Teaching Students to Avoid Plagiarism by Teaching Active Reading Skills
Silly idea: If students can paraphrase better and choose quotations more judiciously, they will be more apt I
their own formal writing to recognize the sources of their ideas and acknowledge them.
PARAPHRASING is a complex skill that requires writers first to understand material—
which they often find challenging in and of itself—and then to express those ideas in
their own words—which usually means using a less sophisticated vocabulary as well as
an alternate sentence structure. We expect students to paraphrase well—i.e., without
lapsing into forms of inadequate paraphrase, such as mosaic/patchwork writing—and
their ability to paraphrase well is a major component of our assessment as to whether
they have comprehended sources read. Very many students—even advanced
students—rely on mosaic writing. Whether this practice stems from misunderstandings
about what constitutes acceptable paraphrasing or misunderstanding of the source
material itself is not always clear.
A number of issues arise for students concerning the use of QUOTATIONS. Students are
apt to use too many quotations. Sometimes this practice is motivated by the sense that
they could not possible say “it” as well as the author; sometimes lack of genuine
comprehension leads to over use of quotation (“It sounded impressive!”). Quotations
should be used judiciously (in some fields, rarely to never) and when used should be of
an appropriate length. Many would also add that phrases chosen for quotation should
either be stylistically special or uniquely able to communicate an idea. In any case, most
students need to learn that they cannot simply rely on choosing good quotations as a
substitute for their job as a writer to demonstrate their own interpretation or
understanding of source.
CITATIONS are used to acknowledge the source of paraphrased ideas and quotations.
Poor writing habits (“I’ll put my citations in later”) contribute to poorly cited papers, but
a prior, contributing issue may be that students have a difficult time (a) recognizing that
ideas, in a way, belong to the people who express them, and (b) distinguishing an
author’s idea from facts and ideas of others that contribute to it. Similarly, they have
difficulty seeing where their reliance on others’ ideas ends and they themselves become
creators of new ideas. So perhaps we can help our students by teaching them, as they
read, to recognize distinct ideas and pin them to their owners.
Purpose: Create a progression of assignments focused on these skills that supports comprehension and
discussion of regular course work. One way to help improve these skills is to practice them on regularly
assigned course material and to receive feedback from both the instructor and their peers.
Berenson 9/12
In conjunction with a day’s reading assignment,
Assignment:
In class integration with discussion of reading:
…identify for the students the 2-4 of the most
important paragraphs in a reading and then ask
them to paraphrase the central ideas of each
paragraph in 1-2 sentences. Each of their
paraphrases should end with a citation (your choice
of style). You risk students only reading those
paragraphs. So you could throw them a curve ball
and tell them they need to assess whether these
paragraphs really cover all the most important
points in the reading (make sure to leave out
something important!).
If you have students e-mail you their work, you
can project on a screen and discuss the quality of
the paraphrases both from a
content/understanding point of view as well as
technical/plagiarism point of view.
If you have students bring a hardcopy of their
work, you can ask partners to exchange and
assess the quality of the paraphrases both from a
content/understanding point of view as well as
technical/plagiarism point of view.
You can also comment on the choice of
paragraphs and what else from the reading is
essential for understanding.
…have students identify the 2-4 most significant
paragraphs for understanding this reading and then
paraphrase the central ideas of each paragraph in
1-2 sentences. Each paraphrase should end with a
citation (your choice of style).
See above.
…have students identify 2-4 key quotations that
might be appropriate to use in a paper. Each
quotation should end with a citation (your choice of
style).
If you have students e-mail you their work, you
can project on a screen and discuss better and
worse choices for quotations (length; stylistic);
content/centrality of quotations; and whether or
not they are better candidates for paraphrase vs.
quotation.
…have students identify key paragraphs &
paraphrase as above, but require that they include
in each paraphrase a carefully chosen quotation.
Each paraphrase should end with a citation.
In addition to the follow up above, if you have
students bring a hardcopy of their work, you can
ask partners to exchange and check quotations
for accuracy (verbatim and page numbers in
citation) and that the use of the quotation
accurately represents the author.
…have students identify 2-4 key quotations and
provide a paraphrase of the central idea of each.
Each quotation should end with a citation (your
choice of style).
Using student work as examples, demonstrate
how using a paraphrase plus a quotation makes
an argument stronger and demonstrates deeper
comprehension.
Berenson 9/12