookmarking sites. While there are tools for creating a bibliography like RefWorks, BibMe, and even Microsoft Word, students still need to know the component parts of a citation and how to format a citation properly to be successful with the software.

There are many online resources about how to do proper citations. One very popular website is the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University. It has samples for APA, MLA, and Chicago. Bedford St. Martin’s publishes a print and online book, Research and Documentation in the Electronic Age, which has samples for the big four research styles: APA, MLA, Chicago, and CSE. As we move towards becoming a university, we may disseminate research in the documentation style of the discipline not just in APA. A well-researched source is the Documentation Styles by Discipline website at Trent University. It has over 25 documentation styles used in various disciplines.

In alignment with Academic Integrity, we want to encourage students to use proper citation and documentation practices to avoid unintentional plagiarism. A quick Google search will often reveal plagiarized passages, and there is software, like SafeAssign and TurnItIn, to help students and professors discuss unintentional plagiarism. You may use TurnItIn for formative feedback (Rolfe, 2011) or as an intervention to support students. However, avoid using the tool to simply fail or discipline students for breach of academic integrity. When used as an intervention, TurnItIn, can reduce the incidence of unintentional plagiarism.

TurnItIn provides students with a score on an originality report, OriginalityCheck. The score shows students where they improperly cited. Students and professors should then discuss

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BibMe

RefWorks

Microsoft Word

this originality score to teach students how to cite properly. The software also has features for online grading and feedback, GradeMark. There is also another feature for peer feedback called PeerMark. Simply viewing the originality report is not enough; professors and students must discuss the originality report Betts, Bostock, Elder, & Trueman, 2012).

ReferencesBetts, L.R., Bostock, S.J., Elder, T.J., & Trueman, M. (2012). Encouraging good writing

practices in first-year psychology students: An intervention using Turnitin. Psychology Teaching Review, 18(2), p.74-81. Retrieved from Sheridan College Library

Duff, A.H., Rogers, D.P., & Harris, M.B. (2006). International engineering students -- Avoiding plagiarism through understanding the Western context of scholarship. European Journal of Engineering Education, 31(6), p.673-691. Retrieved from Sheridan College Library

East, J. & Donnelly, L. (2012). Taking responsibility for academic integrity: A collaborative teaching and learning design. Journal of University Teaching and Learning and Learning Practice, 9(3). Available from Sheridan College Library

Jones, D.R. (2011). Academic dishonesty: Are more students cheating?. Business Communication Quarterly, 74(2), p.141-15o. Retrieved from Sheridan College Library

Hamalainen, M. (2007). Useful tips on avoiding plagiarism. Library Media Collection, 25(6), p.40-41. Retrieved from Sheridan College Library

Mazar, R. (2013, May 8). Citation and social media [Episode 17]. Bibliotech. Retrieved from http://www.universityaffairs.ca/episode-17-of-bibliotech-citation-and-social-media.aspx

Mazar, R. (2012, November 28). Plagiarism [Episode 13]. Bibliotech. Retrieved from http://www.universityaffairs.ca/episode-13-of-bibliotech-plagiarism.aspx

Okoro, E.A. (2011). Academic integrity and student plagiarism: Guided instructional strategies for business communications assignments. Business Communication Quarterly, 72(4), p.173-178. Retrieved from Sheridan College Library

Rolfe, V. (2011). Can Turnitin be used to provide instant formative feedback?. British Journal of Educational Technology, 42(4), p.701-710. Retrieved from Sheridan College Library

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Silverman, G. (2002, July 15). It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s plagiarism buster!. Newsweek, 140(3), p.12. Retrieved from Sheridan College Library

Woolever, K.R. (1991). Reassessing the role of collaborative writing in advanced composition. Proceedings from the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, Boston, MA.

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Written by Paula OggPhotography by Jonathan Eger

AcknowledgementsKathleen Oakey

Contributing Author Avoiding PlagiarismCredits

Bookry LtdCommon Craft LLC

© Centre for Teaching & Learning 2016Published by Sheridan College

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No part of this material may be reproduced without express written permission

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