Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/29842
left: Eigth-grade English teacher Hiroko Nitsch warns students that plagiarism will not be tolerated as they move through school, or in her class. concerned about the plagiarism upswing among students that she developed a website devoted to prevention (library.csusm.edu/ plagiarism). The California Faculty Associa- tion member began developing the website in 2003 after learning that some faculty members were afraid to assign term papers because they were worried about plagiarism. “The website took the better part of a year and lots of research,” says Thompson, who is in charge of library technology at the univer- sity. But it was well worth it: San Marcos pro- Top 1 Educate yourself and students about what plagiarism is. Some good resources are “Plagiarism Prevention for Students” (library.csusm.edu/ plagiarism) and plagiarism.org. 10 2 Implement an academic integrity policy at your school and have students sign a form acknowledging there are consequences for plagiarizing. Spell out what the consequences are. Students will become stakeholders — and if a parent complains about a disciplinary action, the form will show their child knew he or she was breaking the rules. 3 Beware of “Frankenstein papers” where information seems to have been cut and pasted without any continuity or flow. 4 Ask your school to consider subscribing to Turnitin (turnitin.com), a website where students submit their papers online to be scanned for possible plagiarism. 5 If you don’t have access to Turnitin and suspect plagiarism has fessors and teachers from other schools throughout California refer their students to the site, which has pages titled “What is Pla- giarism?” “How to Avoid It” and “How to Credit Sources.” Especially popular with ed- ucators is a multiple-choice test students can take to make sure they truly understand what plagiarism is. right: Students learn to appreciate the value of original work. “Turnitin doesn’t catch everything, because students at our university have access to 60 databases with hundreds of thousands of journals in them,” says Thompson. “It can be a tool, but it’s important to have students think beyond legalistic terms. We want stu- dents to think about being good participants in the ‘intellectual neighborhood’; the impor- tance of giving other people credit for their ideas; and to realize that by doing so, they can become better writers themselves.” things teachers can do to prevent plagiarism occurred, take key phrases and look them up with a search engine to see what comes up. 6 Be leery of language or word usage that does not sound like it came from a particular student. 7 Discuss the concepts of authorship, intellectual property and stealing the work of others in terms of right and wrong. 8 Assign topics that are narrow, not broad, and have students answer questions that require critical thinking skills. Make the topics interesting, so students want to do the work. 9 Don’t assign a paper and wait for the final version. Check the work in progress, including research notes, bibliographies, outlines and rough drafts. Have portions of the paper due at regular intervals. 10 Require informal oral reports of students, asking them to describe their research and writing process. Sources: CTA members interviewed for this story; plagiarism.org; “Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers” (virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm); and “Put an End to Plagiarism in Your Classroom” (educationworld.com/a_curr/curr390). 26 California Educator | APRIL 2011