Plagiarism - Do students know the full meaning?
I have found that many students do not realize when they are plagiarizing because they have not been made aware of the many situations they put themselves in with research and writing. Are your students aware of these various implications?
I don't believe that they know. I have had several instances where students found the answer to a question via the internet, copied and pasted that answer into their papers, and were perfectly OK with that. They honestly believe that anything on the internet is in the public domain, and may be copied and used freely.
My institution has incorporated lectures on how to avoid plagiarism into a number of early courses. Addressing this issue in the students' first quarter has been very instrumental in assisting with student understanding of the concept and consequences.
I agree that the internet has made plagiarism more accepting for some students. However, I don't think students realize how easy it is for us to check that they are plagiarizing due to the internet. Thanks for your comments Daniel.
Not only do I think they realize that we can check on plagiarism easily; but I think the problem is much more profound then simply taking someone's words and using them as your own. I think the part that students do not realize that is plagiarism is that it is also the unintentional lack of citing properly. I think the attittude is very laissez faire when it comes to citation of sources, especially online sources; but in addition, there seems to be an irresponsible aura of paraphrasing, and the lack of citation with such. Additionally, while one may cite a source for once sentence, the thought is that the citation covers muliplte sentences, althouugh it may not be an entie paragraph that is blocked to indicate a single source.
Great observations Cynthia. I agree with you that there is much more to plagerizing than simply cutting and pasting or copying. Students seem to understand that piece (although that doesn't stop them from doing it) but don't seem to grasp that not citing a source properly is also plagerism. I have experienced this several times as a teacher, regardless of how many times I remind students why citing sources is so critical.
Sometimes students do not understand the implications of academic dishonesty, and so they are not as vigilant as they perhaps should be about plagiarism. Many students are used to from high school only getting a small punishment for plagiarism, and in their experience, actually doing the work is more effort than avoiding plagiarism. I usually do not have a large problem with students plagiarizing once they are aware of what plagiarism is, and the implications of academic dishonesty within the university environment.
I think you are probably right Julie. Students that are coming from high school don't know the seriousness of plagiarizing because that is not what they experienced in high school. In addition, technology has made plagiarizing so easy with internet research and the simple "cut and paste" function on our word processing systems.
I'm not entirely sure that they do realize the implications. I deal mostly with "returning" learners - when they were going through school the first time, plagiarizing with buying a paper off of someone, or copying directly from a book and passing it off as their own. To them, cutting and pasting isn't as severe as one of the other actions.
I make it a point to discuss cutting and pasting during orientation, and have seen the instances of it drop to almost zero in their fist class. (Prior to that, about 1/3 of my class would cut and paste at least once during a five week session.) Returning learners honestly don't know that there is anything wrong with that.
I always tell the students that the internet makes it very easy for them to copy...and also very easy for me to catch them at it. When I am doing a search for plagiarized material, it's often hard for me to determine the original source - the same wording is often on multiple sites!
I think that students understand that buying a paper is cheating, but I agree with you that students don't always realize that plagiarizing work can come down to not citing a source. The idea of intellectual property can be difficult to explain, especially to international students that come from countries that don't recognize intellectual property. Reviewing with students at the beginning of class what your expectations are, including explaining plagiarism is a great idea.
I have found that a majority of first time students are not aware about the severity of plagarism.
I agree with you Ulysses. I also think that students don't realize how easy it is for us to check for plagiarism--about as easy as it is for them to cut and paste from the internet!
Electronic research has made the access to plagiarism much greater and also enhances the chances of getting caught. I have found that the most common form of plagiarism has been "self-plagiarism." Students are re-using material that they have previously submitted in other classes or previous assignments.
I believe that students are not always aware about plagarism because many students simply do not know what this means. Therefore, as an instructor, I take extra steps to educate my students about the various forms of plagarism.
I agree with your post. I find it very helpful to educate my online students about Turn-It-In and the purpose that this program serves. I have found that once you inform students that you are checking more cheating, they are more likely to submit original work.
I also agree, the internet resources make it easy to retrieve information regarding a subject.
Yes, I would like to believe in most cases that students do not intentionally plagiarize. In my experience, students really don't know that by not citing the source properly, they are plagiarizing.
Taking the time to educate students is a great idea Adib.
I definitely agree with all of the posts here, students definitely do not realize that they are plagiarizing when they take someone's work and copy and paste it into their own document. I had a student in a previous course who copied and pasted an entire article into her document and did not make any attempt to cite it or include a reference in a reference page. She really had no idea whatsoever that she was doing something wrong. Even when I tried to explain it to her, she still did not understand. Even though we, as instructors, discuss this and post announcements and documents explaining it, there seems to be a lack of understanding and responsibility on the part of the student. I would like to know ideas for better engaging and empowering students in discussions related to this topic.
In my experience there are a few things that should be done. The first is to teach students about plagiarism. Don't assume that students know what plagiarism is or that they have been taught what it is in a previous class. Second, I think it is important to do a review of how to appropriate cite a source. I have noticed that many of my students think that simply having a reference page is good enough, but that citing sources within the text isn't necessary. Third, your institute might have tools that can be used in teaching about plagiarism. And lastly, I think holding students accountable for their actions are important. If you catch a student plagiarizing, it is critical that you take the necessary steps that your institution requires.
I hope this helps!
Michele
This is a very interesting and relevant discussion topic. Those are great tips that took me awhile to learn as well. I think this is something we face each term with a new set of students. I often find that they do not feel they are cheating because of a bibliography, but remind them that if they do not put things into their own words or quotations that this still applies as plagiarism. I have had students get angry even though I talk about it in class, they may not have been in class that day, and things of that nature. I also had a student tell me that he did not plagiarize, but that he paid someone to write the paper and THEY plagiarized. As I'm sure you can imagine, I was speechless and he obviously failed the course.
Students regularly want to "re-do" the paper, but I will not allow this as we talked about requirements throughout term, it is on the syllabus and was discussed then as well as in the student handbook / orientation. As much as I want them to succeed, I simply will not let them rewrite the paper. They receive no points for the work, which often gives them a failing grade and depending on the situation, they may be removed from the school. This seems harsh in the moment when they are claiming they didn't know, but I believe this ignorance often comes out of them being scared about their educational future now that they have been caught. However they did not care about their future when they were taking the easy way out.
With knowledge and experience, I have begun to provide tools to assist with research and paper-writing. We have even instituted a required class to assist with this process. The class touches on research, writing, sources, ethics, and critical thinking. It is somewhat new and I think it is a proactive idea. I am teaching this class for the first time this term and I look forward to being part of solving this ongoing concern.
Plagiarism is a very serious thing that students need to learn and I certainly appreciate your perspective. Thanks for sharing it with the group!
