9/25/2023 2 Comments Clearys notebookFinally, as in #10, make the risks and consequences of being caught clear.Įven students who are confident about their ideas may be tempted to borrow an author’s words because the author “says it better than I can.” Students may not be familiar with the jargon that’s used in some academic areas that are new to them.Tell them what transferable skills and knowledge they will gain from doing this assignment. Explicitly discuss with students why the assignment is important in the context of the class and of their learning.This can be done by warning them of common process problems at the start, by assigning intermediate steps, by conducting an ongoing discussion of their process (online discussion groups are good for this and do not take class time), and by modeling your process. Help students learn how to pace themselves and organize their work, especially if the task you have given them is complex, and they are novices.It frequently happens when students are new to the kind of work they are being asked to do because they are less likely to know how to organize themselves, may have unrealistic expectations about what they can do, and are less invested in the process. As a result, you might expect this behavior not only in incoming students but also when students are first asked to step up to a new level of work such as their first extended research project. Often, this behavior is a result of poor time management and organization skills. Some students will deliberately plagiarize when they feel themselves backed into a corner in a high-pressure situation with a low risk of being caught. Students are less likely to plagiarize if they feel connected to a school through bonding with fellow students and teachers, through small classes, and through fresh assignments thatrequire original thought rather than the rehashing of old debates (Ashworth & Bannister, 1997).There are so many papers on the internet on such topics that the temptation may be too great. Avoid general topics like character in Hemingway. Make it hard to plagiarize by designing assignments around specific, focused questions or issues.Besides preventing plagiarism, collecting these documents can help you assess student learning and, when necessary, intervene before the bitter end. If you ask for multiple drafts, only check for a few things on each draft (for example, just for main idea and basic structure on the first draft or just for citation format on a second draft). You can use a peer response exercise or in-class work for quick reviews of many of these items. ![]() Requesting these things does not mean you necessarily have a whole lot more work to do. For example, you can require them to document their writing process by handing in a paper proposal, an outline, an annotated bibliography, multiple drafts, a copy of one or more of their sources, and/or a reflection piece on their writing. Make it so hard to plagiarize that they might just as well write the paper.Make sure to have a clear statement in your syllabus, and let students know that you use Turn-It-In, Google, or some other method of checking their sources. Students are less likely to plagiarize deliberately if they perceive the cost of getting caught as too high. Let students know the consequences of plagiarizing.Sam said she was in a “panic about plagiarism.” Aubrey, who had notebooks full of her creative writing, believed she was not good at research papers because, “I was really scared about plagiarizing.” However, for students who are looking for the easy way out of your assignment, the best way to keep them from plagiarizing is to make doing so too much work. In fact, in a study of students at the college where I teach, many mentioned that they were worried about unintentionally plagiarizing. Most students do not plagiarize intentionally. While every teacher has entertaining stories about students who hand in papers that still have other students’ names on them, these cases are relatively rare. Students may plagiarize for many reasons, ranging from laziness to sloppiness to a lack of understanding about the reason for citations, but teachers can employ a series of strategies to prevent problems while also teaching students good scholarly practices.
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