Transcript Plagiarism and the Internet Workshop Agenda: Introductions The Problem Tools to Help Class Development (With plenty of breaks and exercises mixed in) NOTE: Please ask questions as we.

Plagiarism and the
Internet
Workshop Agenda:
Introductions
The Problem
Tools to Help
Class Development
(With plenty of breaks and exercises mixed in)
NOTE: Please ask questions as we go & if you need to use the facilities or grab a snack feel free
Steve Garwood
INFOLINK

Cybercheats
Part 1:
The Problem
Cybercheats - Q&A
(data from 1998 Who’s Who in American High School Student’s survey)
Question: How common is cheating at your school?
Answers
Almost everybody does it
Fairly Common
Pretty Rare
Never Happens
No Answer
Responses
21.8%
60.9%
16.5%
0.4%
0.3%
Cybercheats - Q&A
(data from 1998 Who’s Who in American High School Student’s survey)
Question: Which of the following have you done?
Answers
Responses
Cheated on a quiz or test
39.6%
Copied someone else’s homework
66.7%
Plagiarized part of an essay
13.2%
Used Cliff’s or Monarch Notes to
avoid reading a book
28.9%
None of the Above
19.5%
Cybercheats - Q&A
(data from 1998 Who’s Who in American High School Student’s survey)
Question: If you have cheated…why?
Answers
Responses
Competition for good grades
55.6%
Didn’t seem like a big deal
53%
Didn’t think I’d get caught
23.6%
Not interested in the subject
28.9%
To get into a good college
14.4%
Cybercheats - Q&A
(data from 1998 Who’s Who in American High School Student’s survey)
Question: How easy would it be for you to obtain test
questions or answers at your school?
Answers
Responses
Very difficult
14.9%
Somewhat difficult
25.5%
Not very difficult
28.2%
Easy
30%
Cybercheats - Q&A
(data from 1998 Who’s Who in American High School Student’s survey)
Question: If you have cheated what happened?
Answers
Responses
I was caught and punished
6.2%
I was caught but not punished
6.4%
I was not caught
95.1%
Cybercheats - Q&A
(data from 1998 Who’s Who in American High School Student’s survey)
Question: What is Plagiarism?
Answers:
To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as
one’s own
…So that I do not get accused of Plagiarism the above was taken
verbatim from page 888 of Merriam Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary 10th edition.
Make sure students know…don’t assume
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Terrible Timmy’s
Tale
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Timmy’s Homework Assignment:
Write about 500 words on:
The Theme of Madness in Shakespeare’s
Hamlet.
(Note: This is all of the assignment, no source
requirements, no research instructions, etc. Think of it as
a first paper assignment.)
Other areas often seen at the library: biomes, literature
terms, global warming, drug abuse/treatment, pros/cons
such as driving age, voting age, biographical assignments…
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Timmy ponders how to do his assignment
Library? – No
-I’d have to get out of my chair
-I’d have to get my mom to drive me
-The books I need will be all checked
out anyway
-Those surly librarians are mean
-It’s too cold/hot
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Timmy ponders how to do his assignment
One of those Term paper sites? – Hmmm, maybe.
Note these are free sites and all had Hamlet essays
- most with bibliographies:
http://essays.terrashare.com/
http://www.netessays.com/
http://www.schoolbytes.com/
There are more…
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Timmy ponders how to do his assignment
Some notes on the free sites:
Content:
Submit one/Get one
Plenty out there (Students posting to web)
Very much like fraternity test/paper files
Some papers good/some stink
“Ethics”:
Some are blatant (go ahead…sue…they’ll love you)
Ownership:
Many of these sites are owned by the same person
therefore lots of repetition
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Timmy ponders how to do his assignment
One of those Term paper sites? – Hmmm, maybe.
Note these are pay sites some of which will write
an original paper :
http://www.geniuspapers.com/
http://www.cheathouse.com/
http://www.termpapers-on-file.com/
http://www.papermasters.com/
There are more…
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Timmy ponders how to do his assignment
Some notes on the pay sites:
Money:
Subscription
Some pay by page
Guarantees:
Some will guarantee the grade
Content:
Some prewritten/some individualized
College kids will do anything for money
“Reminds me”:Of the ads in the back of Rolling Stone
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Timmy ponders how to do his assignment
Search Engines? – Let me try
that first. I’ve heard that Google
is pretty good.
