DET 102G 2018 Plagiarism

Most current discussions of plagiarism fail to distinguish between:

1. submitting someone else's text as one's own or attempting to blur the line between one's own ideas or words and those borrowed from another source, and 2. carelessly or inadequately citing ideas and words borrowed from another source.

Summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting helps you to:

Think about and understand the text that you are presenting. Make up your own mind about your topic. When you use quotes , introduce it and why you quote it and how does it add to your argument.

Best Practices

College writing is a process of goal setting, writing, giving and using feedback, revising, and editing.

Discussions often conflate plagiarism with the misuse of sources.

Ethical writers - acknowledges sources fully and appropriately. A student tries to identify and credit his or her source, but misuses a specific citation format or incorrectly uses quotation marks or other forms of identifying material taken from other sources, has not plagiarized. Instead considered to have failed to cite and document sources appropriately.

Shared Responsibilities

Assignments - generic and not classroom-specific No instruction on plagiarism and appropriate source attribution and students are not led through the processes of writing and revising -> Teachers become plagiarism police instead of a couching role. Teachers must recognize that they can encourage or discourage plagiarism not just by policy and admonition, but also in structured assignments and in the processes they use to help students define and gain interest in topics developed for papers and projects.

Plagiarism

When a writer deliberately uses someone else's language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source - applies to texts published in print or on-line, to manuscripts, and to the work of other student writers

Why worry about Plagiarism?

Plagiarism has serious consequences: zero grade, official reprimand, expulsion from the university.

Paraphrasing

Use your own words Length does not matter 1. Read until you understand its full meaning. 2. Take notes on the most essential elements of the passage—the main claim, supporting claims, evidence, explanations, etc. 3. Set the original aside, then write your paraphrase on another sheet of paper. 4. Check your rendition with the original to make sure that your version accurately expresses all the essential information in a new form. This takes time to master; don't worry if you have trouble changing the original language into your own language. 5. If you have borrowed any unique terms or phrases from the original source, use quotation marks to identify them and include an internal citation.

Gains of using solid references

Shows that you know how to search and find decent sources on your topic. Shows off your knowledge about your topic: how it has been seen from different angles and how your view takes them into account. Show how much of an expert you are on your topic. YOU look good and trustworthy, a scholar amongst scholars.

Students - Research assignments are opportunities for genuine and rigorous inquiry and learning.

• Assembling and analyzing a set of sources that they determined are relevant to the investigation; • Acknowledging clearly when and how they are drawing on the ideas or phrasings of others; • Learning the conventions for citing documents and acknowledging sources appropriate to the field they are studying; • Consulting their instructors when unsure about how to acknowledge the contributions of others to their thought and writing.

Summarizing

Introduce the text Must reference the original source Your text is shorter Focus on main aspects Must use your own words with limited use of quotations r

Causes of Plagiarism - students who are aware

§ Students fear failure/ fear taking risks in their own work. § Students have poor time-management skills/they plan poorly for the time and effort required for research-based writing, and believe they have no choice but to plagiarize. § Students may view the course, the assignment, the conventions of academic documentation, or the consequences of cheating as unimportant. § Teachers may present students with assignments so generic or unparticularized that students may believe they are justified in looking for canned responses. § Instructors and institutions may fail to report cheating when it does occur, or may not enforce appropriate penalties.

When not to give credit

Writing your own lived experiences, your own observations and insights, your own thoughts, and your own conclusions about a subject When you are writing up your own results obtained through lab or field experiments When you use your own artwork, digital photographs, video, audio, etc. When you are using "common knowledge," things like folklore, common sense observations, myths, urban legends, and historical events When you are using generally-accepted facts, including facts that are accepted within particular discourse communities

Quoting

You do not change the original sentence or sentence part. Use quotation marks or indent to identify the exact quote. Page number(s) of the original source.

