1	Detecting and Handling Plagiarism Scott E. Siddall Denison University
2	Roadmap Definition and forms of plagiarism What fosters plagiarism What discourages plagiarism Methods for detection Discussion on handling plagiarism
3	“The” Book on Plagiarism Authored by Jim Davis, Department of English, Denison University
4	Plagiarism may seem simple… “the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own” [from the OED]
5	Plagiarism is complex… Ideas drawn from many resources – research Ideas drawn from one - plagiarism
6	Plagiarism is complex… Directly plagiarized work Verbatim or nearly so without citation Self-plagiarism resubmit previous work without permission Mosaic plagiarism “patch writing” short quotations and phrases lacking attribution Accidental plagiarism forgotten citation Oral plagiarism less likely to cite
7	Example² “Contrast the condition into which all these friendly Indians are suddenly plunged now, with their condition only two years previous: martial law now in force on all their reservations; themselves in danger of starvation, and constantly exposed to the influence of emissaries from their friends and relations, urging them to join in fighting this treacherous government that had kept faith with nobody--neither with friend nor with foe.”¹ ¹Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government’s Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes (New York: Harper & Bros., 1881):178 Only two years later, all friendly Sioux were suddenly plunged into new conditions, including starvation, martial law on all their reservations, and constant urging by their friends and relations to join in warfare against a treacherous government that had kept faith with neither friend nor foe. [This is direct plagiarism] ² Examples taken from the College of Wooster’s Political Science Independent Study Handbook, http://www.wooster.edu/polisci/IS_handbook.pdf
8	Example “Contrast the condition into which all these friendly Indians are suddenly plunged now, with their condition only two years previous: martial law now in force on all their reservations; themselves in danger of starvation, and constantly exposed to the influence of emissaries from their friends and relations, urging them to join in fighting this treacherous government that had kept faith with nobody--neither with friend nor with foe.”¹ ¹Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government’s Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes (New York: Harper & Bros., 1881):178 According to Jackson, the Sioux were now on the verge of starvation. Martial law was now in force on all their reservations. Friends and relatives urged them to join in the fighting against the Federal Government--a "treacherous government that had kept faith with neither friend nor foe.”¹ [Better but not adequately reconceptualized; Jackson not attributed for all the paragraph]
9	Example “Contrast the condition into which all these friendly Indians are suddenly plunged now, with their condition only two years previous: martial law now in force on all their reservations; themselves in danger of starvation, and constantly exposed to the influence of emissaries from their friends and relations, urging them to join in fighting this treacherous government that had kept faith with nobody--neither with friend nor with foe.”¹ ¹Helen Hunt Jackson, A Century of Dishonor: A Sketch of the United States Government’s Dealings with Some of the Indian Tribes (New York: Harper & Bros., 1881):178 According to Jackson, the Sioux were now suffering starvation, martial law and gratuitous advice. Hunger and military oppression made more provocative and strident advice of their historical allies that the Sioux add their might to war against the Federal government--a "treacherous government that had kept faith with nobody--neither with friend nor with foe.”¹ [Properly cited because of opening phrase, footnote and quotes for verbatim passage]
10	What fosters plagiarism? Digital “cut & paste” mentality Procrastination – take a short cut Paper mills on the web – so many! Local black market for papers Simple citation errors and omissions No information on attribution, especially with media content Sloppy note-taking The peer-to-peer software experience (e.g., music sharing)
11	What discourages plagiarism? Discussion of the issues, education Close student-faculty work Honor codes, signed policy statement Modeling appropriate behavior Meaningful assignments Writing for a wider (web) audience Ex: Can the Earth Afford to Feed You?
12	Methods of detection For-fee services Turnitin.com and iThenticate.com
13	Methods of detection Web-based requiring digital submission Can plug into course management systems Submissions are stored leading to some intellectual property questions
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15	Methods of detection Free services Google Some are gathering points for paper mills Selection of content to submit Statistically improbable phrases Novel semantic/similarity searches Watch the impact of the Google Library Project Most importantly: faculty awareness of students’ writing skills and the discipline
16	Resources Self-test on plagiarism http://leeds.bates.edu/cbb/quiz/index.html List of paper mills online http://www.coastal.edu/library/presentations/mills2.html Colby-Bates-Bowdoin plagiarism site http://leeds.bates.edu/cbb/ The Center for Academic Integrity http://www.academicintegrity.org/ Avoiding Plagiarism – from the Purdue Online Writing Lab http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html Teaching about Plagiarism in a Digital Age http://www.ncte.org/pubs/chron/highlights/122871.htm
17	Notes from our open discussion The 2 AM desperation + Internet ease of access is tempting! Don’t give open ended assignments Always related to material in course If the assignment is “open,” students should follow defined steps Reduces late night desperation Gives instructor more sense of know what is appropriate Avoid assigning papers on classic topics Compare three texts, or compare specific parts of a text Save classic text questions for an exam Do I have to come up with good questions each year? Discipline-based question pools may help, but all will eventually be exposed Require drafts and teach students how to revise their writing An example: unwriting a digital text into handwritten draft since a draft was required
18	Notes from our open discussion Connect assignments to current media and publications Tie paper topics to class sessions Often the plagiarized paper is poorly done anyway…but the question remains: is there academic dishonesty involved? If judicial process follows, we must be clear. A frequent case: student reads the paper but paraphrases/borrows without doing the hard work to reconceptualize the work themselves. Changing a word or two isn’t sufficient Faculty are skillful at detecting professional phrases that often appear in plagiarized work Survey from Center for Academic Integrity: 70% of students reported they cheated
19	Notes from our open discussion Do students understand intellectual theft? All papers (1st year and beyond) should be based on “real research.” We should avoid lumping this complex experience into a single capstone research paper Need to repeat these lessons; not just in First Year Studies classes. Standardize the expectations for students throughout their undergraduate life Assign work based on print-only materials (journal back issues that are not online) Need definitions of common knowledge and what can be referenced without attribution
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