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Timmy searches Google
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Timmy sees novelguide.com info
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Timmy copies and pastes to Word
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Timmy adds fluff and a fake
citation making work his own.
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Is Timmy alone????
NOPE…Remember…
“4 out of 5 high achievers surveyed in
1998 admitted to cheating on school work
according to Who’s Who Among American
High School Students and more than ½ of
those said such cheating was “no big deal”,
and practically none got caught.”
Actually Timmy might be less
terrible THAN typical
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Is there a way to catch Timmy????
In this case yes. Since Timmy was
lazy and didn’t try to change the
work he got very much.
A “phrase search” in Alta Vista,
Google or a MetaSearch engine will
find his work. More about this in a
lil bit
However…more enterprising
Timmy’s will be hard to catch…
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Types of “Plagiarists”:
(Is this plagiarism to you?)
• The Mega Copier
• Patchwork Partier
• The Omiter
• Source Faker
• Super Paraphrasers
• The Author (for others and himself)
• The Purchaser
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Exercises – The Problem!
30 Minutes - GO!
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Part 2:
Possible Solutions
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Working with Students
• Teach the research process not just the
“hows” but the “whys”
• Go Ahead…ask them if they know
“why” they should do something
• Use research paper tutorial sites that
you like. Kids like the web, might as well
use it.
My favorite is…
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Internet Public Library’s A+ Site
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Working with Students
• Let students know that you know
about those paper mill websites. Then do
actually check some of them out.
• Students will be less likely to submit a
paper that they know you may have
seen on the web, or that a classmate
might also submit (this happens all too
often)
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Working with Students
• Go a step further and take
students to one of the sites, review
a weak paper with students and
analyze its failures. They will learn
something about writing and also
see that what’s available for
downloading may not impress their
teacher
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Working with Students
• Alternately, teach the class to use the
papers on the web as sources for their
OWN papers (along with other web
sources)
• Now and then on the reference desk,
I’ve actually used the cite list from one
of these papers as hopeful leads (e.g.
Papers on Pearl Jam or Tupac)
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Working with Students
• Teaching citations:
Trouble with citations is often the
reason for plagiarism…if you get points
taken off for bad cites…why cite?
• Make it easy:
The MLA and APA books suck!
If I ever wanted to see a student back at
my desk…I just gave them those manuals
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University of Albany’s “How to Cite”
Each guide is very short & fairly complete
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Working with Students
• If nothing else copy relevant pages out
of the APA and MLA books or make
handouts with the frequently used
sections. Keep them at the desk or at
least bookmarks the “important” pages.
• Thru college and 5 years of grad school
I think I used about 15 pages of the APA
book, but I used those 15 pages all the
time.
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Heck why not do it online – NoodleTools
This was great when it was free…
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NoodleTools
How Much you ask?
Students - $8 per year
Teachers - $60 per year
School <250 - $100 per year
School 250-1000 - $200 per year
School 1000-4000 - $300 per year
Not bad for MLA and APA
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EasyBib.com
This was great when it was free too…
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EasyBib
How Much you ask?
EasyBib – MLA Only – Free
EasyBib Pro – MLA & APA - $6 per year
Bib4School – use to be $900 per year…they’ll
deal on the price.
Not bad for MLA and APA
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Citation Machine
If it’s free it’s for me!
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Working with Students
• And before I forget, make sure students
know what plagiarism actually is. It’s a big
concept, break it down. Give them
something to compare it to that they’re
familiar with – Maybe Hip/Hop’s reuse of
lyrics, beats, etc?
• Make sure they know the penalties for
plagiarizing others work. Many schools do
not have specific guidelines. If you don’t
they might “win” even if you catch them.
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Tips for Teachers
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Tips for Teachers: Some reminders
• Be careful to give specific, nongeneric instructions for papers.
Specificity makes it harder to
cheat.
• Timmy’s teacher didn’t do this
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Tips for Teachers: Some reminders
• Get writing samples. Comparing
past work to new work can help catch
plagiarized items.
• Timmy’s teacher may have done
this.
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Tips for Teachers: Some reminders
• Watch the process: Get drafts,
use peer groups to evaluate, have
drafts submitted with assignments.
• If Timmy’s teacher had done this,
he could not have just copied and
pasted from the Web. At least not
as easily as he did.
