Some instructors don't feel that they should have to "police" constantly, or modify assignments in order to make committing plagiarism more difficult. But there are a number of things you can do to prevent plagiarism from happening, and they're not that hard.
The University of Alberta's excellent site
on plagiarism includes some great
handouts for classroom use, including:
- Research and Writing Tips
- Proper Paraphrasing
- Evaluating Internet Resources
- Common Knowledge and Quotations
1. At the beginning of the semester, talk about CBU's policy on plagiarism. Make your own expectations clear for specific assignments - are students allowed to collaborate?
2. Schedule a class session with a reference librarian before your first assignment. Consider letting the librarian talk to your class about evaluating electronic resources; the validity of information found on the Web; appropriate web sites, reference books, and databases in your discipline, etc.
3. Make students write as much as possible. Getting to know someone's style is not a guarantee of anything, but having a number of writing samples on hand may help.
4. Talk to students about their own work. Someone who's downloaded a paper is not going to understand the nuances. Suggest that they hand in notes and outlines as evidence of original thought.
5. Allow students to incorporate personal reflections on some topics, or consider some assignments that draw from class discussions.
6. Change assigned paper topics every semester. Where there is sufficient latitude to do so, encourage students to write on a topic that engages them.
7. Keep up with current technology. It's hard for you to detect "cyber-plagiarism" if your students are far more adept with electronic resources than you are.
8. Critique a sample download from one of the "paper mills" in class.
9. Emphasize the processes involved in doing research and writing papers. Ways to do so include having students write topic proposals, idea outlines, multiple drafts, interim working bibliographies, and photocopies of sources over the course of an assignment, while staggering due dates.
10. Discuss the preferred citation format in your discipline. Make sure you include a discussion on or some information about how to cite electronic resources. Students who are confused about how to cite something may end up not citing it at all.
11. Above all, don't feel like you are making additional work for yourself, or that this proliferation of online information has forced you to compromise your own teaching methods or resort to "Mickey Mouse" tactics. It is important that students understand plagiarism as a moral and ethical issue, and that they grasp the value of academic honesty. Learning how to attribute sources properly leads to more effective writing - in doing research, students are exposed to a diverse range of thought and opinion, and they are forced to see how these ideas contend with their own original thought.