5. Take Appropriate Disciplinary Actions

• Pay attention to institutional guidelines. Many institutions have clearly defined procedures for pursuing claims of academic dishonesty. Be sure you have read and understood these before you take any action. • Consider your goal. If a student has plagiarized, consider what the student should take away from the experience. In some cases, a failing grade on the paper, a failure in the course, academic probation, or even expulsion might achieve those goals. In other cases, recreating the entire research process, from start to finish, might be equally effective.

When to give credit/cite sources

Words or ideas presented in a magazine, book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, Web page, computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other Information you gain through interviewing or conversing with another person When you copy the exact words or a unique phrase. When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts, pictures, or other visual materials. When you reuse or repost any electronically-available media, including images, audio, video, or other media. Bottom line, document any words, ideas, or other productions that originate somewhere outside of you.

Causes of Plagiarism -Unaware students that lack knowledge

§ They don'tknow how to integrate the ideas of others and document the sources of those ideas appropriately . § Students make mistakes as they learn how to integrate others' words or ideas into their own work because error is a natural part of learning. § They don't know how to take careful and fully documented notes during their research. § Academicians and scholars may define plagiarism differently or more stringently than have instructors or administrators in students' earlier education or in other writing situations. § College instructors may assume that students have already learned appropriate academic conventions of research and documentation. § College instructors may not support students as they attempt to learn how to research and document sources; instead, instructors may assign writing that requires research and expect its appropriate documentation, yet fail to appreciate the difficulty of novice academic writers to execute these tasks successfully. § Students from other cultures may not be familiar with the conventions governing attribution and plagiarism in American colleges and universities. § In some settings, using other people's words or ideas as their own is an acceptable practice for writers of certain kinds of texts (for example, organizational documents), making the concepts of plagiarism and documentation less clear cut than academics often acknowledge and thereby confusing students who have not learned that the conventions of source attribution vary in different contexts.

Attend to Sources and the Use of Reading

• Ask students to draw on and document a variety of sources. Build into your assignments additional sources, such as systematic observation, interviews, simple surveys, or other datagathering methods. Incorporating a variety of sources can help students develop ways of gathering, assessing, reading, and using different kinds of information, and can make for a livelier, more unique paper. • Consider conventions. Appropriate use of citations depends on students' familiarity with the conventions of the genre(s) they are using for writing. Design activities that help students to become familiar with these conventions and make informed choices about when and where to employ them. • Show students how to evaluate their sources. Provide opportunities for students to discuss the quality of the content and context of their sources, through class discussions, electronic course management programs or Internet chat spaces, or reflective assignments. Discuss with students how their sources will enable them to support their argument or document their research. • Focus on reading. Successful reading is as important to thoughtful research essays as is successful writing. Develop reading-related heuristics and activities that will help students to read carefully and to think about how or whether to use that reading in their research projects.

Faculty - need to design contexts and assignments for learning that encourage students not simply to recycle information but to investigate and analyze its sources.

• Building support for researched writing (such as the analysis of models, individual/group conferences, or peer review) into course designs; • Stating in writing their policies and expectations for documenting sources and avoiding plagiarism; • Teach the conventions for citing documents and acknowledging sources in their field, and allow to practice these skills; • Avoiding recycled or formulaic assignments that may invite stock or plagiarized responses; • Engaging students in the process of writing, which produces materials such as notes, drafts, and revisions that are difficult to plagiarize; • Discussing problems students may encounter in documenting and analyzing sources, and offering strategies for avoiding or solving those problems; • Discussing papers suspected of plagiarism with the students who have turned them in, to determine if the papers are the result of a deliberate intent to deceive; • Reporting possible cases of plagiarism to appropriate administrators or review boards.

