In schools today one of the most important skills students will learn is
how to properly research using citations and to avoid plagiarism. Almost every
high school senior in the country has some sort of "senior thesis"
paper that demonstrates they can utilize these skills effectively before
leaving for their secondary pathway. In most colleges, the student handbook
contains the 'rules for plagiarism' with specific consequences that includes a
college judicial hearing that could have devastating consequences.
Colleges have also started utilizing plagiarism detection resources such as Turnitin.com
and MyDropBox.com
which have students electronically submit their work to be scanned for any
digital footprint linked to the Internet, newspapers and encyclopedia archives
as well as any peer submitted work.
The main problem I have found with students and plagiarism is that
students were never properly taught how to research and document sources and
create proper citations. Most students plagiarize unintentionally because they
were never properly taught how to paraphrase and summarize, directly quote
using their sources or create a works cited page. As an educator I want my
students to be prepared with essential 21st century research and
citation skills.
In teaching students about proper citation and plagiarism I have found the
following resources to be helpful:
1. Cornell Universities resource on ‘recognizing and avoidingplagiarism’ has an overview and includes three main sections: principles, logistics, and
exercises. Olin & Uris Libraries also provides “5 Criteria of EvaluatingWeb Pages” which provides a simplified view for student to evaluate a website based on 5
criteria to ensure the site authenticity and validity. The five criteria are
Accuracy, Authority, Objectivity, Currency and Coverage.
2. Monash University has an online tutorial on academic integrity that includes a short quiz.
This is a great resource for ELL and middle school students that is simple yet
effective.
3. Plaigiarism.org, sponsored by iParadigms
LLC, is a resource that has information on plagiarism, types of plagiarism,
tools, helpful sites, student’s materials as well as facts and statistics on
plagiarism.
4. Indiana University School of Education provides a short quiz as well as how to recognize plagiarism, real world cases, practice tests and
even a recognizing plagiarism certification test
5. The University of Mississippi Library has a ‘Plagiarism Tutorial’ that provides a pre-test, information, resources, post-test, and quizzes for students to indicate whether the sources are acceptable or
plagiarized. The tutorial is an
adaption from Robert A. Harris's book The Plagiarism Handbook : Strategies
for Preventing, Detecting, and Dealing with Plagiarism, Los Angeles, CA :
Pyrczak Publishing, 2001.
6. This interactive module
from the 21st Century Information Fluency Project has students try to make the distinction between paraphrasing and plagiarism.
This is a great tool to have students test their understanding of paraphrasing
and plagiarism.
7. The University of
Minnesota ‘Teaching with Writing’ has multiple resources and ways to approach teaching students about proper
citation and avoiding plagiarism. It also provides handouts and online
tutorials for preventing plagiarism.
8. NoodleTools and NoodleBib is a tool that students can use for note-taking, outlining,
citation, etc. NoodleTools recently became integrated with Google Docs so when
students are finished they can do more than just export their works cited to
Google Docs – they can create a new document linked to their NoodleTools
account.
9. Citation Machine is another tool that helps students put sources into proper works cited format.
This helps students properly credit their information and respect intellectual
property.
For teachers who want to utilize Plagiarism detectors within their
classroom, I have found ‘plagium’ or Dupli Checker are both helpful
tools to ensure students are putting resources into their own words.
