“Not Another Plagiarized
Paper!": Strategies for Helping
Students Avoid the Plagiarism
Trap
Patricia Becker-Johnson, Teacher
Education
Kate Mangelsdorf, English (Rhetoric
and Writing Studies)
We know why students
plagiarize…
Students are deceitful
 Students are lazy
 Students can’t write
 The English Department isn’t doing its job

Why Students Say They
Plagiarize
I’m desperate
 I need an A in this class
 I don’t understand how to document
sources
 I don’t have enough time
 I didn’t think anyone would really read my
paper

Our Responses to Plagiarism
Emotional Responses
* Disappointment
* Anger
* Betrayal of Trust
* Insult
 We focus on detection, not instruction

Complicating “Plagiarism”
Postmodern concepts
 Cultural assumptions
 Situational differences
 Accidental
 Deliberate

“Plagiarism”: Postmodern
Assumptions




Is there new information out there to be found?
Bakhtin (1981) argues words do not belong to a
single individual…
Every word spoken or written draws on ideas of
others
Newton: to see farther we must stand on the
shoulders of giants
“Plagiarism”: Cultural
Assumptions

Individualistic cultures

Truth derives from original insight
 Authors own their own texts (capitalism)
 Intellectual property laws
“Plagiarism: Cultural
Assumptions

Communal Cultures
 Truth
derives from the group
 Texts are communally owned
 Using words of others is sign of respect
 Memorization of respected texts
“Plagiarism”: Situational
Differences
Speechwriters
 Ghostwriters
 Boilerplate language
 Collaborative workplace writing
 Mission statements
 SACS verbiage

“Plagiarism”: Accidental
Students don’t understand why citing
sources is important
 Students don’t transfer what they learned
in first-year composition to other classes
 Students forget because they don’t write
very often
 Students think only English teachers care

It’s Not Easy to Correctly Use
Sources!
Cognitive challenges
 Linguistic and rhetorical skills
 Knowledge of the discipline

Cognitive Challenges

You need to . . .
Understand what you’re trying to say
 Understand what the source is saying
 Understand how your idea connects with the
source’s idea

Linguistic and Rhetorical Skills

You need

Strong vocabulary to paraphrase
 Sentence skills to integrate ideas
 Textual knowledge for cohesion
Disciplinary Knowledge

You need to be able to

Identify common knowledge and jargon in the
field
 Identify knowledge unique to the source
 Understand citation system in the field
 Know how to cite ever-changing digital
sources
“Plagiarism”: Deliberate
“The unauthorized use or close imitation of
the language and thoughts of another
author and the representation of them as
one's own original work.” – Dictionary.com
(based on Random House Dictionary)
 Academic dishonesty: Submitting another
person’s work as your own

How Students Plagiarize
Cut ‘N Paste
 Online journals from library databases
and various internet texts
 Several sources
 Sentence, paragraph, or the whole paper
 Sudden shifts in tone and vocabulary
 Fake citations
How Students Plagiarize
Recycle Used Paper
 Internet paper, friend’s paper, student’s
own paper
 Re-format
 Use “find” and “replace” to update
 Fake citations
How Students Plagiarize
Digital Paper Mills
 Hundreds of sites
 Thousands of topics
 Charge by the page or paper
 Papers written to order
Other Peoples Papers.com




“Isn't this plagiarism?
No. If you hand in a paper from this site or any other you
are committing plagiarism. There is nothing wrong with
publishing papers on the internet.
Can I get caught using this site?
If you are cheating there is always a chance you will get
caught. Teachers know about this site so think twice
before handing in a paper you did not write.
Do teachers know about this site?
Yes. Teachers all over the world know about this site.
They can't stop us, but they can catch you.”
http://www.oppapers.com/add-quote.php
Techniques to Combat
Plagiarism
Assign major paper in parts…work on
drafts
 Model how YOU combine other’s work
with your own
 The assignment is a process that is
continually being built upon
 Do not recycle topics semester after
semester

Activity
How can you help your students avoid the
plagiarism trap?
 Deliberate plagiarism
 Academic dishonesty
 Accidental plagiarism

REAP: Read, Encode, Annotate,
Ponder
1.
2.
3.
4.
Read the Text
Encode into your own language
Annotate by writing the message down
Ponder; think about it
REAP: Read, Encode, Annotate,
Ponder

Show students examples of annotations in
actual content area’s writing
GIST: Generating Interactions
between Schemata and Text
Start off by showing students how to
paraphrase one sentence at a time
 Add another sentence to be paraphrased
 Combine with previous paraphrase into
one sentence
 Finally, paraphrase entire paragraph in
one sentence

I-Chart
Topic:
Subtopic:
What I Already Know:
Resources
Important Ideas
Interesting Related Facts:
Key Words or People:
New Questions to Research:
Resources to Fight Plagiarism
http://www.plagiarism.org/
 http://www.turnitin.com
 http://www.howoriginal.net/
 http://www.canexus.com/
 http://www.wordchecksystems.com/
 Google

Resources to Help Students



Online writing lab at Purdue University:
owl.english.purdue.edu
UTEP Dean of Students Office:
Studentaffairs.utep.edu (click on “student
conduct”)
Refworks (online citation system):
libraryweb.utep.edu (click on “Library Services,”
then “for students.”
A Word from Our Sponsor:
UTEP

Office of the Dean
Step 1: Paper, test, assignment receives an “I”
Step 2: Send Dean of Students a letter detailing
offense with appropriate documentation
Step 3: Dean of Students will contact student in
question and meet with them
Step 4: Final decision will be made by Dean of
Students: Instructor and Student will be notified
by letter