Plagiarism and How to Immunize Against It!

Information Literacy/Technology Education Integration

Plan Toolkit

South Carolina Department of Education, 2003

What is Plagiarism and When Did It Become a

Problem? How many of you suspect that

plagiarism is a disease at your school?

Have you ever checked student work over the Internet?

Were your suspicions confirmed? Did you confront the student?

Plagiarismis cheating Is lyingstealingis not a new concernis increasingis intellectual theft

Taking words and ideas from another and calling it your own

Plagiarism Has Become a National Epidemic

83% of Who’s Who (1998) said that cheating was pretty common and almost everyone did it!

When caught cheating the most frequent punishment was to “never do it again.”

97.5 students in 1989 let someone copy their work (The State of Americans: this Generation and the Next

51% of high school students did not believe cheating was wrong according to U.S.News and World ReportFrom turnitin.com--

Consider this Are students who don’t cheat at a

disadvantage? Is there too much emphasis put on “winning”

grades? What about parents? Do they support the

school if their child is caught cheating? Are teachers aware of the ease at which

cheating can occur? Do teachers take the initiative and check out

their suspicions?

“This is a game with serious negative consequences for the students, for education, and for society. Time and effort must go into creating a level playing field at each school so students grades will reflect what they have accomplished, not how skillful or daring they have become playing the cheating game.”

Lathrop and Foss, 2000

Methods of Contacting Plagiarism

Turning in another student’s work without that student’s knowledge.

Turning in a paper written by another student with that student’s knowledge

Cutting and pasting and rearranging without providing credit

"Helping Students Avoid Plagiarism," Stephen Wilhoit

Copying a paper without proper credit Copying materials supplying proper documentation, but leaving out quotation marks

Paraphrasing materials from a source without appropriate documentation

Turning in a paper from a "free term paper" website

Buying an already written paper from a research service or term paper mill

"Students who have grown up with the Internet are often unaware that they are plagiarizing, and some of those who are caught can honestly say they just didn't know any better. We see this as a failing of the system, rather than the student, and feel there is a real danger of future generations taking plagiarism for granted."

From turnitin.com--http://www.turnitin.com/about_plagiarism.html

Healthy StudentsStandards

Information Literacy #8:The Information Literate student “practices ethical behavior in regard to information and information technology.”

“respects intellectual property rights”“avoids plagiarism, cites sources property”

Doesn’t copy!

How Prevalent?

Online term paper sites

Maybe 2,000,000 Possible cost resulting from

contact

Depending on quality and length from $5 to $100 +

Contacting the Disease

– Plagiarism services on the Internet– Targeted marketing by the Internet to

assist in research– Search engines point to "the easy way

out" in the form of banner ads. – One click, that’s all– Students looking for shortcuts– Procrastination– Poor time management skills– Fear of writing ability– Pressure for good grades

It’s s

o easy!

It’s s

o easy!

Unlikely to get caughtUnlikely to get caught

MAJOR SymptomsMAJOR Symptoms

Student work goes beyond or does not reflect student capability - too good or too bad (grade-school quality)Unique wordingLack of citationsNo bibliography - dead giveawayToo perfect - none or very few errors contained within it - spelling, syntax, etc.--

Additional Symptoms

Writing steers off topic - Some "on-topic" paragraphs that student self inserts to reflect required subject

Poor layout - Might result from paste and print so none of the original format is retained. Page numbers, headings, spacing, and page breaks are all out of whack

References or cites lectures of a mystery teacher (from “off,” of course)

 Paper contains reference to its own origin on the last page (e.g. "This report is from www.plagiarized.com - join today!") Web address at top or bottom!

WhoopsWhoops

Gray letters in text - indication that page was downloaded because color letters from a web page show up gray when printed

References to charts, graphs and other inserts but they are missing?

Speaks in present tense when making reference to historical person or event

Can’t answer questions or summarize the main point of the project or report

Really Bad Case Ultimate sign of laziness - paper

printed directly from the student's internet browser

References all from books not available in your school, or are from another country    

Old references in bibliography at least by five or ten years old or inactive web pages

So what’s a teacher to do to stop the spread before it

becomes a habitual disease?

