Do Your Students Plagiarize?
Practical Strategies on Preventing and
Detecting Plagiarism
Dr. Jun Wang
Dealing with Plagiarism at SJDC
(An article from The Record)
http://www.recordnet.com/
Does any of
these ring a
bell?
Common Types of Plagiarism
• Paraphrasing without giving credits to
the original source
• Quoting less than what has been copied
• Creating a paper by cutting and pasting
phrases, sentences, or paragraphs from
other publications
• Working on an individual assignment
with a partner and turning in identical
answers
Based on Robert A. Harris’ Plagiarism Handbook: Strategies for Preventing, Detecting, and Dealing
with Plagiarism. Los Angeles, CA: Pyrczak Publishing, 2001..
Desperate Types of Plagiarism
• Copy an entire article from the Web
or a subscription online database
• Download a free research paper from the Web
• Buy a paper from a commercial paper mill
• Fake a citation to get by so as to meet the
deadline
• Use a paper with permission from a friend who
took the same course or chose the same
research topic
Based on Robert A. Harris’ Plagiarism Handbook: Strategies for Preventing, Detecting,
and Dealing with Plagiarism. Los Angeles, CA: Pyrczak Publishing, 2001..
What Can We Do to
Prevent or Ward off
Plagiarism?
Plagiarism Prevention Tutorials
• Build an awareness by introducing students to
plagiarism prevention resources or tutorials
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http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.pdf
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar. html
http://www.depts.drew.edu/composition/Avoiding_Plagiarism.htm
http://www.reshall.berkeley.edu/academics/resources/ plagiarism
http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/plagiarism2.htm
Major Writing Styles
• Introduce students to print and online resource guides on
major writing styles
– MLA:
• http://library.deltacollege.edu/IC/mla.html
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html#Works-Cited
• MLA Handbook (Reference: LB2369 .G53 2003)
– APA:
• http://library.deltacollege.edu/IC/apa.html
• http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html
• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
(Reference: BF76.7 .P83 2001)
– Turabian (Chicago):
• http://library.deltacollege.edu/IC/turabian.html
• http://www.nwmissouri.edu/library/citing/turpar.htm
• A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations
(Reference:LB2369 .T8 1996)
Useful Resources
• Quizzes & Activities:
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Plagiarism Attitude Scale
Citation Quiz
Using Sources Quiz
Acceptable Use Versus Plagiarism Exercise
“You Be the Judge” Activity
Robert A. Harris’ Plagiarism Handbook: Strategies for Preventing,
Detecting, and Dealing with Plagiarism. Los Angeles, CA:
Pyrczak Publishing, 2001. 139-152.
(Main Book Collection: PN167 .H37 2001)
Other Recommendations
• Recommend unique/specific topics or topics on
current issues for students’ research papers
• Encourage students to start their research process
as early as possible
• Remind or require students to include complete
bibliographic information on their printouts or
note cards as they gather the information for their
research paper
• Encourage students to cited sources under Works
Cited or References as they write their paper so
that you won’t miss any citations
•Level of language use
•Context & coherence
•Similarities in papers…
Plagiarism Detection Tools
• Subscription online databases
– http://library.deltacollege.edu/electronic.html
• Suggested methods of searching:
– Conduct a keyword search, using appropriate online databases
from the database list
• Start with a comprehensive database (e.g. Expanded Academic
Index ASAP)
• Type in the search box a phrase from a suspected paper,
surrounding the phrase with quotation marks, or
• Conduct a Boolean search by entering some keywords
from a suspected paper, using the Boolean operator,
“AND” to nest the keywords together
(e.g. school and connectedness and youth and violence)
Plagiarism Detection Tools
• Web Search Engines:
– Google
– Fast
-- Yahoo
-- Dogpile
• Suggested Methods of searching
– Conduct an exact-phrase search in a Web or Directory
search box
• Enter a phrase from a suspected paper, using quotation marks
– Conduct a keyword search
• Enter a few keywords from a suspected paper in the Web
search box
(e.g. school connectedness youth violence anger behavior)
– Perform the searches in more than one search engines
Papermills & Essay Sites
• Free Essay network:
– http://www.freeessay.com/
• EssaySearch.com:
– http://www.essaysearch.com/
• Essay Crawler:
– http://www.essaycrawler.com
• Term Paper Sites:
– http://www.termpapersites.com/
• Search Cowboy:
– http://www.searchcowboy.com/cgibin/search/search.cgi?keywords=essays
Popular Commercial Tool
(http://www.plagiarism.org)
Group Discussions & Recommendations