Last week, I wrote a short post about preventing plagiarism. This week, I’d like to say a few things about how I respond to plagiarism.
No matter what steps we take to try to prevent it, odds are that we’ll all encounter some instances of plagiarism (hopefully rarely!).
Here’s a brief summary of the policy I use for all my courses:
- In the spirit of trying to draw out the best in my students, I point out that plagiarism is a form of theft (something I assume they wouldn’t want to be guilty of) and that engaging in plagiarism shows a lack of self-respect (i.e., plagiarism is beneath them). I also note that it’s not only students who sometimes plagiarize; faculty can be guilty, too.
- I go on to spell out consequences. If I discover plagiarism, the minimum consequence will be that the student fails the assignment. If the offense is serious enough, the student may fail the course even for a first offense. Repeat offenders will fail the course.
- I conclude by stressing that I don’t intend to go after students for formatting issues; what I’m looking for is honesty. As long as students make a good-faith effort to tell me what words and ideas they borrowed, and where they borrowed them from, I’m satisfied. Yes, they need to learn how to format citations and bibliographies properly, but I don’t consider that an honesty issue. (In some of my courses, citation format is something I explicitly work on with students.)
I’ve had relatively few problems since I implemented this policy a few years ago, and I like the fact that it allows me to stress the importance of academic integrity while leaving me some flexibility. I don’t have to fail a student for the course for plagiarizing on an assignment that’s worth a mere five percent of the semester grade if it’s a first offense. I’ve also found it helpful, since implementing this policy, to grade each assignment on a 100-point scale rather than using letter grades. Again, that allows me some flexibility, should there be some good reason to show a little leniency (since a letter grade of “F” is simple a zero, but on a 100-point scale, a failing mark is anything less than 60).
This policy has worked well for me. What policies have you implemented, and how have they worked for you? Let’s hear from you in the comments.
[Image by Flickr user Digirebelle / Creative Commons licensed]
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16 Responses to Responding to Plagiarism
kaitlinwalsh - June 18, 2010 at 9:10 am
Amy, you mention that you don’t intend to go after students for formatting issues. What about students who try things to make the paper longer (large font, spacing, margins)? Or is this not an issue because you go by other requirements (such as word count rather than page count)?
acavender - June 18, 2010 at 10:01 am
@kaitlinwalsh Thanks for the question! By “formatting issues” I meant errors in using Chicago style, but those other formatting issues are important, too. I usually go by word count, so page numbers aren’t such an issue for me.I *do* insist that students follow formatting guidelines with regard to things such as font, spacing, and the like. What I try to emphasize to them is that, though my requirements may sound arbitrary, it’s important that their documents look professional. When students fail to follow directions on such matters, I take a few points off–enough to send a message, but not so much as to emphasize formatting over content.
mjaltman - June 18, 2010 at 10:31 am
I’m curious how your own policy jives with your campus honor code/honor board and whatnot. Around here, the honor system is suppose to have jurisdiction over all plagiarism and faculty are to report any cases in the course to the appropriate channels. Though many faculty try to handle it in ways similar to your policy above.
acavender - June 18, 2010 at 11:00 am
@mjaltman Our campus policy gives faculty broad discretion, so cases of academic dishonesty get handled in a variety of ways here. Faculty are, of course, expected to reference the broad campus policy in their syllabi and to include any further specifics of their own, and to go over these policies with students at the beginning of the course. We’re also expected to let Academic Affairs know about any offense for which we’ve penalized a student.
peril - June 18, 2010 at 2:54 pm
Our campus allows for a level of professorial discretion as well. However I have run into more teachers willing to use that allowance to “flex” their academic administrative muscle than those willing to give a student the benefit of the doubt. I like that you stress a variable response. I once had a class with a student who forgot her bibliography- suck but it happens. The prof drew her up and very nearly had her expelled until the dean chimed in with a “really!? You think she was claiming all of this, really!?”It’s a serious matter to be sure, but it’s nit black and white. It is however an easy topic to go overboard with.