Not Your Students? Think againThink again

Take the situation seriously.

It is cheatingIt is cheating

Take a close look at your assignments and consider what you are doing that is contributing to the epidemic

Change the way Change the way research is assignedresearch is assigned

Types of Contributing Assignments

Choose any topic we have studied and write an in depth report

The final product on your research about a famous American will be a Power Point Presentation

Write a two page report about your state Select an animal and write a report with

pictures

What are teachers asking from students in the form of

research?

Just the facts? OR What other people think OR New ideas and synthesis from the student

What’s the challenge?

No Placebos Allowed Assignments should require

Explanationsproblem-solvingchoices decision-making

Lessons based on the essential question/conceptWhy?How?Which is best?

Emphasize Essential Questions

Essential Questions How does music lend to and define the various

American teenage subcultures?

Can AIDS ever be stopped?

What is acid rain?What are the causes

What are the effects What can be done to minimize or reverse the

effect

Require and Enable Students to Provide Own Diagnosis

Time to brainstorm and develop essential questions from the subject matter

Information literacy skills of locating, accessing, using , synthesizing and evaluating information

Finding and using information is not intuitive - it is a skill that demands practice.

Prevention StrategiesAs projects are developed: Supervise Keep all pertinent information about the

assignment Try to store in electronic formats Have the final product submitted on disk

Prevention

Teach bibliographic citation Discuss fair use, copyright

and the Internet with students Talk openly with students - so

they know you know Show them several sites and

have them look at weak papers

Let students know how they are doing before the end

Evaluate the process as it is occurring—require notes, revisions to essential question and topic statement, drafts, annotated bibliography, photocopies of cited references, etc

Provide clear expectations through rubrics/checklists so students get practice at self-assessment

“Have students defend their ideas, not just hand in a written paper.”

Stand up to questions from peers, teachers, experts

Make connections of one idea to another

Defend concepts, show evidence, speculate about next questions

Discuss point of view of a cited author

—Mark Gordon, consultant. (From Lathrop & Foss, 2000)

Have students keep a journal or reflect on progress when working on major assignment

Have students evaluate effectiveness and efficiency of own project

Require that specific ingredients are in the paper

Provide AssistanceSource (Author, title, date, URL, etc.)

Subject:

Keywords:

Abstract:

Have students differentiate between ideas they have collected from others and those ideas which have emerged in reaction to the ideas of others. Green signifies fresh thinking, black ink the ideas of of others. (Jamie McKenzie)

Provide pathways and trails

Teach needed search skills and strategies

Teach guidelines for citing sources properly

Use an agreed upon format. What needs to be included?

Define to students what citing a source means

Define situations where a source should be cited

Information Process

Number 1Task for Teachers

Develop Good Assignments

Number 1Task for Teachers

Develop Good Assignments

What is the question?

Information Process

Exactly what is it that students are to achieve and what is the criteria that assesses achievement?

Keeping the Disease ContainedTeacher Must Know:

•What do you want your students to accomplish?•What do you really want them to learn?•What are the skills that you are addressing?•What do they need to know in the content area?•What do they need to know related to process?

“Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”

-B. F. Skinner

Detection Devices Need to check a passage? Cut, paste line of

text into GoogleWorks for tracing text found on web

Try searching in several search engines - with quotes and without

Locating within a document - Toolbar-Edit-Find, type search string

Try suspect phrases or paragraphs from different parts of the report. Same URL comes up? Probable cause to suspect plagiarismtry several engines before you give uplocate some appropriate databases on the Invisible Web (http://www.virtualsalt.com/search.htm)

Home site of papermill? Check student bibliography

There she is!

Don’t Try to Use Band Aids

Insurance Policies?

Subscription services- get trial for dates student work is due

Turnitin.com @ www.turnitin.com - online subscription

Easy Verification Engine -EVE -a low cost, effective plagiarism detection tool for teachers that is extremely easy to use http://www.canexus.com/eve/index.shtml

GLATT Plagiarism Service @ www.plagiarism.com - screening program and teaching program

Treatment for

Identified Cases

Gather evidence

Substantiate what you believe

Follow the official policies and procedures defined by district and school

Decide who must be informed

Parent discovery? - the issue is between parent and child

Meet formally with the student.Present your case and explain the consequences to the student

Be sure that there are Be sure that there are

consequences.consequences.

