C27. Teach It: Avoiding Plagiarism
A.
Chapter Objectives
The purpose of this chapter is to provide you with teaching materials to guide students to practice the prewriting techniques described in Chapter 27 of How Writing
Works.
We have included in-class discussion questions, activities, and writing exercises that will help students to develop skill
in avoiding plagiarism, while also reinforcing the key concepts
introduced in Part 4.
Chapters
in Part 4 are best assigned when students are working on a project from Part 1 or Part 2. Accordingly, we have included activities that you can use with any of the chapter
projects. Even after students have read this chapter, you might return to some of these activities when students are in the early stages of a project.
You can also use these materials
to create lesson
plans. You might spend a whole class session
on prewriting early
in the course, using multiple
activities in this chapter. Start by choosing
one or two discussion questions from B. Talk About It: Discussion Questions, an activity from C. Try It Out: In-Class Exercises, and a writing
activity from
D. Write About
It: Writing Prompts. Then,
you can layer in additional activities if you still have time. You can also assign the activities in part D for homework.
Later in the semester, you might use just one or two of these activities in a lesson
devoted to working on a project.
B. Talk About It: Discussion
Questions
Here you will find questions that you can use to prompt discussion about this chapter
in class. Keep in mind that you do not need to use all of
these questions; you can choose the ones that reflect your teaching objectives and style. For a balanced
lesson plan, be sure to leave time in each class session
to move on to the in-class exercises and writing exercises included
here.
We’ve started with student-centered questions, which help you to get students’ attention
by connecting the topic to students’ own interests and experiences. Then, we’ve provided concept-
and text- oriented questions that help you to direct
students’ attention toward the concepts and texts featured
in the chapter.
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364 C27.
Teach It: Avoiding Plagiarism
Student-Centered Questions
1.
Students’ writing experiences: Think of the last time you had to write a research paper or assignment for a course.
What kinds of strategies did you use to avoid plagiarism? How well did those strategies work? What strategies would you like to try in the future?
Note: The purpose
of these questions
is to guide students to think about themselves as already
familiar with ways of avoiding
plagiarism. Note down students’ answers on the board. Then, ask students
to reflect on why it is important to be thinking about avoiding plagiarism from the start of a project.
2.
Students opinions: How serious
of a problem do you think plagiarism is on our campus? Why do you think some students plagiarize? What can be done to alleviate the problem,
and what should the consequences be for those who plagiarize?
Concept-Centered Question
1. Types of plagiarism: What is the difference between these three types of plagiarism: wholesale, patchwork, and paraphrasing? Why do you think these kinds of plagiarism occur? What can you do to avoid them?
Note: The goal of this question is to get students to think about types of plagiarism they may not have considered since students might not recognize
patchwork or paraphrasing plagiarism as a problem.
Then, ask students to develop a list of strategies to avoid each kind.
C.
Try It Out: In-Class
Exercises
1. Using placeholders: Give students
a sample article or two that they might use as source
material for their current writing
project (or ask them to bring one to class).
Then, ask each student to write a sample paragraph
that might appear in their draft, using placeholders to indicate where they have drawn on their source material.
C27. Teach It: Avoiding Plagiarism 365
2.
Detecting plagiarism: Ask students
to locate an online article from a magazine or journal on a topic related
to their current writing project. Then, using a search engine, ask them to test whether the article has plagiarized other sources.
They can do this by searching for exact phrases or sentences
from the article (in most search engines, use quotation
marks to surround the phrase). Then, ask students to report back to the class.
Take a tally of how many of the articles
borrowed language from other sources
without acknowledging them.
3.
Plagiarism policies: Locate the plagiarism policy for at least three colleges or universities. How do they define plagiarism? How are the consequences of plagiarism described? Are the policies
similar or different? What might account
for the differences among them?
D.
Write About It: Writing
Prompts
Here we have provided
ideas for writing
prompts that you can assign in class, for homework, or as online
exercises. These are writing activities that can serve as prewriting for the chapter
project or as stages in writing the chapter
project.
Ideally, students should practice doing some writing
for every class session
(either in class or as homework), but you do not need to assign all three types of writing
for every session.
