Plagiarism - teaching strategies
- Introduction
- What is plagiarism?
- University policy and procedures on plagiarism
- How can plagiarism be avoided?
- Methods for detecting plagiarism
- Resources
Introduction
Plagiarism at university level is a serious issue and staff report increasing concern with the easy use of web resources and electronic preparation of assignments. This teaching guide will cover the different forms of plagiarism, how the University of South Australia deals with plagiarism, and strategies that you can use to avoid it. Reference is also made to resources to which you can refer your students.
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is to take someone else’s words or ideas and present them as your own without proper acknowledgement (Marshall & Rowland, 1998). Words and ideas can be plagiarised from books, articles, design projects, artwork, the internet or another student’s work.
Examples of plagiarism
Students may be accused of plagiarism if they:
- write about someone’s ideas without giving a reference. This includes ideas which are quoted directly or paraphrased.
- use an author’s exact words without indicating that they are quoting directly.
- present their own version of other people's ideas which have been collected from a number of sources without proper acknowledgement.
- try to put ideas into their own words but change only a few words of the original source. A lecturer may decide that this is plagiarism because the words are almost the same as the original, even if a reference is given.
- take an image, diagram or artwork from another source without appropriate acknowledgement.
- collaborate inappropriately when individual work is required.
- copy another student’s work and submit it as their own. If a student lends an assignment to another student and their assignment is copied and handed in by that student, both students can be penalised as the lecturer may not be able to find out who originally wrote the assignment.
- submit work written by someone else as their own.
Reasons for plagiarism
There are many reasons why students plagiarise. Some of these are deliberate and others are inadvertent. It is important as a lecturer that you recognise the distinction between these different types of plagiarism and deal with them appropriately as outlined in the University’s policy on academic misconduct.
Students may plagiarise because they:
- misunderstand how to use Australian/western academic conventions appropriately
- have poor English language skills
- come from a culture where respect for another’s scholarship is acknowledged and expressed in other ways
- are too busy to study and have other distractions
- are unmotivated
- lack confidence or have a fear of failure
- find the material complex and abstract and struggle to grasp the meaning.
University policy and procedures on plagiarism
Plagiarism is regarded as academic dishonesty and incurs serious penalties. The University’s policy on plagiarism and procedures relating to academic misconduct are available at http://www.unisa.edu.au/policies/manual/default.asp#10
This policy recognises that plagiarism can be deliberate or it can be inadvertent (unintentional) but it is always considered a serious misdemeanour and penalties are therefore very harsh. If you detect that a student has plagiarised there are procedures outlined in the above reference which must be followed. There may also be Divisional and School procedures that you will need to address more specifically. Contact your Program Director, Head of School or Divisional Dean Teaching and Learning for more specific information.
How can plagiarism be avoided?
There are a number of strategies that you can use to minimise the risk of plagiarism by your students. These include educative, informative and preventative strategies.
Educative
Plagiarism can be avoided if students are aware of what it is and how to reference other sources correctly. Often inadvertent plagiarism occurs because students do not understand how to reference correctly or are not confident in academic writing practices. Educative strategies include:
- making students aware that it is an accepted academic convention to acknowledge another person’s work correctly. This can be expressed in terms of respect, honesty and integrity and that it is good academic practice to cite accurately.
- advising students that they are actually demonstrating their knowledge more effectively if they acknowledge and cite the source of their information.
- referring students to resources that will help them to understand the academic conventions of referencing and how to cite from other sources accurately - such resources are listed at the end of this guide.
- building short exercises into early assessment pieces or classes to build and reinforce skills in summarising, paraphrasing and referencing correctly.
- providing model examples of appropriate referencing specific to and typical of your subject area.
Informative
You can inform students about the University’s policies and procedures relating to plagiarism. Informative strategies include:
- giving students information, in the early stages of their study experience, about plagiarism and the University’s policies relating to plagiarism.
- letting students know about failures due to plagiarism and reiterating the penalties involved.
Preventative
Often plagiarism can be avoided by designing assessment tasks carefully. Some strategies for doing this include:
- modifying and changing assessment tasks each time a course is taught
- designing assessment tasks that are:
- more student centred, eg asking students to incorporate personal opinions or experiences. These can include the use of learning logs or portfolios.
- based around current issues
- collaborative (although group work can have its own set of challenges)
- establishing assessment practices which reduce temptation by:
- asking students to submit drafts or an outline of their work prior to or with the final copy
- requiring interim reports or an oral report of assignments
- requiring references to be up-to-date or specify the number and/or type of references that you require
- asking students to write a short piece about how they went about the assignment, the process that they undertook and a statement about the learning outcomes
- asking students to sign a disclaimer that this work is original and their own.
Detecting plagiarism
Lecturers often make an initial detection of plagiarism through the use of familiar phrases or a noticeable change in the style of writing or skill levels in drawing/design. To prove that a student has plagiarised, the original source has to be found.
There are a large number of web sites that have been established for detecting online plagiarism. Many of these sites are free and others are commercial. If you choose to use a web site for detecting plagiarism make sure that it is reputable. Many staff have also reported success by typing a phrase from a student’s work into a search engine.
Resources
Learning and Teaching Unit provides a number of resources to which you can refer students or which you can use in your teaching materials. They include:
- referencing resources
- a general learning guide which introduces referencing - Introduction to Referencing
- learning guides on how to use the different referencing conventions (author date styles and numerical styles)
- information on how to reference electronic resources
- plagiarism
- a learning guide on Avoiding Plagiarism for students
- an online workshop on Avoiding Plagiarism for students
- resources for staff
- specific resources and exercises for students in your course. Please contact the academic development person or learning adviser on your campus for further information.
- a power point presentation that you can use in your classes (PPT 66kb)
Reference
Marshall, L. & Rowland, F. 1998, A Guide to Learning Independently, 3 rd Edition, Addison Wesley Longman, Melbourne