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Faculty Discussion Highlights - Questions, Suggestions, & Current Practices Questions that surfaced: A. How to help students recogize the difference between paraphrasing and plagiarism Answers provided: 1. Have students take the library's on-line tutorial which covers that topic (link above) 2. Have students do some of the writing in class to assist them in understanding the difference between copying and paraphrasing 3. Numerous practice paragraphs on the blackboard using paraphrase/quotation/ citation B. What about using a software detection program like Turnitin.com? Answers provided: 1. Some may think Turnitin is a panacea. While it is a good product and seems to have better results than some competitors in discovering plagiarized material (one study found that Turnitin found 58% of the 146 plagiarized papers submitted in the course of the study), it is not full proof. http://tinyurl.com/5vsn7 This link works if you are on campus. 2. turnitin.com's limitations - it only checks Proquest databases, the web and its own database, no other proprietary sources; it finds matches that are actually legitimate quotations 3. Turn.it.in.com is extremely useful!! The problem is time. With all the students I have and papers to check, it become difficult to investigate every suspicious sentence or word. I would like to see an institutional effort denouncing plagiarism and promotion of a policy that works to prevent, educate and eradicate plagiarism. C. How to structure assignments to avoid students copying each other's homework and papers? Answers provided: Go to this U Toronto link for specifics about course strategies to avoid plagiarism: http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/plagiarism.html More strategies from U. Berkeley: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/prevent.html PSU: Cyber Plagiarism - detection & Prevention http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/#exampleI suspect that some of my students, particularly in RD 103, are having others write their papers. Each semester, all the professors teaching RD 103 on the TP campus give students four out-of-class writing assignments in which they write papers analyzing a variety of websites. Before this semester, the questions and websites had not changed in 2-3 years. That meant that at least 200 students on the TP campus have written papers for the same assignment. To reduce the possibility of "borrowing" previously-written papers, I have my students read the same websites as other classes, but I give them different questions to answer and change the questions every semester. Arthur Sterngold, in the January issue of The Teaching Professor (site license purchased by the CTL for all MC faculty), shared 5 strategies for designing assignments to beat cyber-cheating:* Break up major research papers into smaller assignments * Require students to write about course-specific topics * Choose some required source material for your students * Incorporate assignments into class discussions and tests * Meet with students to discuss their research * Require students to submit printouts of source materials Access the article on-line at: http://www.magnapubs.com/issues/magnapubs_tp/19_1/news/597021-1.html for more details * I have relied on creating unique assignments that are very difficult to plagiarize. For example; instead of having students write a paper on Tecumseh, the Indian prophet and rebellion leader, I ask students to serve as prosecutor or defense attorney on a trial of him. They have to write up how they will make their case for or against him. I have also switched to presentation in my history class instead of research papers. I have also had students turn in copies of the sources they used for their paper. Then it is easy to compare what they wrote with the source. D. Getting students to provide citations at the proper place Answer: 1. Allowing students to turn in multiple drafts of the written work to target the problem 2.Students can take the on-line library tutorial for MLA & APA format at APA - http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/library/libtp/instructions/apa/welcome.htm MLA - http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/library/libtp/instructions/mla/welcome.htm E. What is the MC administrative policy and support for professors who encounter plagiarism? How can we achieve consistency in message (plagiarism is not OK) and in consequences? Is there a clear policy and chain of action steps for faculty to follow? Answer: Need input The Student Code of Conduct has a section on Academic Dishonesty which outlines the chain of actions to be taken by professors and recourse for students. This can be found at: http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/verified/pnp/pnp.html#chap4A major difficulty is documenting the plagiarism. Last semester, for example, one of my poorer students turned in a brilliant paper. I made a list of all the advanced vocabulary words she had used in her paper, and asked her to define them or use the words in a sentence. She couldn't define ANY of the words. She couldn't remember what she had written. Her EL 102 teacher confirmed that the grammar and style were far beyond the student's level. Even so, the student repeatedly insisted that she had written the paper without help, and I didn't know where to go from there. When I'm able to document that plagiarism has occurred--for example, get two essays with identical answers--I give an "F" on the exam or paper and have had a serious, private talk with the student. In many cases, I've given students a chance to remove the "F" by doing an alternate assignment. This semester, however, I've had one student who was incorrigible. At the beginning of the semester, he turned in a major writing assignment that was identical to another student's. I talked with him and explained again about plagiarism. Two months later, he was found copying another student's test. I wrote him a formal letter warning him of the consequences. Two weeks later, he turned in a third paper in which 70% of his paragraphs were identical to another student's. In this particular situation, I am referring him to the dean for disciplinary action. I hope word will get around. I'd like students to know that I'm serious about this. F. Where are students getting their plagiarized papers? From the Internet or from former students who were given the same assignment? Do we need to make sure that assignments change (for single and multi-section courses) regularly to avoid this from happening? Other Suggestions Restrict the quantity of material permitted from a single sourceAsk students to turn in copies of the sources used with their final paperLook for changes in writing style. Does it fluctuate between clear and jumbled?If you think plagiarism has happened, meet with the student first. Use it as a teachable moment. Give the student a chance to fix it, with a penalty attached (e.g. 20% grade reduction)Do preparation at the front end of instruction to make sure students are aware of the pitfalls and can avoid the problemAnother way to control plagiarism would be for faculty to encourage their students to use our Library databases for their research instead of the Internet. The information in the databases does not disappear like that on the Web, and if there is a question about plagiarism, it is easier to locate information from the databases. Also, students have to be very careful what they use from the Internet as this information may not be authoritative. There is also an Evaluating the World Wide Web available on the Library Web page.
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