trvb72 - June 18, 2010 at 3:16 pm
I like that and will use the “minimum” language from now on, because I have had instances where failing a particular paper wouldn’t be enough. I caught someone uploading the paper to an essay website, so that’s a far worse offense.I have a point system, too, so failing the assignment always brings the final grade down one complete letter.In preparation for the next quarter, I’ve even made a reference that there are consequences for accidentally plagiarizing, and referenced a famous historian who probably accidentally plagiarized. It’s forever attached to her record now.@kaitlinwalsh – For some offences such as obviously lengthening a paper, I have them re-submit it. This carries an automatic grade deduction. I teach a class that has only two writing assignments (there’s other work in the class), and it’s a non-prerequisite 100 level class at a community college. I’m far more concerned with the content of the papers than grammar or spelling issues. It’s pass/fail unless it doesn’t meet the minimum, at which point they’re returned for revision. I even post templates in .doc and .rtf format if they need it.
slpprof - June 18, 2010 at 4:00 pm
Faculty must be aware if their campuses have spelled-out policies for procedures. In our university, the Academic Honesty Committee can grant an appeal based on procedural error, and we have done even when plagiarism was apparent, to safeguard due process. I’m not a fan of too much faculty latitude in procedures, though I agree that latitude is appropriate in determining punishment. Our university stipulates time frames and details on how students should be informed of a charge of academic dishonesty, what type of opportunity is provided to confront the evidence, and how to inform higher ups (in our university, that is the student’s academic dean). For a first offense, the instructor has jurisdiction for punishment. I’ve sat on the academic honesty committee for 3 years, and never seen a case of an instructor making a charge just to “flex administrative muscle”. It’s way too much of a hassle and too painful for that!
abelragen - June 18, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Just assigning a failing grade on an assignment or even in a course is not enough. It is important to report ALL plagiarists to the appropriate university authorities. I don’t suggest that in order to make the erring student’s life still harder. I suggest it because it is important to catch repeat offenders, as the author acknowledges, and an individual instructor cannot see a record of offenses.
mikegreen40 - June 18, 2010 at 7:49 pm
I have, over the years, gotten stricter with my plagiarism policy. I have started out with the warning, “if I catch you you fail the assignemnt.” I have found over the last 5 years that as an adjunct the colleges have increasingly gotten more sringent in their enforcement. One college I work for has revised their policy and rewritten it to be stronger. I do many things first. First, I reccommend that they purchase the same book for my class as English 101. It is not required but helps. It may be Diane Hacker’s work “A Writer’s Reference”. I state that they MUST use that style as it is the one that the College teaches in Enlish 101. Of course, I always make sure a copy is on reserve so that they don’t have to purchase the book. Second, I make a point that in all written assignements things like grammar, spelling, and structure will be emphasized and spell it all out. I have also found that if they turn in rough drafts of sections of their paper thrroughout the semester, and make those count, they will at least be forced to think about their paper 3 times during the semester before it is due. Given all of this, I give much leeway. However, I do state up front that Any incidence of Plagiarism will result in the failure of the class. I have found, unfortunately, that this threat has cut down on incidents of plagiarism. Even that, I have still caught up to 3 per semester. I tell students that it is absoultely INTELLECTUAL THEFT. They must attribute other’s ideas and thoughts to the source. In addition, I am working on this now, I provide internet sites where students can go to look up how to properly attribute their sources both physical and internet. It is unfortunate, but one does have to practically have an English minor these days to teach at the college level. It is a hard lesson for students to learn. However, for every one student who makes the honest mistake, there may be 9 that just did not care betting they would not get caught.
ecantu - June 18, 2010 at 8:07 pm
I had an intersting case this semester in which a student with a student with shining grades, and ready to graduate, turned in a minor assignment with one paragraph where he plagiarized another student’s assignment from a previous year. I found out only by a series of very random coincidences and was very disturbed by the whole thing, particularly because after looking up his record I saw he had an almost perfect 4.0 GPA. I consulted the Code of Honor, and told the student that I would fail him with a zero in the partial grade (20% of final grade) and send a note to the Dean for his record. He was startled and ashamed (or looked that way) and apologized profusely. I told him the only way he could still pass the course and keep up his GPA was to actually earn the rest of the grade by working extra hard on the remaining papers and assignments. Had he copied his way all through college, he would’ve been incapable of passing with the required minimum of 70. His final grade added up to 76 and just a few weeks ago, after graduating, he sent me a note on how much this experience had shaped his last semester.
