2008 Woodie Awards
Steering clear of plagiarism
Who does it? How do they get caught? What are the punishments?
Elizabeth A. Terry
Issue date: 10/10/06 Section: Campus News
All students have been through the boring lecture on plagiarism and academic dishonesty, been threatened, and often rolled their eyes in contempt at the thought of the issue being "dumbed down" for college students.
But in the 'Digital Age,' many assume plagiarism can be easy to get away with, considering virtually all students have Internet access on a daily basis, and can cut and paste documents from the web and pass off whole texts as their own. There is also the option of buying papers online and passing them off as one's own.
Plagiarism can be detected, however, by websites like Turnitin.com, where professors can use the site to help determine if a student has plagiarized or not. The student submits the paper through the website and Turnitin scans the paper through three sources - the Internet, databases, and other papers submitted through Turnitin.
Another method often overlooked is the Writing Center. The Writing Center is one of the many options that students have for preventing accidentally plagiarized work. Other options include talking with the Jackson Library reference librarians or having one's professor look over the written material before turning in the assignment.
"We are an establishment to help with citation styles…to help [students] so that nothing could be misconstrued," said Sara Littlejohn, director of the Writing Center. "We are here to help good writers become better writers."
Plagiarism prevention is an important service, and Jackson Library offers their research skills tutorial online, titled FIRST. The website offers plagiarism defined, what to look for, examples of what plagiarism is and how to avoid it all together, and sample sections of what good and bad paraphrasing looks like.
FIRST can be utilized to sharpen skills on how to research materials, or as a refresher or referral for citing material in MLA or APA style for a works cited page. It also shows how to find materials for papers - such as articles, newspapers, magazines - and also how to search the web and cite.
Not only is plagiarism and cheating portrayed as morally wrong, but it conflicts with the Student Code of Conduct which states the five important values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. The Academic Integrity Policy is one that governs student conduct directly related to the academic life of the institution. Plagiarism leads to either a failure on the assignment, the professor could potentially drop a student from the course, or it could ultimately lead to expulsion from the course.
According to the Office of the Dean of Students' website, there were 98 cases of violations of academic integrity during the 2004-2005 school years. Twenty-nine were cheating on an assignment or exam while 61 were cases of plagiarism. According to Dean of Students Jen Day Shaw, during the 2005-2006 school years, there were 96 violations of academic integrity, where 56 were plagiarism and 35 were cheating on tests.
According to Shaw, "None [of the 2005-2006 students] were expelled for plagiarism. Under the Academic Integrity Policy, a second proven AI violation is automatic suspension or expulsion. The Panel of three faculty members and three students typically decide suspension because our philosophy is that students learn from their mistakes."
The most common type of plagiarism that occurs in students' work on campus is "website cut and pasting [and not citing]," said Shaw in an email.
If a student suspects another student of plagiarism, "students should contact the faculty member for the course in question," said Shaw.
Students and faculty are not required to report offenses conflicting with the Academic Integrity Policy, according to the Academic Integrity website by the Office of the Dean of Students.
UNCG's Academic Integrity Policy as provided by the UNCG website says, "Plagiarism: Intentionally or knowingly representing the words of another as one's own in any academic exercise. Plagiarism may occur on any paper, report, or other work submitted to fulfill course requirements. This includes submitting work done by another, whether a commercial or non-commercial enterprise, including web sites, as one's own work. [There are two types, first] Failure to cite references: includes intentional or obvious failures to properly cite sources. [Secondly,] submitting, as one's own, work done by or copied from another: includes work done by a fellow student, work done by a previous student, or work done by anyone other than the student responsible for the assignment."
Cheating is defined as, "Intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise. There are two types: 'Spontaneous' cheating which includes such offenses as copying from another student's work, recommended sanctions range from redoing/repeating an assignment/retaking a test to F in course; and 'Non-Spontaneous' cheating which includes premeditated copying individually or in conspiracy to copy from another person's work during an examination, obtaining unauthorized copies of the examination to be administered prior to the time of examination, employing unauthorized materials during an examination."
It is also recommended to give an F on the assignment, or possible expulsion in certain cases.
