Faculty Bloggers Worldwide on Student Plagiarism

In Pakistan, “Defining Plagiarism” (from Interface.edu)

“At a recent workshop on plagiarism in Karachi, it was observed that the emphasis should be on creating awareness about the consequences of this unacceptable academic practice rather than going after those who indulge in it. While creating such awareness is no doubt necessary – and we would argue that accosting those who plagiarise is equally important – the concept must be first made clearer for the public.”

Many do not realise that reproducing other’s text and ideas as one’s own work when it is not constitutes plagiarism. A person with reasonably good command over the language being used would find it easier to get away with such a dubious act than one whose written skills are below standard and who then resorts to copying a piece of text as it is. A consensus on the definition of plagiarism is then necessary to formulate rules that would inhibit such a practice and make students conscious of the need to cite references and attribute ideas, especially in an age when the Internet has made copying infinitely easier than before. Teachers also need education in this regard. It is no secret that there are many in their profession – as there are in journalism – who have no qualms about passing off someone else’s hard work as the product of their own labour….”

In Texas, a blog entry: “Professor Fired for Charging Students with Plagiarism.” (from Overlawyered.)

“Adjunct Loye Young at Texas A&M International University in Laredo had named and shamed students he said he had caught submitting essays not their own.” The university ‘is paraphrased as stating that the professor was terminated for violating the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that prohibits the release of students’ educational records without consent.

In the UK, “Student Plagiarism at University” (from The Daily Rabble)

“…If you look further into the Higher Education plagiarism and examine some studies, the results are incredibly interesting. It is thought that much plagiarism does go undetected, so studies involving detection rates by staff members would only reveal the more obvious cases, knocking the numbers down considerably. Unfortunately, a lot of studies tend to discuss cheating – with plagiarism included within the broad band. The typical numbers of those cheating, as examined by one particular review of different studies, were between 50% and 80%.

“They also indicated that levels of plagiarism in the UK are on the rise – as one might expect – due to the ease of access to digital sources of information. They also identified a report that considered the increase as being affected by the pressures of mass participation and declining contact time between staff and students.

“It is a complex subject. As a secondary teacher, spotting plagiarism is usually easy… my students tend to look at the first two or three websites that come up when you type in a key word and then copy and paste bits from those. That makes it easy for me! At university, however, students are encouraged to study a wealth of information from a huge variety of sources. From these studies and the results of the Varsity survey, it’s clear that a lot of plagiarism is going undetected. Do we need better plagiarism detection software? Do we need to ensure that all members of staff are using the software? (It may be the case that not all staff are actually putting it to use) Do we want to get students involved in understanding plagiarism at an earlier age?”

In the U.S., “Addressing Plagiarism” (from Sting’s Teaching Tips)

“Plagiarism, the academic community’s capital crime, undermines the development and transmission of knowledge–what academia is all about. Many academics may moan about plagiarism, but some, including Edward M. White in “Too Many Campuses Want to Sweep Student Plagiarism Under the Rug,” argue that faculty can do more to fight it. To combat plagiarism, White suggests that we need to work on two fronts: “prevention through education, as well as punishment for violations.” We can explain the problem, teach tactics to avoid it, design assignments to combat it, and then punish it with consistency when it occurs….”

In Germany, a posting about the “Third International Conference on Plagiarism” (from Copy, Shake, and Paste: A blog about plagiarism from a German professor, written in English.)

“….One of the major discussion points was the shift perceived in student cheating from copy & paste to purchase of term papers from paper mills and ghostwriters. Since there is not a chance of detecting this kind of cheating with software, there is a call for more education about plagiarism….

“….Garry Allen of RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia had some interesting graphs from Google Trends. You can query “plagiarism” and see how often people search using this term. More interesting is a search for “free essays” – you can literally see the end of the terms [semesters] (represented) on the graphs!….”

In North Carolina, a faculty member blogger posts and asks readers to respond to the question: “How does your university deal with student plagiarism?” (from Scatterplot.)

“….I just got done with a very frustrating experience with UNC’s honor court, in which (IMHO) they devalued my expertise as a faculty member and the central importance of intellectual integrity by dealing slowly and insufficiently with a blatant case of plagiarism in a class I taught last spring. Any discussion is of course welcome but I’d be particularly interested to hear from folks who have had students commit academic misconduct/dishonesty in classes and how that’s been dealt with….”