Shelley Roseman

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Plagiarism Faculty Workshop
PLAGIARISM WORKSHOP
Strategies for Faculty

• Shelley Roseman
• UConn Stamford
• Fall 2004

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Plagiarism Excuses
"Responding to cheating is perhaps one
of the most distasteful, time-consuming, and
undervalued tasks that a teacher can face." 
http//www.lemoyne.edu/library/plagiarism/index.ht
m
As educators begin to rely more on
technology, hopefully they'll realize that -- at
least for now -- nothing can completely replace
the watchful eyes of human beings.http//www.sal
on.com/tech/feature/1999/06/14/plagiarism/print.ht
ml
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Plagiarism Excuses
ExcusesExcuses
Some students make genuine mistakes others
simply take a chance on not being caught.
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Plagiarism statistics

• Almost 80 of college students admit to cheating
  at least once-- The Center for Academic Integrity
  studies
• 36 of undergraduates have admitted to
  plagiarizing written material-- Psychological
  Record survey.
• 90 of students believe that cheaters are either
  never caught or have never been appropriately
  disciplined-- US News and World Report poll

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More depressing statistics

• Duke University (Center for Academic Integrity)
  reported that 75 of students admit to cheating.
• The Center also reported that in 2000-1 72 of
  high school students admit to cheating.
• According to a 1998 survey by Who's Who Among
  American High School Students, four out of five
  college-bound high school students admit to
  cheating on schoolwork.

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Plagiarism Definition
Plagiarism is...

• The submission of material authored by another
  person but represented as the students own work,
  whether that material is paraphrased or copied in
  verbatim or near-verbatim form.
• The submission of material subjected toeditorial
  revision by another person that results in
  substantive changes.
• Improper acknowledgment of sources in essays,
  papers, or presentations.
  http//www.fullerton.edu/deanofstudents/Judicial/P
  lagiarism.htm

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Plagiarism Definition
...Plagiarism is also
The resubmission / recycling of old material that
had been used for another class.Websters
indicates that to plagiarize is to present as
new and original an idea or product derived from
an existing source. http//emedia.leeward.hawaii
.edu/kamanao/may_refuse.html
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Why do students cheat
Problems Solutions
Students feel overwhelmed with work.
Assign your paper to be due well before the
end-of-the-term pressures set in.
Students have poor time management skills.
Structure your research assignment so that
intermediate parts of it (topic, early research,
draft, bibliography, final draft) are due on
various dates.
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Problems Solutions
Problems Solutions
Students fear a bad grade and feel insecure
academically.
Reassure students of the help thatavailable to
them may be available to them (your office
hours, a writing center, teaching assistants,
etc.)
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Prevention Strategies

• Make the assignment clear. A major source of
  poor student papers (not just plagiarizing) is
  not understanding what to do.
• Assign specific topics or topics with a narrow
  twist so that there are fewer papers already
  written on them.
• Change topics from semester to semester.

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more prevention strategies

• Require specific components in the paper. Cite
  two books, one web site, the Smith article,
  material from the textbook, articles published
  within the last two years, a citation from the
  textbook bibliography, etc.
• Have students include an annotated bibliography
  Require a brief summary of the source(including
  call numbers, complete URL), and an evaluation
  about the usefulness of the source)

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Detection Strategies
Visual cues

• Unusual formatting
• Strange layout
• Essay was printed from browser
• References with missing citations

Content cues

• References to books not available at library.
• Is it way off topic, containing a few related
  paragraphs used to connect the paper together?
• Extensive use of jargon or advanced vocabulary.
• Frequent changes in terminology could signal
  cutting pasting plagiarism.

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more Detection Strategies
STUDENT KNOWLEDGE

• Students can't summarize main points in paper
• Students can't provide copies of cited material

Tracking down original material

• Search for unique keywords or phrases in Google
  or other search engines
• Visit some paper mill web sites
• Use detection software.

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Detection software

• EVE (Essay Verification Engine)http//www.canexu
  s.com/eve/index.shtml19.99 for unlimited
  use/site licenses are approx. 300
• EVE2 evaluates essays and returns links to web
  pages from which a student may have plagiarized.
  If it finds evidence of plagiarism, the URL is
  recorded. You receive a full report on each paper
  that contained plagiarism, including the percent
  of the essay plagiarized, and an annotated copy
  of the paper showing all plagiarism highlighted
  in red.

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Detection software
Glatt Plagiarism Programshttp//www.plagiarism.co
m/INDEX.HTMIncludes a Plagiarism Self-Detection
Test (300), Screening Program (300) and
Teaching Program (500). Focuses on individual
writing style. Site Licenses Available /?
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Detection software
Turnitinhttp//turnitin.com/static/home.htmlRead
-only demo/Various licensing options Searches
Internet (more than 2 billion pages updated at a
rate of 30-40 million pages per day)Searches
three databases ABI/Inform, Periodical
Abstracts, Business Dateline, publicly available
electronic books) Maintains a file for every
student paper ever submitted to Turnitin.
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...Turnitin
View classes from the Instructor Home Page
Click an assignment's inbox button to view
submissions
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...Turnitin report

• Features similarity
• index for
• matching
• sources
• (percentage)
• Color Coding indicates
• matches to other sources

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Limitations of Detection Tools
http//www.umuc.edu/distance/odell/cip/vail/facult
y/detection_tools/factors.html
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Final words about Detection

• Checking for plagiarism is an increasingly harder
  task.
• It is very easy to cut-and-paste large amounts
  of text from various sources to create a single
  work from a number of electronic sources
  including the Internet, electronic journals,
  books, newspapers and magazines etc, without any
  trace of doing so.
• To be able to trace questionable material,
  students should be expected to submit work in an
  electronic format--either by emailing it or on a
  disk.

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Online Sources

• Online Quiz Plagiarism How to Recognize it and
  How to Avoid It
• http//www.lib.uconn.edu/using/tutorials/LILT
  /plagiarism.htm
• UConn Research 101 Citations Tutorial
  http//www.lib.uconn.edu/using/tutorials/research/
  HTML/Finding/finding01.htm
• UConn Research 101 Reading Citations
  http//www.lib.uconn.edu/using/tutorials/research/
  HTML/Finding/finding01.htm
• UConn Bibliographic Citation Guides MLA, APA,
  ASA, Turabianhttp//www.lib.uconn.edu/using/findi
  ng/guides/referencefindingaids.htmCitations
• OWL Site from Purdue University Avoiding
  Plagiarism http//owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts
  /research/r_plagiar.html
• Landmarks Citation Machine Interactive Tool for
  Creating Citationshttp//www.landmark-project.com
  /citation_machine/index.php
• University of Minnesota Assignment
  Calculatorhttp//www.lib.umn.edu/help/calculator/
  

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Conclusion

• Define and discuss what plagiarism is.
• Include a plagiarism policy in your syllabus.
• Determine your students level of knowledge in
  paraphrasing, citing, summarizing, and using
  manuals.
• Review the research process and note-taking
  techniques
• Require students to schedule a research session
  with the librarian and the writing center. Refer
  students to helpful online sources
• OWL site (Purdue University)/Citation Machine/
• Assignment Calculator/UConn Research 101
  Tutorials
• Plagiarism Quiz/UConn Citation Guides

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Questions/Comments
shelley.roseman_at_uconn.edu UConn Stamford 203
251-8522