Critical Thinking

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Critical Thinking Preventing Plagiarism

• Critical Thinking Workshop
• Spring 2007

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What is the relationship between critical
thinking and preventing plagiarism?

• Plagiarism is the antithesis of critical
  thinking, in that youve eliminated any
  intellectual work for yourself when you are
  plagiarizing. But when you think critically, you
  have to do the tough intellectual work of
  formulating and clarifying your own thoughts and
  integrating them with another point of view in a
  substantive fashion, as well as evaluating the
  credibility of sources.

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CT and Plagiarism

• A research assignment should intellectually
  engage students. When students plagiarize, they
  purposefully disengage with the assignment and
  cheat themselves out of an opportunity to learn
  and practice important life skills critical
  thinking, writing, reading, information literacy,
  time management.
• Plagiarism hampers critical thinking students do
  not exercise their own thought process when
  plagiarizing.

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Addressing and Preventing Plagiarism

• Do you know what plagiarism is?
• Are you committed to creating meaningful research
  assignments, shepherding students through the
  research and writing process, and effectively
  assessing their work?
• Talk to your students openly about plagiarism
• Remind students that research papers/assignments
  require more than copying and pasting such
  projects should develop critical thinking and
  other important skills
• Construct assignments to prevent plagiarism Tips
  from Robert Harris (2001)
• Resources (print and online)

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Do you know what plagiarism is?

• to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of
  another) as one's own use (another's
  production) without crediting the source
• to commit literary theft present as new and
  original an idea or product derived from an
  existing source
• From Plagiarizing, Merriam-Webster Online
  Dictionary

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• From p. 26 in the college catalog
• Copying a source (phrases, sentences,
  paragraphssometimes even one word) without using
  quotation marks
• Quoting or paraphrasing a source, but not
  including a citation
• Failing to give credit for a sources ideas
• Inaccurately citing and listing bibliographic
  information
• Purchasing papers to submit in whole or in part
• See also Chapter 1 of Robert Harriss The
  Plagiarism Handbook (ordering info at end of this
  presentation)

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Are you committed to the research project?

• Will you take the time to craft a meaningful
  research assignment? (more about this in a later
  slide)
• Will you hold students work to high standards?
• Will you think critically about their research
  process and final product?
• When you suspect a case of plagiarism, will you
  do something about it, or will you ignore it?
• We expect you to address every instance of
  suspected plagiarism. Talk to your chairperson if
  you have questions.
• Harris provides strategies for dealing with
  plagiarism in The Plagiarism Handbook.

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• Are you committed to assessing students research
  papers/projects?
• Refuse to accept sub-standard work.
• Refuse to accept plagiarized work.
• Use the Academic Support Center and LRC staff.
• Read students papers carefully and provide a
  clear and sufficient explanation of the grade.
• A paper simply due at the end of the term and
  returned without comments will not only provide a
  temptation to plagiarism but will also produce a
  poor learning experience because of a lack of
  feedback (Harris, 2001, p. 9).

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Talk to your students about plagiarism.

• Discuss plagiarism with your students. Dont
  assume they know what it is or even why it is
  wrong.
• What is it? Why is it wrong? Why do people do it?
  What are the penalties for plagiarizing in this
  course?
• Show students examples of plagiarism.
• Ask students to explain, elaborate, and
  illustrate the concept of plagiarism.

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• Explain, model, and practice correct quoting,
  paraphrasing, and summarizing.
• Show students how to write so that the reader can
  distinguish between source material and the
  students own wording and ideas.
• Introduce quotations with author tags (Smith
  notes that. . .)
• Add explanations and commentary after the source
  material so the reader knows how the quoted or
  paraphrased material connects to your point in
  the paragraph.

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Research papers foster critical thinking and
other skills.

• Research (when done properly) requires and
  reinforces important skills writing, reading,
  thinking, time management, attention to detail,
  etc.
• See the list of cognitive skills that underlie
  critical thinking Note how many are needed to
  complete a research assignment successfully.
• http//www.surry.edu/about/ct/faculty/criteria/cog
  nitive.html
• Students need to know the critical thinking
  skills required by your assignment.

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• Does the assignment require students to generate
  their own ideas? To think for themselves? To
  think critically about the subject? Does the
  assignment require intellectual engagement?
• Discuss the purpose of the assignment with your
  students. How will the assignment
• improve their understanding of course concepts?
• improve important skills such as reading,
  writing, thinking, and information literacy?

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• Actually doing the work of the research paper
  rather than counterfeiting it gives the student
  not only knowledge of the subject and insights
  into the world of information and controversy,
  but also improves research skills, thinking and
  analyzing, organizing, writing, planning and time
  management, and even meticulousness. . . . All
  that is missed when the paper is faked, and it is
  these missed skills that are of high value in the
  working world. A degree will help students get a
  first job, but performanceusing the skills
  developed by doing just such assignments as
  research paperswill be required not only for
  promotion but even for continued employment in
  the same position (Harris, 2001, p. 34).

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You can construct assignments to help prevent
plagiarism. (from Harris, 2001, pp. 43-60)

• Be specific about your expectations Do you allow
  collaboration? Must the paper be unique to your
  course?
• Make sure your assignment is clearly and
  precisely written
• Consider requiring all students in the course to
  write on the same topic
• Consider providing a list of highly specific
  topics
• Have students narrow their chosen topics

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• Break the assignment into pieces
• Require specific components of the paper (number
  and type of sources, etc.)
• Require process steps for the paper
• Divide the total credit for the assignment among
  the parts (topic/thesis, preliminary
  bibliography, prospectus, notes and outline,
  rough draft, final draft)

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• Require an annotated bibliography
• Require most references to be up-to-date
• Require photocopies or printouts of sources
• Do not allow students to change topics at the
  last minute
• Require interaction and feedback
• Oral reports/presentations of papers
• Metalearning essays What did you learn from
  this assignment? What problems did you face? How
  did you overcome them? Describe your research
  process.
• Draft reviews/peer reviews

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Reference

• Robert A. Harris. The plagiarism handbook
  Strategies for preventing, detecting, and dealing
  with plagiarism. (2001). Los Angeles Pyrczak
  Publishing.
• Order a copy online at www.AntiPlagiarism.com
  (24.95)
• Instructors who own a copy of the book may
  reproduce the cartoons and instructional
  materials for use in their classes
  Transparencies, photocopies, projecting
  onscreen are permissible.
• If you assign research projects, you should
  purchase and use this book.

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Online Resources

• http//www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsd/4_resource/
  plagiarism.html from Oxford Centre for Staff and
  Learning Development, provides lists of online
  articles and other resources
• http//users.edinboro.edu/warren/antiplagiarismhan
  dbook.htm provides a quick reference guide to
  writing with integrity from Edinboro University
  with helpful comparisons of MLA, APA, and Chicago
  Style

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• http//newark.rutgers.edu/ehrlich/plagiarism598.h
  tml from Rutgers, on plagiarism and
  anti-plagiarism, contains links to other sites
• http//www.chron.com/content/chronicle/editorial/9
  7/09/29/galles.0-0.html Copy these strategies to
  stop plagiarism by students, from Gary M.
  Galles, professor of economics at Pepperdine
  University
• http//www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm
  Anti-plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers
  by Robert Harris

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• http//owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/
  Avoiding Plagiarism from the Online Writing
  Lab (OWL) at Purdue University
• http//depts.surry.edu/lrc/guides/plagiarism.html
  is our librarys collection of online resources
  on plagiarism
• http//depts.surry.edu/lrc/guides/writing.html is
  our librarys advice and links for Citing and
  Writing