Write from
Wrong
Preventing Plagiarism by
Rethinking Writing and
Research
Barry Gilmore
Lausanne Collegiate School
TCTE 2008
Plagiarism: no
laughing matter?
My totally original
plagiarism presentation
(according to my students)
English teachers—lend me your ears! I come
to bury plagiarism, not to praise it. Four
score and seven years ago, in the best and
worst of times, it was a truth universally
acknowledged that a student in possession
of a good website must be want of an A…
Case Study:
Take It or Leave It
Christine Pelton – “The Leaf Project”
• The project
• Classroom results
• Student/parent contract
• Administration/School Board response
• Long-term consequences
Case Study:
Take It or Leave It
“I was kind of upset ‘cause I was pretty sure I
didn’t do it,” [one student] says, claiming he
copied from the internet but didn’t
plagiarize. . . “I put that as two different
sentences,” he says. “So it’s not like I copied
it straight from the Web site. I changed it into
two different sentences.” (48 Hours, 2002)
Where do you
stand?
Teacher/Admin
Students/Parents
School Board
Students receive a
zero
Students deserve
another chance
Reduce value of
assignment
My Questions
What factors haven’t we considered?
• Merit of Assignment
• Failure vs. Zero
• Plagiarism Instruction vs. Plagiarism Expectations
• School Policy vs. Classroom Policy
Addressing Plagiarism
Teachers
didn’t discuss
plagiarism
Teachers did
discuss
plagiarism
Grades 3-5
49%
61%
(understood)
Grades 6-12
37%
22% (felt it was
okay)
Addressing Plagiarism
WHEN
PRIVATE
CAMPUSES
WITH HONOR
CODE
LARGE PUBLIC
UNIVERSITY
WITH
MODIFIED
HONOR CODE
CAMPUSES
WITH NO
HONOR CODE
On tests
23%
33%
45%
On written work
45%
50%
56%
“Plagiarism? I’d define it
as an easy A if you don’t
get caught, and an easy F
if you do.”
-Andy, age 15
Part One: The problem
Part Two: solutions
• How?
• Why?
• Consequences
• Classroom culture
• Assignments
• School culture
“Plagiarism? I’d define
it
• Assignments
as an easy A if you don’t
• Prompts
get caught, and an easy F
• Research
if you do.”
• Classroom Culture
-Andy, age
15
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
Part One: The problem
• How?
• Why?
• Consequences
• Team Efforts
Part Two: solutions
• School Culture
• Grades
• Classroom culture
• Honor Codes
• Assignments
School
• School culture •pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
Prompt Attention
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
Write a 3-5 page formal
essay on “Harrison
Bergeron.”
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
Prompt Attention
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
"It took me about ten seconds to find a
free essay online, but it wasn't very good.
I could have paid $6.95 for a better one,
though--probably worth it."
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
Prompt Attention
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
• Make your prompts more specific
• Make your prompts more
personal
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Use unlikely comparisons
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
Prompt Attention
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
Choose three characters from the story
"Harrison Bergeron" and find two
quotations from each character. Using
those six quotations, write an essay in
which you compare the motivations and
choices of the three characters.
"What a pain, I have to cut and paste
those quotations into an essay that I
found online on the general topic. This
would take me about ten minutes, I
guess, and I might have to pay for the
original essay if I wanted it to be any
good."
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
Prompt Attention
Imagine you could spend one day in the
world of “Harrison Bergeron” and talk to
the characters in the story. Write a letter
to the U.S. Handicapper General
describing your experiences and your
views on the society within the story after
your visit.
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
"The personal voice makes this one harder,
but not too hard. I could probably do it
mainly by changing pronouns with the find
and replace function in Word and with a
bit of formatting. Most teachers wouldn't
catch on."
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
Prompt Attention
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
Write an essay comparing “Harrison
Bergeron” to the story “The Lottery.”
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
"Done. Took me about a minute. Do
you want that double-spaced?"
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
What Do We Know?
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
It’s not just about preventing plagiarism,
it’s about how we teach and how
students learn.
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
Prompt Attention
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
• Read the story “Harrison Bergeron.”
• In groups/as a class, brainstorm possible
essay topics and discuss.
