Internet Plagiarism:
Strategies to Deter Academic Misconduct
Internet Plagiarism: Strategies
to Deter Academic Misconduct
As more students use the Internet for research,
the temptation to plagiarize has greatly increased. Students can refer to
any search engine, type in the keywords associated with a topic, and in a
matter of seconds, retrieve a number of web sites that offer full text
information ready to be copied. Sites such as Researchpaper.com and
Term papers-on-file offer an open forum for academic misconduct.
Instructors who are confronted with Internet plagiarism often face the burden
of trying to locate the evidence as proof that cheating has occurred. Unlike
most traditional information resources, the Internet is difficult to search.
URLs change daily, information is updated and revised, and some sites disappear
altogether. For this reason, strategies must be developed to deter this new
form of academic misconduct.
Before we teach our students about plagiarism, it is important to ask the
following questions: Is there a written policy distributed to students on
academic misconduct? Do students have a clear understanding of what constitutes
academic misconduct? What are the procedures by which incidents of plagiarism
are handled? Are students permitted to revise their work or are they expelled?
Even though most universities have established policies to respond to plagiarism,
some instructors do not take time to review this material with their students.
Many do not even practice consistency in enforcing these policies. And finally,
in most cases, teaching students about plagiarism becomes the sole responsibility
of the English Department.
Since plagiarism can occur in any classroom, it is pertinent that all
instructors review the existing policy on plagiarism at the beginning
of each new term, even if the course they teach is not writing intensive.
University policy should first define plagiarism and then offer an explanation
on the types of offenses that can be considered forms of academic misconduct.
This policy should also include examples of plagiarism paralleled with the
corrected forms of citation and a description of the procedures toward resolving
incidents of misconduct. Rebecca Moore Howard proposes a model policy in
which she includes the following explanation of plagiarism:
An important requirement of most academic writing is acknowledging one's sources. We all work from sources, even when we are being creative. American academic culture demands that writers who use the exact words of a source supply quotation marks at the beginning and end of the quotation, so that the reader can know where the voice of the source begins and ends. In addition, the writer must use footnotes, parenthetical notes, or endnotes to cite the source, so that the reader can consult that source if he or she chooses. Writers must acknowledge the sources not only of words, but also of ideas, insofar as is possible, even when they are not quoting word for word. Moreover, in final-draft writing, academic writers may not paraphrase a source by using its phrases or sentences, with a few changes in grammar or word choice--even when the source is cited begins and ends. (799)
Howard's policy categorizes plagiarism into three areas:
cheating . . . [the act of] borrowing, purchasing, or otherwise obtaining work composed by someone else and submitting it under one's own name . . . Non-attribution . . . "writing own's own paper but including passages copied exactly from the work of another (regardless of whether that work is published or unpublished or whether it comes from a printed or electronic source) . . . [and] patchwriting [which involves the practice of] writing passages that are not copied exactly, but then have been borrowed from another source, with some changes. (799)
Howard notes that in The Bedford Handbook for Writers
the definition of patchwriting as "paraphrasing the source's language
too closely" (Howard 799; Bedford 477). In addition to descriptions of these
three forms of plagiarism, Howard's policy also provides examples of each
type of plagiarism and lists the appropriate retribution for each level of
academic misconduct. She concludes this policy with advice for both students
and faculty who may be confronted with a situation involving academic misconduct
and offers guidelines for actions to take in finding a resolution to the
matter.
Other examples of plagiarism policies can be found on the Internet. Most
university web pages include sections that outline the school's response
to academic misconduct. In addition, sites such as Plagiarism on the
Internet, the Instructor's Guide to Plagiarism on The Internet,
the University of Michigan's Library's Plagiarism page offer sample
lessons and articles on plagiarism for instructors to use in their classes.
All of these sites provide suggestions on how to identify Internet plagiarism
and list links for term paper files.
After establishing a clear understanding of university policy on plagiarism,
instructors should review the Internet to investigate the scope of material
on the topics they will assign students to research. Instructors who take
time to review this material will be more inclined to identify information
that has been plagiarized. In addition, we need to teach our students how
to evaluate web sites more critically. All too often, the material we believe
students have misquoted is actually presented on the web page as the original
source. Furthermore, most web pages do not contain citation information we
use in traditional sources. Web documents have no page numbers, and in many
cases list no author or publication date. Often the content of a web page
may be entirely transcribed from another source without proper citation.
One quick review of the Internet demonstrates evidence of several examples
of this practice. As a result, students may innocently misquote information
because they did not know the content on the web page was plagiarized. Most
students who are beginning researchers simply do not possess the background
or knowledge of primary references to make critical assessments of information.
Hence, it is our duty to determine the level of our students' research skills
before expecting them to assess the validity of other references.