Cybercheats
Tips for Teachers: Some reminders
Instead of traditional writing assignments…
• Change the format (skit, interview, news story)
• Make comparisons
• Create a game (20 questions, jeopardy)
• Write a letter to your biographical person
• Color code citations to Works Cited page
• Writing Sample – No Warning, no books, color paper
handed out in class
• No such thing as a “cheat proof” assignment
• Mix formats
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Tips for Teachers: Some final tips
• Be a good example – following copyright
• Talk to other teachers have a set definition and
practice for plagiarism
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Working with Teachers: Detection Tips
• Check for unusual formatting or formatting that does not match
what you require. In particular, check for website printout page
numbers or dates, grayed out letters and unusual use of upper/lower
case and capitalization.
• Notice any jargon or advanced vocabulary or sentence structure.
• Look for short papers…8.5 x 10.5
• Reference the original assignment. Are any portions of the
assignment completely left out? Do any portions read like they were
"added on" to the paper? Is it the correct type of paper, e.g.
descriptive, position, first person, narrative?
• Review the bibliography. Is the correct citation style used? Is the
citation style used consistently? Does it match the sources referenced
in the paper? Are works included actually referenced?
Cybercheats
Working with Parents
Cybercheats - Q&A
(data from 1998 Who’s Who in American High School Student’s survey)
Question: What percentage of parents said their child
NEVER cheats?
Answer:
63%
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Getting Parents involved –
Make parents aware
• Let them know about the severity of
the issue (especially that it’s not just the
“bad” kids).
• Let them know of your academic
honest policy and penalties for breaking
it.
• Make them aware of technology and
websites that students “can” use for
academic dishonesty (Filters/History).
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Simple things to do in the
library/media
center/technology center
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Simple things library/tech center staff can do…
• Make the citation process as simple as
possible, have simple guides available (not
just on online sources), bookmark relevant
sections of the APA and MLA books, put a
citation site on your LAN…
• Put simple quick flyers or posters near
LANS, printers and photocopiers,
explaining plagiarism and penalties…”Don’t
throw it all away…”
• Use a minute of that BI time to talk about
plagiarism
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Get ‘em: Before and After
(Tools to catch the cheaters)
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Movie Time? (If time allows)
We’ll talk about what went wrong after
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Academic Integrity Policies
• Do you have one?
• Have you read it? Has anyone else? Have the parents? students?
• How was the policy written?
• Is it ever enforced?
What makes a good speed trap?
• Consistently there
• Surprising when people aren’t paying attention
• Enforceable
• Actually “hits”
• Understanding the wrong action taken
• Others do your work for you (other cars slow down)
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Are any of these Plagiarizing? Do all staff agree?
• Asking your parent or a friend to suggest changes or
corrections in your written essay
• Asking your parent or a friend to rewrite your essay,
making all the changes or corrections for you
• Asking your parents or a friend to help you search the
Internet for information for a report
• Reading someone else’s term paper and then writing
your own using some of his ideas and copying part or all
of his bibliography
• Writing a report as a group and then each person
writing a report that is just a little bit different to hand in
• Listing books in your bibliography that you didn’t read
• Copying sentences or paragraphs from the encyclopedia
for your report without using quotation marks or
footnotes
• Hiring a tutor to help you write better
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Get ‘em
• Be aware of how to do phrase
searching in several search engines.
• “” is your best friend as it will let you
do phrase searches in 99% of Search
Engines.
• Use a middle line from a paragraph
not introductions/conclusions
• Keep up with search engine
developments with:
www.searchenginewatch.com
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Know your resources (Pay Screener)
$250 + .60 per student
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Know your resources (Pay Screener)
No Ebsco, Gale, etc. at this point. But does cover Proquest
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Know your resources (Pay Screener)
Used to be Plagiserv.com (Free)
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Know your resources
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Exercises – Tools to help!
30 Minutes - GO!
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Exercises – Create your
own class…
Examples:
Hip-Hop
List on Chart
Write a paper on
Plagiarism
Ad Campaign
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Conclusion and Resources
Cybercheats – Q&A
Don’t Forget…
• Items in Print…Plagiarism the old fashioned way is back in style.
• The invisible web – Databases and other non-indexed sites.
• Sites like Questia – which just won’t die.
Getting them one way doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get ‘em.
Greatest thing in your favor…laziness
Cybercheats
Hmmm, lastly, how much of this
presentation do you think was
taken from the web?
See any citations?
Well I couldn’t not cite (here they are):
• Timmy’s Tale is mine
• Besides that everything else is in the handouts
Cybercheats
Cody (my dog) says:
This presentation available at:
http://www.stevegarwood.com/classes