Depending
on your approach
to grading, you may or may not assign a grade to these kinds of assignments. Some prefer to award points that go toward
class participation and attendance; others consider these materials as part of the grade for the final project; still others will set aside a certain percentage of the course grade for in-class activities and homework.
In general, though,
you should award points for completing these kinds of assignments but do not need to assign
a letter
grade or give extensive comments.
In Class
Plagiarism policy & honor codes: Locate your school’s honor code and/or plagiarism policy.
Then, design a mock-up for a brochure or website that would inform students
about plagiarism and its consequences at your school.
Note: If your school
does not have an official plagiarism policy, draft one of your own.
366 C27.
Teach It: Avoiding Plagiarism
Take Home
Acknowledging sources: Write a short analysis of a document
you have encountered while working on your latest
project. How does the document acknowledge sources? Does the use of sources make the document more credible? Why or why not?
Online
Discussion forum: Post a paragraph
from your latest writing
project to the course
discussion forum as well as the sources
you used to write it. Then, comment on at least two of your classmates’ posts. How well have they acknowledged sources in their writing?
Check the students’ paragraphs against the source.
Have they unwittingly committed patchwork
or paraphrasing plagiarism? If so, provide
concrete suggestions for improvement.
Note: All of these exercises ask students to work with sources they will be using for a writing
project. We’ve designed
the exercises this way because students
are more likely to internalize what they have learned when it applies
directly to a writing project.
We’d suggest that you avoid doing these kinds of exercises
in a decontextualized manner
since students will have little
motivation to apply
what they have learned.
E.
Media Suggestions
1.
Online tutorials: Many college
libraries have online tutorials that show students how to avoid plagiarism. If your college has such resources, be sure to point them out and ask students
to view them. If not, you can
ask your students
to search for tutorials on evaluating sources from other college
libraries. Then, they can post the best ones to the course management system,
or you can screen them in class.
2. Infamous cases: Search online for examples of professionals who have been caught plagiarizing. Such cases often occur in journalism (see Jonah Lehrer and Jayson
Blair) and in science.
Wikipedia also maintains a list of plagiarism cases. Ask students
or groups to examine a case in detail and present
their findings to the class.
What kind of plagiarism was at stake, and what were the consequences for the writer?
C27. Teach It: Avoiding Plagiarism 367
F.
Intercultural Teaching Tips
Your students will have different experiences with and expectations about plagiarism. Some may come to college
with a good sense of what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, but many students
will have limited knowledge about plagiarism. For example, many students will identify wholesale plagiarism as a problem
but will not consider patchwork
or paraphrasing plagiarism to be a problem. Our concept of plagiarism stems from the idea that an author
is uniquely responsible for his or her ideas and that the author’s
words can therefore be considered property. However,
this idea is changing in our media age, where sampling
and remixing texts, music,
video, and images
is encouraged.
Further, in some cultures
and discourse communities, borrowing from other texts
is common and not considered a problem. For example, it is common in a sermon to draw on language from religious texts,
and speakers do not always
cite the specific
passage they are using.
Assigning this chapter and discussing it in class
can help to address this problem,
but you will also need to give students
plenty of time to practice using sources correctly. You might also discuss when proper citation is and is not required, which may depend
on the genre students are composing.
Many instructors are on the lookout for plagiarism cases.
While it is tempting
to take a hard-line approach to plagiarism, keep in mind that your students
may simply lack experience with using sources.
While intentional
plagiarism is certainly a punishable act, other cases may be inadvertent. If your school’s
policy permits it, give students
a chance to identify why they may have plagiarized and to correct their mistakes.
Remember
that your campus library and writing center will have additional resources to help students
who are struggling with these tasks. Individual conferences will also be very helpful
as you can work one-on-one with students
on how to work on these skills.
G.
Class Handouts
Handout: Avoiding
Plagiarism Checklist
You can use the handout below to help students
reflect on the strategies they used to avoid plagiarism. By signing the sheet, students
are confirming that they have done their best to avoid plagiarism and uphold your college’s honor code.
368 C27.
Teach It: Avoiding Plagiarism
