Plagiarism Guidelines: A help or a hindrance

Diane Schmitt

Nottingham Trent University

What is plagiarism?• Plagiarism is an academic offence defined by

the University whereby a student gains or attempts to gain an un-permitted academic advantage. Such acts include using another person’s work and submitting it with the intent that it should be taken as a student’s own work. Academic offences may incur penalties up to and including expulsion from the university.

(School of English, University of Nottingham)

What is plagiarism?• Plagiarism is an academic offence defined by

the University whereby a student gains or attempts to gain an un-permitted academic advantage. Such acts include using another person’s work and submitting it with the intent that it should be taken as a student’s own work. Academic offences may incur penalties up to and including expulsion from the university.

(School of English, University of Nottingham)

University of Waikato

• What happens if you don't follow this advice? When one of your teachers thinks that one of your assignments has problems with acknowledgement and referencing, he or she has to decide whether to treat it as a mistake or as misconduct – i.e. plagiarism. If they decide it is a mistake they are likely to explain the mistake to you, so you don't make it again, and they will give the assignment a mark that reflects, among other things, the inappropriate acknowledgement and referencing. You are expected to learn quickly how to acknowledge correctly by using the appropriate style of referencing, and you will be told all about this in your first classes and in handouts you will receive, so don't expect your teachers to tolerate mistakes for very long!

University of Waikato

• What happens if you don't follow this advice? When one of your teachers thinks that one of your assignments has problems with acknowledgement and referencing, he or she has to decide whether to treat it as a mistake or as misconduct – i.e. plagiarism. If they decide it is a mistake they are likely to explain the mistake to you, so you don't make it again, and they will give the assignment a mark that reflects, among other things, the inappropriate acknowledgement and referencing. You are expected to learn quickly how to acknowledge correctly by using the appropriate style of referencing, and you will be told all about this in your first classes and in handouts you will receive, so don't expect your teachers to tolerate mistakes for very long!

An Example of a Plagiarist

An Example of a Plagiarist

Understanding the Issues

• Plagiarism is a problem

Understanding the Issues

• Plagiarism is a problem

• Writing is also perceived to be a problem

Writing appears to be a problem

Finding some Solutions

• Avoiding Plagiarism

Avoiding Plagiarism – A red herring?

Plagiarism

Avoiding Plagiarism – A red herring?

Plagiarism Absence of Plagiarism

Avoiding Plagiarism – A red herring?

Plagiarism Absence of Plagiarism

Preventing or avoiding plagiarism does not, in and of itself, lead to good writing or the achievement of assessment criteria.

Reconsidering the language of prevention and avoidance

Other aspects of writing

Current situation Promotepoor paragraphing effective organisationunfocused text good argumentationsubject-verb disagreement good lexico-

grammatical choices

These aspects of writing are judged on a cline of more or less successful performance. Moving to the right demonstrating ability to create a more effective text.(Pecorari, 2008)

Reconsidering the language of prevention and avoidance

Use of sources Prevent Promote

avoid plagiarism effective use of source texts

Various degrees of effective or non-effective source use are rarely, if ever, included in grading rubrics. Failure to use sources effectively and correctly is criminalised and in these cases the cline is in relation to the level of punishment the student receives.

Finding some Solutions

• Avoiding Plagiarism

• Improving Student Writing

Sources in Writing

• Certainly, you need to put references in your work, but that’s not enough on its own. You also need to show that you are using the material, not just getting Professor X to write your essay.

• There is no guidance on how you might use the material.

A different approach

• from Monash University

What’s missing from many approaches to plagiarism?

• Complexity

What are the reasons for plagiarism?

What are the causes of plagiarism?

What are the causes of plagiarism?

• Procrastination

• Incomplete understanding of original material

• Citation errors

• Poor notetaking

What are the causes of plagiarism?

• Procrastination• Incomplete understanding of original material

• Avoid using any source with which you are not completely comfortable. As a general rule, if you cannot restate the main idea in your own words without referring back to the original source, then you should not use this source for your own work.

