Internet plagiarism by students

references

Once students retrieve information, it is important that we teach them how to cite their references. Although most instructors know how to cite information obtained from print sources, many do not know the procedure for citing electronic sources. If we ourselves do not know how to cite electronic references, then how can we expect our students to do the same? One useful guide instructors can use is Xia Li and Nancy Crane's Guide to Citing Electronic Resources. Excerpts of this guide can be found on a number of web pages, and several sites include examples of electronic citation for students to use. Both the MLA Handbook and APA Manual have web pages that identify the correct citation style for both traditional sources and electronic information. Even the print versions of these manuals include sections devoted to citing electronic materials.

After we teach our students how to cite references, we can lessen the temptation to plagiarize in the way we organize our assignments. One way to reduce Internet plagiarism involves directing and limiting our students' use of the Internet for reference materials. Although we cannot and should not prevent our students from using the Internet, we can pre-select the sources students will use in a given assignment. At the Kent State University Geauga Campus, several instructors place specific items on reserve for student research and provide students with a list of required web sites to examine. Although this procedure may appear restrictive, students learn how to use specific reference materials and compare ways in which their classmates incorporated the same sources into their assignment. By using the identical reference materials, students share the same knowledge which enables them to identify errors in misquoting and paraphrasing. Comparing the use of identical material can be used prior to a more extensive research assignment as a preliminary exercise to teach students how to recognize errors in quoting references.

Another activity that helps students develop their paraphrasing skills is to require them to write summaries without the text in front of them. Instructors can give the students short excerpts of Internet passages to read and summarize. As students read one another's summaries, they can determine whether "patchwriting" has occurred. If it appears that a summary matches the content of the article too closely, then students can be instructed on how to quote a paraphrased passage. For additional practice, students can locate and summarize web sites on their own, but more importantly, they can be asked to critically assess whether these pages are legitimate references. This practice will develop the students' evaluative skills and begin to engage them in the process of systematic thinking that is a skill necessary for the review of research materials.

To illustrate this model, English instructors at the Kent State University Geauga Campus provide a list of the novels, short stories, and other materials on which their students will have to write papers. The library staff then bookmarks all related web sites and gives copies of the links to the instructors. Instructors then have the opportunity to peruse the sites to familiarize themselves with their content. Thus, instructors have immediate access to most of the sources their students may use from the Internet. Since students are aware of this practice, most reconsider plans of plagiarizing with Internet resources.

In addition to bookmarking web sites, the library staff also reiterates the university's policy on plagiarism during bibliographic instruction sessions. Students are given guides on citing electronic references and examples are available in the library. In all English classes, students are required to photocopy and identify the source from which a quotation is taken. These photocopies are then included with the final paper for review. Although some instructors may not wish to burden themselves with this practice, we have found that students document their sources much more carefully when they know that the instructor will examine the original quotation. Furthermore, the art of "patchwriting," a situation in which a student "copies from a source, deleting some words, altering grammatical structures, or plugging in one for one synonym substitutes," decreases immensely (Howard 233). Requiring students to photocopy their sources also enables instructors to evaluate how students selected quotations to support arguments. It is much easier to identify a misquote when the actual source is available for review. Instructors can examine the original context of the quote to teach the students how to apply the quote more effectively. During the research, students are also encouraged to locate additional sites for review. Since it is inevitable that students will navigate the Internet, we allow them to present the material they wish to use to their classmate critics who will either accept or reject the reference as a valid source of information.

If we take the time to instruct our students about the ethics of research and scholarship, chances are, we will have less "accidental" cases of plagiarism. In most situations, plagiarism occurs as a result of ignorance. We cannot assume that our students understand what is expected of them, and so it is important that we reiterate the virtue of academic honesty each time we assign a research project. Students need to understand the significance of ownership in terms of their own written material. Once this concept is mastered, students learn that in their own writing, they possess ownership for a body of work. In turn, they come to understand the meaning of respect for intellectual property because they themselves have participated in its creation.