Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty

College composition courses are the traditional training ground for teaching students how to research and how to complete writing projects which incorporate research. Because many students are new to writing academic prose and are still novices with the research process, they will likely struggle with how and when to document sources, how to use direct quotations, how to summarize, create hyperlinks to sources as opposed to containers, and how to paraphrase accurately another’s ideas. Hence, unintentional plagiarism is a reality, and composition instructors have the responsibility of helping students become proficient with the challenges of documentation, rather than unduly penalizing them for their legitimate errors with the research process. Nonetheless, some students will deliberately attempt to cheat. The following tips to make assignments as “cheat proof” as possible take into account that many instructors already use Turnitin and Google searches. Jim McWard’s essay in the EDG, “Canvas, Turnitin, Inquisitive, and OER” is likewise helpful to consult.

Vary assignments frequently, from semester to semester. The more you use a particular assignment, the more likely the assignment from a previous semester will be shared, thus making it easy for current students to copy former students’ work and turn it in as their own. 

Require students to do a diagnostic in the first week of class. A simple question, such as, “In a short essay, please tell me the one most important thing I should know about you and why” will generate enough writing for the instructor to get a “thumbprint” of the student’s idiom and writing level. Keep this essay on file and use it to help detect if possible plagiarism is occurring later in the semester. While students most likely improve their writing, the students’ idioms are unlikely to alter radically. Hence, an instructor can use such diagnostic writing to help determine if another assignment from the same student is possibly plagiarized. Even better is to require the students sometime at semester’s midpoint to produce an in-class writing assignment with no warning. Use that assignment as another “thumbprint” to determine how the student’s writing is evolving as the semester proceeds. 

Require a paper history or real-time access to a student’s progress on research. Digital research platforms such as NoodleTools allow students not only to keep notes, drafts, outlines, fieldwork, and working bibliographies, but also to share work with instructors. Conduct periodic checks of the student’s progress to ensure that the student is staying current with the work at hand, and that the student is not plagiarizing. Another choice is to have students share their Google Docs research folder and files with the instructor in a similar manner.  If work is done in hard-copy, require that the students periodically bring in both notes (e.g. index cards or notebook), as well as printouts of various stages of the drafting. In all cases, require conferences with students at critical stages in their research can help keep them on top of assignments and to avoid procrastination--when the temptation to cheat is often greatest.

Teach students how easy it is to identify plagiarism. Spend a class period with students analyzing a plagiarized essay. Ask them to locate where plagiarism begins and where it ends, and what type of plagiarism is occurring (e.g. copying and pasting, paraphrasing without crediting the original author, etc.). Students will be surprised at how easy it is to detect plagiarism (hence discouraging them from attempting it), and this exercise also allows the instructor to discuss idiom and how one’s idiom is as unique as one’s thumbprint. 

Never assume that students understand MLA, even if they have had Composition I. Class time, quizzes, and tests, should be devoted to covering how to use MLA, and what constitutes paraphrase, summary, and quotation. 

Finally, make writing assignments “eccentric.” The more specific and individualized your expectations, the more difficult a time student will have in buying papers, spinbotting, or commissioning a fellow student to write the paper. Using generic assignments included in a textbook is asking for trouble. Make the chore of cheating much more time-consuming for a student than honestly completing the assignment.

Below are some of my most recent “eccentric” assignments that make cheating either very difficult or very expensive for students.