kayvyh - June 18, 2010 at 8:18 pm
For a light-hearted way to get the point across see this video from the University of Bergen’s Library (includes subtitles):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwbw9KF-ACY
drnels - June 18, 2010 at 9:46 pm
The use of “theft” to relate plagiarism to students is an idea that has been discussed, and to a certain extent critiqued, in rhetoric and composition mainly to emphasize that there are a range of acts under the plagiarism umbrella (from paying someone to write a paper for you to erroneous uses of parenthetical citations). Rebecca Moore Howard and Amy Robillard have both written extensively about this. In particular, I found Howard’s use of “patchwriting” to really help me deal with the range of plagiarism cases I’ve had to oversee as a writing-program administrator.
usaret - June 18, 2010 at 10:11 pm
My approach is very similar to Professor Cavender’s. I’ve been explaining the idea of documenting sources in terms of giving credit and taking credit–giving credit to those whose ideas and words have helped a writer, and taking credit for the writer’s own words and ideas. We look at a documentation system (MLA, Turabian, APA, etc.) as just a form of bookkeeping.We discuss the idea of plagiarism as a failure to give credit, which is an act of deception on a writer’s part. This framing seems to help–students mention it in conferences when we discuss the best way to integrate quoted, summarized or paraphrased material. I teach English composition, mostly, and I think part of our mission is to get students to understand how to integrate other people’s ideas and language into their own work. Though MLA is our default system for accounting for this material, I’ve had some success with students choosing Chicago or APA if that’s the default method for their intended fields.
ucc_business - June 19, 2010 at 8:58 pm
I tell my students:On a personal note, I take it as a personal affront when a student tries to cheat. I think “Does this student think that either * I don’t give sufficient attention to the work of my studentsor * I am so stupid that I won’t catch it.”If you’ve read my biographic note, you’ll see that I’ve taught over 30 years, and I’ve seen all sorts of attempts to cheat. Thus can almost always spot it.I look at each student’s work carefully and soon learn individual strengths and weaknesses.I teach computers, not English ,and many of my students a Fall term Freshman, and though they have completed high school, still are not totally away of what plagiarism is and is not. So I give them several videos to watch and a quiz after early in the term . I also require and grade 3 phases of the paper 1) the plan with sources, 2) a draft and 3 the final.There are some excellent videos I have found on the web that I point out to my students- I have then in our Angel CMS so I put it out in a shared Google doc: https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Ab37JwCoEDCAZGR0Z3drYnpfMTA1OWQzNGhmbmRn&hl=enMaureen G
valrie - June 21, 2010 at 6:49 am
Great topic. I have no qualms in doling out the consequences of plagiarism. I clearly explain my zero tolerance policy. Plain and simple, if you borrow, paraphrase or directly quote you had better cite the source and quottions are required for verbatims. I drive this home to high school students. It is amazing how bold some can be. Buying papers through the internet, siblings submitting their sibling’s papers from previous years. I also offer my students the websites that check and verify for plagiarism, http://www.turnitin.com, https://ed.grammarly.com.Recently in my online course for my doctoral I discerned a colleague had blatantly plagiarized. I poner it for awhile, remember how I felt when someone stole my poetry and had it published and decided to let the professor know. Ethically we sign an agreement to not plagiarizr and I believe knowing someone else did and not letting them know (both teacher and colleague) I am just as guilty. I am awaiting a response from the professor. I wanted to have her inform the student of the infraction, perhaps it was an honest mistake, at least I’d like to believe that. However, fair is fair. She should fail the assignment. So I agree with most of what you say. Formatting issues can be learned, plagiarism is criminal and should be punished accordingly.Valrie
nyhist - June 21, 2010 at 10:37 am
to combat plagiarism in my history courses I have students start by turning in paragraphs in which they describe their chosen topic and identify a key possible source or two. Two weeks later, they have to submit a copy (a few pp) of a source and their analysis of it. Then they have to turn in a bibliography and a detailed outline before a rough draft and a final version. It doesn’t take me long to look at all the prelim things but those requirements make it difficult for the students to buy or use something someone else has written–if they have to produce fake ‘prelim’ items they might as well do the work for real. Once a student told me that he had decided to change his topic late, turned in a paper on a totally different subject, and it was obviously plagiarized. I flunked him for the course.Alternatively some friends have told me that they require students to turn in all notes and prelim drafts in a large envelope along with a final paper. That too takes no time to look at but would be so time consuming to produce that plagiarism becomes counter-productive.I too feel personally insulted by a student who cheats.