Building It Better

Dealing with plagiarism is the worst part of my job as a faculty member.  Given the written assignments I now give to students — specific topics with prompts that I have written — I find it is much less a problem than it used to be.  Plus, I remind students over and over to CITE, CITE, CITE.  Sadly, it does still happen on occasion. 

Years ago — and long before turnitin.com — I caught a student who had inserted an entire paragraph from a famous essay by Angela Davis in the required class paper.  Easy to spot because the rest of the writing was so bad and easier still to find the source since I knew the Davis essay well.  When confronted the student quickly admitted to plagiarism.  As required by the University, I notified the appropriate disciplinary committee and discovered this was the second time said student had been reported for plagiarism.  Clearly, the first disciplinary warning had not been enough…  Interestingly, the person I spoke to on the disciplinary committee told me that the student assumed s/he would not get into disciplinary trouble since s/he had been honest with me.  Further, said student was surprised to learn that s/he was going to be kicked out of the University for the second offense.  Next came the parents complaining that their offspring was being treated unfairly.  Next, came a grievance hearing that ate up many hours of time.  And finally, the committee decided to give the student one more chance at the U…  

I now work at a different university and it does have strict reporting requirements about plagiarism.  But, I also know that many of my colleagues will confront a student who plagiarizes, but are reluctant to report to higher levels of the U because they find the grievance procedures so time-consuming.  I understand that these procedures were put into place to protect students from possible unfairness in grading.  But, it strikes me in this age of “student as customer,” many students feel entitled to challenging these assessments — even in clear cases of plagiarism — because they have been encouraged to be “obnoxious consumers.”  Certainly not true in all cases, but I am wondering whether TR or others have run into this problem.
 
  
  

Thanks for the post, historiann.  What a f^(ked situation.  You have just convinced me to never use blue-books again!  Also, thanks TR for the Flavia link.  Yes, plagiarism can break your heart…

I’m reading this while in the middle of a pile of wikipedia entry printouts that have been frankensteined together into a paper for my course, and it’s keeping me smiling. Thank you!

An excellent article, and one I’ll be keeping in mind as I embark on my postgraduate studies.

Just to put another perspective forward, some of my lecturers have seemingly plagiarised the material they presented to us in my undergraduate studies. I recall one incident where an entire lecture was presented to us (on our university’s headed slides/paper), which I later found online on the website of a university from the other side of the world. The text of the lecture was copied almost verbatim, and no attribution was given to the author at any point during the course, or in our reading lists. Another incident comes from a different lecturer, who used supporting information for an experimental procedure almost verbatim from another university website, in a bound practical manual branded by his department. Again no attribution was given to the author at any point.

I live in Ireland, where most lecturers are primarily employed for research and have very little training (and some very little interest) in teaching. I imagine that the above was justified in their minds by their busy schedule. However, it’s very hard for students to respect plagiarism rules, when those teaching them don’t.

As an academic & parent to an almost university-age spawnling, I haven’t had to have this conversation because we’ve had parts of it along the way. Every time I’ve had a case of plagiarism, I discuss the issue in non-specific ways with the child unit because these are learning experiences.

I also raise the issue with my students every year: why we are so worked up about plagiarism and what they can do, right then, to avert the possibility they’ll find themselves up against the wall and panicky a few months later when the assignment is due or the exam is starting. Some listen but never all of them!

Not in addition, if the student really doesn’t understand.  But using Spark Notes, or Cliff’s Notes for Spenser’s Faerie Queen, rather than reading the book, and then writing the paper as if they hadn’t used them? Yes, Because these outline offer interpretation as well as a plot summary, and If a student is selling those interpretations as his or her own, it’s cheating.

Oh yeah, and also they didn’t learn anything — which strikes as a big difference between how outlines might be used in different fields.

Yet more data points for why posting your syllabi on line might be a mistake!

I’ve had many students who had most definitely plagiarized and responded in anger when confronted, so it should not be assumed that an anger response indicates innocence. The response to being caught plagiarizing is idiosyncratic, varying from student to student. Those caught in online courses seem to be most likely to respond in anger, in my experience, but I’ve seen it at bricks and mortar, too.

Plagiarism is one of the most difficult aspects of this job. Years ago, as Program Coordinator, I was asked to intervene on behalf of an Adjunct who’d noticed a distinct change in a student’s typical writing style and suspected plagiarism. I’d not met the student before and, as I sat with her and read the paper, I realized that I had written it myself. Yes, she had plagiarized me! It was a document I’d written which representatives of my state regulatory agency had asked if they could distribute to people in my field. (Guess they didn’t credit me either!) When I confronted the student, her response to me was, “How could I plagiarize you? I just met you!” Since I had my original paper at home, I set up a time for her to return to see it. However, she did not come back to school at all after that, even though I called her several times and tried to persuade her to return. Although the student plagiarized me, I tried to treat it as any other first incidence of plagiarism -I did not think it warranted forfeiting her education and degree. 

