“Not Another Plagiarized Paper!": Strategies for Helping Students Avoid the Plagiarism Trap

1. “Not Another Plagiarized Paper!": Strategies for Helping Students Avoid the Plagiarism Trap Patricia Becker-Johnson, Teacher Education Kate Mangelsdorf, English (Rhetoric and Writing Studies)

2. We know why students plagiarize… • Students are deceitful • Students are lazy • Students can’t write • The English Department isn’t doing its job

3. Why Students Say They Plagiarize • I’m desperate • I need an A in this class • I don’t understand how to document sources • I don’t have enough time • I didn’t think anyone would really read my paper

4. Our Responses to Plagiarism • Emotional Responses * Disappointment * Anger * Betrayal of Trust * Insult • We focus on detection, not instruction

5. Complicating “Plagiarism” • Postmodern concepts • Cultural assumptions • Situational differences • Accidental • Deliberate

6. “Plagiarism”: Postmodern Assumptions • Is there new information out there to be found? • Bakhtin (1981) argues words do not belong to a single individual… • Every word spoken or written draws on ideas of others • Newton: to see farther we must stand on the shoulders of giants

7. “Plagiarism”: Cultural Assumptions • Individualistic cultures • Truth derives from original insight • Authors own their own texts (capitalism) • Intellectual property laws

8. “Plagiarism: Cultural Assumptions • Communal Cultures • Truth derives from the group • Texts are communally owned • Using words of others is sign of respect • Memorization of respected texts

9. “Plagiarism”: Situational Differences • Speechwriters • Ghostwriters • Boilerplate language • Collaborative workplace writing • Mission statements • SACS verbiage

10. “Plagiarism”: Accidental • Students don’t understand why citing sources is important • Students don’t transfer what they learned in first-year composition to other classes • Students forget because they don’t write very often • Students think only English teachers care

11. It’s Not Easy to Correctly Use Sources! • Cognitive challenges • Linguistic and rhetorical skills • Knowledge of the discipline

12. Cognitive Challenges • You need to . . . • Understand what you’re trying to say • Understand what the source is saying • Understand how your idea connects with the source’s idea

13. Linguistic and Rhetorical Skills • You need • Strong vocabulary to paraphrase • Sentence skills to integrate ideas • Textual knowledge for cohesion

14. Disciplinary Knowledge • You need to be able to • Identify common knowledge and jargon in the field • Identify knowledge unique to the source • Understand citation system in the field • Know how to cite ever-changing digital sources

15. “Plagiarism”: Deliberate • “The unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.” – Dictionary.com (based on Random House Dictionary) • Academic dishonesty: Submitting another person’s work as your own

16. How Students Plagiarize Cut ‘N Paste • Online journals from library databases and various internet texts • Several sources • Sentence, paragraph, or the whole paper • Sudden shifts in tone and vocabulary • Fake citations

17. How Students Plagiarize Recycle Used Paper • Internet paper, friend’s paper, student’s own paper • Re-format • Use “find” and “replace” to update • Fake citations

18. How Students Plagiarize Digital Paper Mills • Hundreds of sites • Thousands of topics • Charge by the page or paper • Papers written to order

19. Other Peoples Papers.com • “Isn't this plagiarism?No. If you hand in a paper from this site or any other you are committing plagiarism. There is nothing wrong with publishing papers on the internet. • Can I get caught using this site?If you are cheating there is always a chance you will get caught. Teachers know about this site so think twice before handing in a paper you did not write. • Do teachers know about this site?Yes. Teachers all over the world know about this site. They can't stop us, but they can catch you.” • http://www.oppapers.com/add-quote.php

20. Techniques to Combat Plagiarism • Assign major paper in parts…work on drafts • Model how YOU combine other’s work with your own • The assignment is a process that is continually being built upon • Do not recycle topics semester after semester

21. Activity • How can you help your students avoid the plagiarism trap? • Deliberate plagiarism • Academic dishonesty • Accidental plagiarism

22. REAP: Read, Encode, Annotate, Ponder • Read the Text • Encode into your own language • Annotate by writing the message down • Ponder; think about it

23. REAP: Read, Encode, Annotate, Ponder • Show students examples of annotations in actual content area’s writing

24. GIST: Generating Interactions between Schemata and Text • Start off by showing students how to paraphrase one sentence at a time • Add another sentence to be paraphrased • Combine with previous paraphrase into one sentence • Finally, paraphrase entire paragraph in one sentence

25. I-Chart Topic: Subtopic: What I Already Know: Interesting Related Facts: Key Words or People: New Questions to Research:

26. Resources to Fight Plagiarism • http://www.plagiarism.org/ • http://www.turnitin.com • http://www.howoriginal.net/ • http://www.canexus.com/ • http://www.wordchecksystems.com/ • Google

27. Resources to Help Students • Online writing lab at Purdue University: owl.english.purdue.edu • UTEP Dean of Students Office: Studentaffairs.utep.edu (click on “student conduct”) • Refworks (online citation system): libraryweb.utep.edu (click on “Library Services,” then “for students.”

28. A Word from Our Sponsor: UTEP • Office of the Dean Step 1: Paper, test, assignment receives an “I” Step 2: Send Dean of Students a letter detailing offense with appropriate documentation Step 3: Dean of Students will contact student in question and meet with them Step 4: Final decision will be made by Dean of Students: Instructor and Student will be notified by letter