• Citation errors• Poor notetaking

What are the reasons for pl

Another point about subject knowledge

Common Knowledge

• If something is not common knowledge, or if you are not certain whether it is or not, cite the source. During the course of your studies, you will need to be able to distinguish between different kinds of common knowledge: common knowledge for the general public and common knowledge for a specialized audience.

• What is common knowledge depends on who you are and where you are in your studies.

What’s missing from the approaches so far?

• Who is missing from most of the documents above?

• The teacher– Language teacher– Writing teacher– Subject teacher

• Pedagogy for Using Sources• Understanding teachers’ roles in raising students

awareness of when, why and where sources should be used in student writing.

Working with staff

• Encourage subject staff to take on some of the responsibility for ensuring that students understand what is expected of them in academic writing – particularly with regard to use of sources.

Comments in the margin

Turning these questions on their head

Guidance given to students in course handbooks• Your essay will be marked with reference to the

analytical content of your answer.• You need to explain this more clearly. What do mean by analytical or critical?

• Your writing must be logically organised• Give some examples.

• You must demonstrate familiarity with the relevant literature

•What do you mean here?

Some Models

• BA (Hons) Fashion Marketing and Branding

• The Size Zero Debate• 4000 word essay

• How do you organize the essay?

• Where do you find sources?

How can you be a model?

• Take your students through a topic or question and demonstrate a variety of ways to approach it

• Demonstrate where to look for sources and how to evaluate them

An analysis of writing guidelines

• Lea and Street (1999) examine writing guides and marking criteria made available to students and feedback forms used in assessing student writing to understand the “underlying and implicit theoretical frames” that staff use to guide their own practice and the practice they wish to see from students.

An analysis of writing guidelines

• They point out that these texts tend to exist at three different levels – institutional, departmental and individual and provide insights into the implicit assumptions held at each level about writing.

Lea and Street conclude:

• When documents that explain “how to write” are contrasted across disciplines and fields of study, it becomes apparent how different they are and how what appears to be normal practice and common sense in one discipline may not be so in another.

Lea and Street conclude:

• When documents that explain “how to write” are contrasted across disciplines and fields of study, it becomes apparent how different they are and how what appears to be normal practice and common sense in one discipline may not be so in another.

• The information about writing is presented as uncontestable truths despite the fact that the truths espoused by one discipline may contradict those of another.

Lea and Street conclude:

• When documents that explain “how to write” are contrasted across disciplines and fields of study, it becomes apparent how different they are and how what appears to be normal practice and common sense in one discipline may not be so in another.

• The information about writing is presented as uncontestable truths despite the fact that the truths espoused by one discipline may contradict those of another.

• They also imply that once these truths have been imparted to students, any failure to meet writing requirements is a problem with the student.

Issues that remain• Plagiarism is complex

– There is a lack of agreement on what is and isn’t included• Working sources into a text is a complicated skill• Current approaches to “avoiding plagiarism”

• take little account of how well students understand content

• take little account of the point students are at in their studies

• don’t require teachers to have an understanding of how students approach their writing

• don’t require teachers to take responsibility for helping students beyond mechanical issues with writing

Things to do

• Continue to develop good teaching for students

• Start conversations with academic staff outside of EFL or the writing centre• Encourage them to think about the writing

processes their students use and those they would prefer them to use

• Engage them in discussion about the assessment rubrics they use.

Sources

• http://dissc.tees.ac.uk/plagiarism/Contents.htm• http://dissc.tees.ac.uk/plagiarism/Contents.htm• http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/general/ess

ay/1.xml• Lea, M. and Street, B. (1999). Writing as academic

literacies: Understanding textual practices in higher education. In C. Candlin and K. Hyland (eds). Writing: Texts, processes and practices. pp. 62-81. London: Longman.

• Pecorari, D. (2008). Academic writing and plagiarism: A linguistic analysis. London: Continuum.