Expect a defense denial from the student

The library media specialist is the key player in teaching

ethical use of information

Healthy Prevention Practices

Recognize the problem as being very serious

Ask what you are doing to contribute to the problem because of the assignments you are giving to students

Teach students about intellectual property

Teach students how to cite properly

Learn strategies to combat the problem

Devise a StrategyHelp teachers with the problem and with projects that discourage plagiarism

Use deadlines and checkpoints for student work

Be sure that procedures and consequences are known to students and communicated more than once

When students get papers from the Internet - Know how they achieved it - credit card, cash, free, time at school etc

Devise a Strategy

Work with teachers to develop assignments that require student to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information

Reexamine how research skills are taught and reinforced

Spend time upfront teaching kids what is right and fair

Prevention is the important element in the fight against plagiarism

With your help, we can eradicate the disease!

ResourcesAsking Good Questions: Ensuring Higher-Order Thinking in the Research Process, Big6

Conference: Impact on Instruction. August 11, 2001, Presented by Barbara A. Jansen, St. Andrew’s Episcopal High School, Austin, TX.

Janoski, Adam. “Plagiarism:Prevention, Not Prosecution.” The Book Report, Sept/Oct (2002)

McKenzie, Jamie. Beyond Technology: Questioning, Research and the Information Literate School. Bellingham, WA: FNO Press. 2000.

Lincoln, Margaret. “lnternet Plagiarism: an Agenda for Staff Inservice and Student Awareness.” Multimedia Schools. Jan/Feb (2002).

Lathrop, Ann and Kathleen Foss. Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era. Libraries Unlimited, 2000.

Willems, Harry. “Plagiarism @ Your School.” Library Media Collection. February (2003).

Web Resources www.plagiarized.com

Assistance available www.aresearchguide.com/6plagiar.html

Information on researching for students and teachers www.funbrain.com

Grade 4-8 student plagiarism survey www.eire.org/redesign.html

Suggestions for changing teacher methods for avoiding plagiarism www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/plagiarism/handouts.html

Student guides, tips, links www.fno.org/may98/cov98may.html

Seven solutions to plagiarism

More to the Pot http://plagiarism.phys.virginia.edu/Wsoftware.html Plagiarism Resource Site-Software to detect plagiarism: WCopyfind www.standrews.austin.tx.us/library

Big6 advocate and information literacy expert www.doug-johnson.com/ethics/index.html

Doug Johnson’s “Resources for teaching information technology ethics to

children and young adults” http://www.wiu.edu/users/mfbhl/wiu/plagiarism.htm Plagiarism and the Web www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm

Prevention and detection strategies Alexia.lis.uiue.edu/%7Ejanicke/plagiary.htm

Tips for prevention and detection

Paper Mills for Plagiarism www.jaberwocky.com/cheat/index2.html www.cheathouse.com www.bignerds.com www.academictermpapers.com www.a1-termpaper.com/ www.research-assistance.com/ http://www.schoolsucks.com/ http://www.oppapers.com/ http://www.freepapers.com/ http://www.ezwrite.com/ http://www.a1-termpaper.com/ http://www.geniuspapers.com/

Helpful websites for Students

http://www.standrews.austin.tx.us/library/ResearchPaperOrganizer.htm Big6Research Paper Organizer

http://www.ri.net/schools/East_Greenwich/research.htmlSo you have to do a  Research Project?

http://library.ust.hk/serv/skills/libskill.html

Ten Steps to a Research Paper http://www.noodletools.com/

A suite of interactive tools designed to aid students and

teachers with online research http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html#original

Assistance in avoiding plagiarism

For TeachersWriting a research questionhttp://www.zooscope.oregonzoo.org/TeacherSite/t11_writing_research_question.html

Research Problemshttp://www.wiu.edu/users/mfeam/week2.htm

A listing of webquests for studentshttp://surfaquarium.com/webquest.htm