Strategies for deterring plagiarism
At the Â鶹ӳ» we define plagiarism as: “(1) the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results or words without giving appropriate credit; (2) the submission of ideas, processes, results or words not developed by the student specifically for the coursework at hand without the appropriate credit being given; or (3) assisting in the act of plagiarism by allowing one’s work to be used as described above.” (University Administrative Manual)
Student plagiarism is often unintentional and derives from a lack of knowledge of ethical citation practices or proper integration of sources. Intentional plagiarism happens too, sometimes in the form of a panic-based decision and other times an intentional decision to break the rules. (, )
Though ultimately it is the responsibility of students to learn the correct citation practices, there are still a number of strategies instructors can employ to discourage plagiarism (adapted from and James Lang Cheating Lessons, 2013). Some strategies include:
- State clear policies regarding plagiarism and its consequences in the course syllabus.
- As you clarify policies, consider department policies as well as the University Administrative Manual.
- Teach students discipline-specific ethical citation practices, including what plagiarism is, and why and how to avoid it in your discipline.
- Teachers often assume that students have already been taught ethical citation practices and what constitutes plagiarism; in reality, some students may have little to no experience with this topic at all (Pearson, 2011).
- Research shows that specifically addressing plagiarism in the classroom can be one of the most effective strategies for helping students avoid it (Thomas & Sassi, 2011).
- Consider sharing resources with your students on using sources and avoiding plagiarism, such as:
- and Canvas Commons courses on citation
- Help students to develop strong reading and media literacy skills in your discipline.
- Discuss methods for locating and analyzing a variety of different sources from varying points of view.
- Discuss with students how to evaluate the credibility of sources (see for example, ).
- Design assignments to discourage plagiarism (Heckler et al., 2013) and to encourage intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy of learners (Lang, 2013).
- Design for intrinsic motivation of students in the assignment: ask interesting and authentic questions that require active processing of content, invite students to relate personally to topics and give students choice when possible.
- Ground writing assignments in specific contexts that will vary over time: i.e. a specific time/place/event in the news or related to students’ lives.
- Scaffold writing assignments with lower stakes assignments building to bigger and higher stakes assignments. For a high stakes research paper, you might ask students to first submit a brainstorm on their topic, then a bibliography, then an annotated bibliography, then an outline of a paper, then a rough draft and then a final draft.
- At all stages of the writing process, consider incorporating Turnitin as a learning tool (along with other integrated WebCampus tools such as Rubrics and Peer Review).
- See additional strategies for discouraging plagiarism in the and .