At my current school, which is a completely online university (TurnItIn scans every paper), the consequences for plagiarism are explicit: 0 on paper for 1st offense, F in course for 2nd and expulsion from school for 3rd. What are the policies at other schools?

I’d disagree only with the part about the plagiarist’s reaction: I get lots of plagiarists who react with over-the-top outrage and indignation: HOW DARE you accuse me of such a thing! And I’ve had innocent students dissolve in fear and tears. Maybe that reflects a difference in student populations (I have lots of first-gen students, some of whom seem to feel they have only a precarious place in the college)? Or maybe my sample size is simply too small.

I like to distinguish between two types of cheaters: the pros and the amateurs.  The pros think of cheating as an ordinary way of approaching school, and passing courses without learning the material, or getting better grades than they deserve.  The amateurs are people who find themselves in a bind, with too much work and unable to come up with a paper topic for me, who then turn to the web in desperation at the last minute.  The amateurs I try to reach on the first day of class, by telling them to come tell me when they are stuck, and that if they don’t have time for this before the paper’s due it’s much better to miss a deadline, even if there’s a penalty, than to plagiarize. 

Why not an automatic F for any plagiarism whatsoever?  That’s my policy.  Why bother giving them the opportunity to screw up twice before flunking the class?

Tried to share this on facebook but was not allowed.  Perhaps it was a plagiarism issue?  I would have cited the source ;-)

I enjoyed this very much. One question:

“ Using research that you found on your roommate’s desk is cheating. ”

Huh? Assuming we’re talking about undergrads, I’m interpreting the “research” to be a copied scholarly article from the library or some such. How is using the roommate’s copy instead of re-retrieving it from the library “cheating”?  Or do you have some other scenario/context in mind?

Thanks so much for this post. I’ve found that your description of the guilty vs the innocent reactions to be pretty spot-on, at least in my experience.

Earlier this semester, I had a student who appeared simply gobsmacked as I held her essay next to the online one she’d copied almost verbatim and showed her the obvious similarities. She was amazed that another essay could be so similar and even said something like, “Wow, what are the chances?”

(I appeared equally gobsmacked that someone would actually think I was that gullible. Sigh. She never did admit to the plagiarism.)

Hello educators!
Thank you for some additional insights to higher education and plagiarism.  As an adult student returning to finish my BA, I have a couple questions regarding “idea plagiarism”

At 46 I’ve been exposed to MANY ideas, concepts, and theories over the years, and, of course, I’ve formed opinions and tweaked those ideas to fit my personal opinion.  I’ve not kept a list of those articles or resources.  Why would I? At the time I had no intention of returning to school nor had I anticipated that I would need to cite those ideas which gave birth to my current perspectives. 

I feel I’m a fairly decent writer.  I form my own outlines, opinions and cite ideas, data, opinions, etc. that are new to me now.  Am I in violation of plagiarism if I learn an author and I share the same values, opinions and ideas if I don’t cite the author? 

Speaking of syllabi, the administration at my school has developed a strange practice over the last few years. They send around boilerplate text and recommend that we professors cut-and-paste certain policy paragraphs into our syllabi. One of those boilerplate paragraphs concerns intellectual property and asserts copyright of the syllabus … there seems to me something self-contradictory about that!

Hi Terri

Simple answer: cite it or don’t use it. Academic writing (at the student level) is a fairly circular process: you see something and you like it therefore you include it in your paper and you reference it; or, you have an idea of where you might like to go with your paper and then you find academic sources that support your idea and you reference them. I think of it like this: no one is interested in MY ideas; a research paper isn’t a soapbox where I can simply express my opinion. 

At the end of the day, you may not have intentionally plagiarised the author but you want to avoid even being asked the question at all!

E – a fellow student. 

This takes the comment thread off in a different direction, but I think you point to critical issues.  The first is that faculty are expected to be front-line enforcers, but the juridical process is actually not in our hands.  The most vulnerable faculty are the least likely to be supported by administrators who neither know or care about them, and the most likely to be punished when the process becomes adversarial and the student and/or hir friends lash back. 

Several other commenters have pointed out what an unbelievable time-suck it is go through these disciplinary procedures, and I think a good parallel is that none of us would ever get traffic tickets if we all took them to court.  Everyone knows that if you check “not guilty” and go to court there is a great chance that the person who gave the ticket will not be there and the ticket will be dismissed. 

Finaly, while faculty are increasingly being told we must maintain high standards in our grading and expectations, students are simultaneeously viewed as a population in need of service and care — thus regardless of the standards and regulations one sets for the course, requests for exceptions from students and backed up by those charged with the care of students are endless.  I am in receipts of between 2 and 5 emails a week letting me know that for some unspecified health or personal reason I need to cut a student some slack on a deadline or something.

jmpye, I am sympathetic.  I have seen this happen to graduate students, often teaching for the first time, in my department.  In one case, the graduate student instructor found plagiarism in an first  draft of a student paper.  (Students we expected to turn in a first draft, get comments, and proceed.)  Our chair supported him in the allegations.  The undergrad. went to the student  grievance committee, and the student advocate pointed out that it did not say in the syllabus that you couldn’t plagiarize on the draft.  (What-evah!!!)  My chair was incensed as was the grad instructor.  But the student (along with parental units) won the day by claiming that though the syllabus did warn against plagiarism, it not specify about first drafts.  As you can imagine, the grad student was very demoralized — and I have to say, so too were the faculty and other grad student instructors in my dept.