• Choose an individual essay topic.
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Look for textual evidence and write a
thesis statement.
• Grades
• Share thesis statements in class and draft
a first paragraph.
• School
pressures
• Write an essay.
• Honor Codes
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
What Else Do We
Know?
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
Our goal isn’t simply to produce students
who complete tasks well, but to
encourage critical thinkers who create the
tasks and their parameters.
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
Research (about
research)
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• 65% of students: wrote a research
paper for English
• The Ethics Gap
• 38% of students: wrote a research
paper for social studies
• Team Efforts
• Of English papers, 67% on
historical/biographical topic
• 75% used all or primarily internet
sources
• Good
Intentions?
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
Research: Thoughts
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• Assignment: Are students
invested?
• The Ethics Gap
• A discipline problem: What does
research for an English class look like?
• Team Efforts
• Digital literacy: Are we teaching
students to use the internet wisely?
• Process vs. Content: What’s the
point of the assignment, anyway?
• Good
Intentions?
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
Digital Literacy
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
Digital Literacy
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• S.E.A.R.C.H.
• Peer source checking
• Required source analysis
(credit reports)
• Advanced search methods
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
S.E.A.R.C.H.
Search using Google Scholar
Examine reputable sources
Assemble a source/search list
Return to Google/Google Scholar
Collect more keywords and sources
Harvest a list of sources (and visit a library)
The Ethics Gap
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
Web Culture
Rules of
Victory
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
77% say Internet plagiarism is
“not a serious issue”
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
Intentional Plagiarism
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
Downloading
an entire
paper online
Cutting and
pasting to
make an
copying,
entire essay
cheating
• Classroom Culture
Making up
sources
• The Ethics Gap
Substituting
words in a
sentence
Peer
copying
Cutting and
pasting a
sentence or
two
Including
sources in a
bibliography
but failing to
cite in-text
Working with
a partnerpoor
too
closely
paraphrasing
Poor
paraphrasing
skills
Taking material
directly from a
textbook to answer
a homework
question
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
Unintentional Plagiarism
Team Efforts
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
Collaboration or
cheating?
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
• Assignments
Making the Grade
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
Research shows three reliable
effects when students are graded:
They tend to think less deeply,
avoid taking risks, and lose
interest in the learning itself. The
ultimate goal of authentic
assessment must be the
elimination of grades.
-Alfie Kohn
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
• Assignments
Making the Grade
Research by Eric M. Anderman:
Students who cheat tend to…
• worry about school
• perceive their school as focused on
grades and ability
• believe they can obtain some kind
reward for doing well in class
• attribute failure in school to outside
circumstances
• avoid using deep-level cognitive
processing strategies, such as trying
different ways to solve a problem
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
• Assignments
Making the Grade
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic
• WIK charts
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Honor rolls?
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
May I Have the
Honor?
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Honor pledge
• Advisory-style discussion
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Honor code embedded in the
curriculum
• Grades
• Student-driven reminders
• School
pressures
• Honor Codes
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
• Assignments
Under Pressure
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
While 24.5 percent of students reported
“often,” “very frequently,” or “sometimes”
having cut and pasted text from the Internet
without proper citation, 27.6 percent
reported having done the same with
conventional texts. Meanwhile, more than
90 percent of students reported that their
peers “often,” “very frequently,” or
“sometimes” copied text without citation
from conventional sources. (Kellogg)
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
• Assignments
Under Pressure
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Get cut, or cut and paste?
• Gender
• Low achievers and high achievers
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
• Assignments
A career in
modeling
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
22.6% of students in grades 6–12 felt
copying from the Internet was okay when
teachers discussed the issue, but that number
jumped to 36.9% among students whose
teachers did not discuss the issue.
-Anne Ruggles Gere
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults
Questions and More
Barry Gilmore
bgilmore@lausanneschool.com
www.barrygilmore.com
http://barrygilmore.wikispaces.com/
http://books.heinemann.com/gilmore/
• Assignments
• Prompts
• Research
• Classroom Culture
• The Ethics Gap
• Good
Intentions?
• Team Efforts
• School Culture
• Grades
• Honor Codes
• School
pressures
• Questions,
Comments, Insults