Jackson Library's FIRST tutorial is online at:
library.uncg.edu/depts/ref/tutorial/integrate/plagdef.asp
A flow chart depicting what happens in an accusation of a violation of Academic Integrity can be found at academicintegrity.uncg.edu
But in the 'Digital Age,' many assume plagiarism can be easy to get away with, considering virtually all students have Internet access on a daily basis, and can cut and paste documents from the web and pass off whole texts as their own. There is also the option of buying papers online and passing them off as one's own.
Plagiarism can be detected, however, by websites like Turnitin.com, where professors can use the site to help determine if a student has plagiarized or not. The student submits the paper through the website and Turnitin scans the paper through three sources - the Internet, databases, and other papers submitted through Turnitin.
Another method often overlooked is the Writing Center. The Writing Center is one of the many options that students have for preventing accidentally plagiarized work. Other options include talking with the Jackson Library reference librarians or having one's professor look over the written material before turning in the assignment.
"We are an establishment to help with citation styles…to help [students] so that nothing could be misconstrued," said Sara Littlejohn, director of the Writing Center. "We are here to help good writers become better writers."
Plagiarism prevention is an important service, and Jackson Library offers their research skills tutorial online, titled FIRST. The website offers plagiarism defined, what to look for, examples of what plagiarism is and how to avoid it all together, and sample sections of what good and bad paraphrasing looks like.
FIRST can be utilized to sharpen skills on how to research materials, or as a refresher or referral for citing material in MLA or APA style for a works cited page. It also shows how to find materials for papers - such as articles, newspapers, magazines - and also how to search the web and cite.
Not only is plagiarism and cheating portrayed as morally wrong, but it conflicts with the Student Code of Conduct which states the five important values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. The Academic Integrity Policy is one that governs student conduct directly related to the academic life of the institution. Plagiarism leads to either a failure on the assignment, the professor could potentially drop a student from the course, or it could ultimately lead to expulsion from the course.
According to the Office of the Dean of Students' website, there were 98 cases of violations of academic integrity during the 2004-2005 school years. Twenty-nine were cheating on an assignment or exam while 61 were cases of plagiarism. According to Dean of Students Jen Day Shaw, during the 2005-2006 school years, there were 96 violations of academic integrity, where 56 were plagiarism and 35 were cheating on tests.
According to Shaw, "None [of the 2005-2006 students] were expelled for plagiarism. Under the Academic Integrity Policy, a second proven AI violation is automatic suspension or expulsion. The Panel of three faculty members and three students typically decide suspension because our philosophy is that students learn from their mistakes."
The most common type of plagiarism that occurs in students' work on campus is "website cut and pasting [and not citing]," said Shaw in an email.
If a student suspects another student of plagiarism, "students should contact the faculty member for the course in question," said Shaw.
Students and faculty are not required to report offenses conflicting with the Academic Integrity Policy, according to the Academic Integrity website by the Office of the Dean of Students.
UNCG's Academic Integrity Policy as provided by the UNCG website says, "Plagiarism: Intentionally or knowingly representing the words of another as one's own in any academic exercise. Plagiarism may occur on any paper, report, or other work submitted to fulfill course requirements. This includes submitting work done by another, whether a commercial or non-commercial enterprise, including web sites, as one's own work. [There are two types, first] Failure to cite references: includes intentional or obvious failures to properly cite sources. [Secondly,] submitting, as one's own, work done by or copied from another: includes work done by a fellow student, work done by a previous student, or work done by anyone other than the student responsible for the assignment."
Cheating is defined as, "Intentionally using or attempting to use unauthorized materials, information, or study aids in any academic exercise. There are two types: 'Spontaneous' cheating which includes such offenses as copying from another student's work, recommended sanctions range from redoing/repeating an assignment/retaking a test to F in course; and 'Non-Spontaneous' cheating which includes premeditated copying individually or in conspiracy to copy from another person's work during an examination, obtaining unauthorized copies of the examination to be administered prior to the time of examination, employing unauthorized materials during an examination."
It is also recommended to give an F on the assignment, or possible expulsion in certain cases.
Jackson Library's FIRST tutorial is online at:
library.uncg.edu/depts/ref/tutorial/integrate/plagdef.asp
A flow chart depicting what happens in an accusation of a violation of Academic Integrity can be found at academicintegrity.uncg.edu
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