Improve the Design and Sequence of Assignments

• Design assignments that require exploration on a subject in depth. Research questions and assignment topics - based on principles of inquiry and on discovery about the topic, and should present that topic in the form of an exploration or an argument. • Start building possible topics early. Good writing- thorough understanding of the topic being addressed or researched. Give time to explore topics and help to narrow focus to specific research questions -> personalize research and provide evidence • Establishing a course theme, and allowing students to define specific questions about that theme they become engaged in learning new ideas and begin to own their research. A course theme allows students and instructor to develop expertise and to support each other as they read, write, and engage in their research. Grounding the theme in a local context -> greater relevance to students' lives. Once students have defined a topic within the course theme, ask them to reflect frequently on their choice of topic: about what they already know about the topic when they begin their research; about what new ideas they are learning along the way; and about what new subjects for research they are discovering. • Develop schedules for students that both allow them time to explore and support them as they work toward defined topics. As researchers learn more about their subjects, they typically discover new, unforeseen questions and interests to explore. However, student researchers do not have unlimited time for their work—at some point, they must choose a focus for their papers. Conferences with students (sometimes held in the library or computer resource center) are invaluable for enabling them to refine their focus and begin their inquiry. • Support each step of the research process. Students often have little experience planning and conducting research. Using planning guides, in-class activities, and portfolios, instructors should "stage" students' work and provide support at each stage—from invention to drafting, through revision and polishing. Collecting interim materials (such as annotated photocopies) helps break the research assignment down into elements of the research process while providing instructors with evidence of students' original work. Building "low-stakes" writing into the research process, such as reflective progress reports, allows instructors to coach students more effectively while monitoring their progress. • Make the research process, and technology used for it, visible. Ask your students to consider how various technologies—computers, fax machines, photocopiers, e-mail—affect the way information is gathered and synthesized, and what effect these technologies may have on plagiarism. • Attend to conventions of different genres of writing. As people who read and write academic work regularly, instructors are sensitive to differences in conventions across different disciplines and, sometimes, within disciplines. However, students might not be as aware of these differences. Plan activities—like close examinations of academic readings—that ask students to analyze and reflect on the conventions in different disciplines.

Work on Plagiarism Responsibly

• Distinguish between misuse of sources and plagiarism. If students have misused sources, they probably do not understand how to use them correctly. If this is the case, work with students so that they understand how to incorporate and cite sources correctly. Ask them to rewrite the sections where sources have been misused. • Ask students for documentation. If a student's work raises suspicions, talk with him or her about your concerns. Ask students to show you their in-process work (such as sources, summaries, and drafts) and walk you through their research process, describing how it led to the production of their draft. If they are unable to do this, discuss with them the consequences of plagiarism described in your syllabus (and, perhaps, by your institution). If you have talked with a student and want to pursue your own investigation of his or her work, turn to sources that the student is likely to have used and look for evidence of replication. • Use plagiarism detection services cautiously. Although such services may be tempting, they are not always reliable. Furthermore, their availability should never be used to justify the avoidance of responsible teaching methods such as those described in this document.

Administrators- need to foster a program- or campus-wide climate that values academic honesty.

• Publicizing policies and expectations for conducting ethical research, as well as procedures for investigating possible cases of academic dishonesty and its penalties; • Providing support services (i.g., writing centers or Web pages) for students who have questions ; • Supporting faculty and student discussions of issues concerning academic honesty, research ethics, and plagiarism; • Recognizing and improving working conditions, such as high teacher-student ratios, that reduce opportunities for more individualized instruction and increase the need to handle papers and assignments too quickly and mechanically; • Providing faculty development opportunities for instructors to reflect on and, if appropriate, change the ways they work with writing in their courses.

Explain Plagiarism and Develop Clear Policies

• Talk - underlying implications of plagiarism. Research - to engage, through writing, in a purposeful, scholarly discussion of issues . Understanding, augmenting, engaging in dialogue with, and challenging the work of others are part of becoming an effective citizen in a complex society. Plagiarism devalues the institution and the degree it offers; it hurts the inquirer, who has avoided thinking independently and has lost the opportunity to participate in broader social conversations. • Include in syllabus a policy for using sources, and discuss in course. Define a policy that clearly explains the consequences of both plagiarism and the misuse or inaccurate citation of sources.