Once students retrieve information, it is important that we teach them how
to cite their references. Although most instructors know how to cite information
obtained from print sources, many do not know the procedure for citing electronic
sources. If we ourselves do not know how to cite electronic references, then
how can we expect our students to do the same? One useful guide instructors
can use is Xia Li and Nancy Crane's Guide to Citing Electronic
Resources. Excerpts of this guide can be found on a number of web pages,
and several sites include examples of electronic citation for students to
use. Both the MLA Handbook and APA Manual have web pages that
identify the correct citation style for both traditional sources and electronic
information. Even the print versions of these manuals include sections devoted
to citing electronic materials.
After we teach our students how to cite references, we can lessen the temptation
to plagiarize in the way we organize our assignments. One way to reduce Internet
plagiarism involves directing and limiting our students' use of the Internet
for reference materials. Although we cannot and should not prevent our students
from using the Internet, we can pre-select the sources students will use
in a given assignment. At the Kent State University Geauga Campus, several
instructors place specific items on reserve for student research and provide
students with a list of required web sites to examine. Although this procedure
may appear restrictive, students learn how to use specific reference materials
and compare ways in which their classmates incorporated the same sources
into their assignment. By using the identical reference materials, students
share the same knowledge which enables them to identify errors in misquoting
and paraphrasing. Comparing the use of identical material can be used prior
to a more extensive research assignment as a preliminary exercise to teach
students how to recognize errors in quoting references.
Another activity that helps students develop their paraphrasing skills is
to require them to write summaries without the text in front of them. Instructors
can give the students short excerpts of Internet passages to read and summarize.
As students read one another's summaries, they can determine whether
"patchwriting" has occurred. If it appears that a summary matches the content
of the article too closely, then students can be instructed on how to quote
a paraphrased passage. For additional practice, students can locate and summarize
web sites on their own, but more importantly, they can be asked to critically
assess whether these pages are legitimate references. This practice will
develop the students' evaluative skills and begin to engage them in the process
of systematic thinking that is a skill necessary for the review of research
materials.
To illustrate this model, English instructors at the Kent State University
Geauga Campus provide a list of the novels, short stories, and other materials
on which their students will have to write papers. The library staff then
bookmarks all related web sites and gives copies of the links to the instructors.
Instructors then have the opportunity to peruse the sites to familiarize
themselves with their content. Thus, instructors have immediate access to
most of the sources their students may use from the Internet. Since students
are aware of this practice, most reconsider plans of plagiarizing with Internet
resources.
In addition to bookmarking web sites, the library staff also reiterates the
university's policy on plagiarism during bibliographic instruction sessions.
Students are given guides on citing electronic references and examples are
available in the library. In all English classes, students are required to
photocopy and identify the source from which a quotation is taken. These
photocopies are then included with the final paper for review. Although some
instructors may not wish to burden themselves with this practice, we have
found that students document their sources much more carefully when they
know that the instructor will examine the original quotation. Furthermore,
the art of "patchwriting," a situation in which a student "copies from a
source, deleting some words, altering grammatical structures, or plugging
in one for one synonym substitutes," decreases immensely (Howard 233). Requiring
students to photocopy their sources also enables instructors to evaluate
how students selected quotations to support arguments. It is much easier
to identify a misquote when the actual source is available for review.
Instructors can examine the original context of the quote to teach the students
how to apply the quote more effectively. During the research, students are
also encouraged to locate additional sites for review. Since it is inevitable
that students will navigate the Internet, we allow them to present the material
they wish to use to their classmate critics who will either accept or reject
the reference as a valid source of information.
If we take the time to instruct our students about the ethics of research
and scholarship, chances are, we will have less "accidental" cases of plagiarism.
In most situations, plagiarism occurs as a result of ignorance. We cannot
assume that our students understand what is expected of them, and so it is
important that we reiterate the virtue of academic honesty each time we assign
a research project. Students need to understand the significance of ownership
in terms of their own written material. Once this concept is mastered, students
learn that in their own writing, they possess ownership for a body of work.
In turn, they come to understand the meaning of respect for intellectual
property because they themselves have participated in its creation.
Hacker, Diana. The Bedford Handbook for
Writers. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford, 1994. 477.
Howard, Rebecca Moore. "Plagiarisms, Authorships, and the Academic
Death Penalty." College English. 57.7: 788-806.
Instructor's Guide to Internet Plagiarism. Online. Available:
http://rideau.carleton.ca/%7Egsenecha/guide/.
Researchpaper.com Online. Available:
http://www.researchpaper.com.
1996. 10 March 1997.
Termpapers on File. Online. Available:
http://www.termpapers-on-file.com//term-papers/.
University of Michigan Undergraduate Library: Plagiarism. Online.
Available:
http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/UGL/plagiarism.html.
About the Author
Mary Hricko, Library
Director
Kent State University, Geauga Campus
14111 Claridon-Troy Road
Burton, OH 44021
(440) 834-4187 ext. 117
FAX: (440) 834-0919
Home Address:
2618 Lydia Drive S.W.
Lordstown, OH 44481