Online access to bodies of work by authors, artists, and performers may be fueling an increase in plagiarism. Plagiarism has been around for years, but with the Internet, it has become easier to cut and paste, creating papers in minutes.
Defining Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the copying of work in writing, art, or music, without giving attribution or recognition to the creator of that work. It is different from copyright infringement, because plagiarism is presenting another person’s work as if it were one’s own.
Plagiarism may be intentional, such as when a person downloads a term paper or report from one of the many online academic paper mills, or copies whole paragraphs of another person’s work without giving the author credit. It may be unintentional, such as when a person writes a paper, recalling information he read previously, but without giving proper credit to the author.
How Plagiarism Can be Detected
- A teacher may recognize the writing is not in the student’s voice. In the case of younger students, the paper may use words or expressions clearly beyond their level of vocabulary.
- If a student copies from the Internet and does not remove the formatting it will appear as differing fonts, spacing, and margins in the paper.
- The bibliography and citations may be outdated or missing.
- A teacher who reads widely in the academic journals may recognize some of the writing if it appears in a student paper.
- Plagiarism detection software can be purchased or used online. These check for originality, proper citations, and sometimes allow grading onscreen. The downside of this method of detection is the teacher must spend a great deal of time searching for suspect papers. It is also based on a certain level of distrust in the student/teacher relationship.
What Teachers Can do to Prevent Plagiarism
- At the elementary and secondary level, send report guidelines home and ask the parents to proofread the reports and discuss them with the students. At the college level, require peer group discussions with notes and reports back.
- Have a class discussion about plagiarism. Talk about what it is, how it is detected, and what happens to students who plagiarize. Let the students know that the teachers are aware of paper mill sites on the Internet, and the types of papers they offer.
- Become knowledgeable about the issue. Visit some of the online academic paper sites. View the types and levels of papers available. Look at the titles and become familiar with them. If an identical title appears on a student paper, it could be a warning sign.
- Make specific requirements in the report that are not available online. These include teacher created questions that must be addressed in the paper. Excellent questions require the analysis of a personal response to a reading. Other questions may include applying the theme of a piece of literature to current research on the topic.
- Require the use of specific reference texts, including some not available online, such as encyclopedia or textbook references. Have students include notes from these references with their reports when they are turned in.
- One effective means of preventing plagiarized papers is to require students to turn in a rough draft with a list of citations and copies of notes. Any necessary corrections can be addressed when the rough draft is turned in, and it encourages students to not wait until the last minute to do the report. Last minute students may be more tempted to plagiarize, just to get the work done.
Plagiarism is nothing new. It happens in journalism, literature, art, and music.The only thing new is the manner and ease with which it can now be accomplished.
More information is available at Plagiarized.com.
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