Sadly, I think TR is right – the juridical responsibilites are often left to tenure-line profs. which can be a real time suck.  (My chair spent hours and hours in meetings over this incident along with the graduate student.)  But, even in this case, with full support from the chair, the grad instructor was made to feel s/he did something wrong.  Though we all supported the grad instructor, s/he know worries whether this will come back to haunt hir on the job market.  I doubt that it will.  But still, it does suggest that some institutions are supporting the “student as consumer” model, and this case the helicopter parents (which suggests yet another thread on this discussion).  All very discouraging…

Because some people genuinely do not understand why it is wrong to plagiarize. 

Really, the plagiarism-as-wrong idea is relatively new in most societies (I’m sure I’ve read something implying that somewhere), as are more general copyright and patent rights.

“Taking advantage of someone else’s efforts to select materials on a
subject is NOT cheating – it’s called using a bibliography. The fact
that it might be an informal bibliography (a bunch of stuff on someone’s
desk) rather than a formally published one doesn’t change the ethics.” 

Disagree!  When something has been published, it is in the public domain, and available for use.  In fact the uber-ethical author will credit the author of a bibliography or review essay whose work then made her own work possible.  But using someone else’s unpublished notes, research or any other materials without permission or credit?  It’s stealing, pure and simple, whether you are an undergraduate caught short at the last minute or a Ph.D. Why do you think acknowledgments often include conversations and informal comments made when a paper was given, or so-and-so who generously shared her research on X? 

Sorry, I can elaborate. 

You claim that none of your plagiarist students can outmaneuver your research prowess. Maybe in the case of plagiarists who are stupid and lazy and just trying to get out of doing work, that’s true. But there’s a subset of plagiarists/cheaters who are easily capable of doing the work but prefer to mess with you. (These people aren’t imagined, I went to high school with several. The cheaters in my state university were typically of the boring kind.)

It’s easy to say ‘cheating-is-wrong-I-will-crush-you,’ but it’s more interesting to ask what engenders plagiarism and other forms of cheating. If it’s sheer laziness, then sure, give them the axe. But I would wager that there are other people currently leading ‘honest’ lives who at one point or another cheated in school, which suggests to me that it’s not a failure of some innate moral compass but rather a different systemic problem. Some people think it’s not ‘real life,’ or perhaps instructors fail to engender respect for the material or for the practice of scholarship overall. 

How does one fix these problems? Maybe it’s too Polyannaish, but I’d like to imagine a university where people don’t cheat – both out of confidence in the strength of their own ideas and out of respect for the intellectual community. Maybe that will never come to pass, but surely there’s a better use of your time than ferreting out plagiarists, and killing them off one-by-one will never address the reasons that they exist in the first place.

I love the comments and the experiences that have been shared.  I sympathize with the graduate student plight.  As a grade student teaching an intermediate Spanish course, I gave an assigment asking students to describe their family.  One student who, for the record, struggled with present tense, suddenly had Medieval forms of subjunctive embedded in the paper.  As I read, I realized that I recognized the phrasing.  After a few minutes in front of my shelves of Spanish literature, I realized that the student had plagiarised segments of Lazarillo de Tormes, a reknowed work by an anonymous author that is often cited as the first novel in Spanish.  Book in hand, I confronted the student, who spent half an hour denying the accusation.  Finally, frustrated, I pointed out that unless he was channeling the 16th century author (in which case we might both be rich), this was plagiarism.  Of course, there was a review board, but the only outcome if a student was found to have cheated was expulsion.  I took what I had found to the supervisor for the TA’s who told me to give the student a 0 and not to purse it further.  The incident still bothers my sense of ethics, but I felt that without the backing of the supervisor I would be rather on a raft afloat in the ocean and in danger of drowning in the process.

Claire, Thank you for this wonderful post! Consider addressing the another aspect of this to. The supply side – websites and tutors that do essays, exams and homework. I tutor and get such request often enough to have a standard reply template 

“Can we provide you tutoring so you understand these finance concepts? It will help you in the long run? We unfortunately dont do homework by email for students. Most of our faculty are professionals in their fields including university faculty and will not be willing to do homework for students. Our focus is on helping you learn the subject which is why you are paying a lot of money to your school. We believe that we would be robbing you of your opportunity to learn if we just do your homework for you. Instead we prefer to help you learn. Do let us know if we can help you learn these topics. In the process you will also be able to get through your homework questions too.”