The Problem of Plagiarism Literature Review
The Problem of Plagiarism:
Literature Review Selection
Melinda “Mindy” L. Boucher
Lower Columbia College
The Problem Students routinely hand in papers in which the writing is so complex and the vocabulary so sophisticated that there is doubt that they were written in the students’ own words. When samples of the writing are typed into a Google search engine, sentences and whole paragraphs are found to be a match. Students are confronted with the plagiarism and given information on the guidelines for avoiding plagiarism. Often the result is a re-constructed paper or a paper on a new topic in which sentences are again cut and pasted from the Internet source, but one word or the punctuation was changed. Students often report that they simply use the Microsoft Word thesaurus to change a word here or there in order to avoid plagiarism. The results are clearly not an expression of their own thoughts. “In the 2003 National Survey of Student Engagement, 87 percent of college students who took the survey online said their peers copied data from the Internet without citing sources at least some of the time” (Sterngold, 2004, 16). A second form of plagiarism is when students have handed in reports that were written by their friends, even papers that were revised and handed in two or more times, making them obviously familiar to the teacher. Students can also find papers on many subjects on the Internet (for free or for a price); all they have to do is download and type their own name at the top (Renard, 2000, 39). A third form a plagiarism is when students turn in papers they have written for another class. This is easy to spot because the topic is usually only slightly related to the topic actually requested by the instructor. The causes of these instances of plagiarism appear to be 1) lack understanding of the meaning of plagiarism 2) lack of prior knowledge of the process for writing an essay or research paper 3) ease of cutting and pasting from
Literature Review Selection
Melinda “Mindy” L. Boucher
Lower Columbia College
The Problem Students routinely hand in papers in which the writing is so complex and the vocabulary so sophisticated that there is doubt that they were written in the students’ own words. When samples of the writing are typed into a Google search engine, sentences and whole paragraphs are found to be a match. Students are confronted with the plagiarism and given information on the guidelines for avoiding plagiarism. Often the result is a re-constructed paper or a paper on a new topic in which sentences are again cut and pasted from the Internet source, but one word or the punctuation was changed. Students often report that they simply use the Microsoft Word thesaurus to change a word here or there in order to avoid plagiarism. The results are clearly not an expression of their own thoughts. “In the 2003 National Survey of Student Engagement, 87 percent of college students who took the survey online said their peers copied data from the Internet without citing sources at least some of the time” (Sterngold, 2004, 16). A second form of plagiarism is when students have handed in reports that were written by their friends, even papers that were revised and handed in two or more times, making them obviously familiar to the teacher. Students can also find papers on many subjects on the Internet (for free or for a price); all they have to do is download and type their own name at the top (Renard, 2000, 39). A third form a plagiarism is when students turn in papers they have written for another class. This is easy to spot because the topic is usually only slightly related to the topic actually requested by the instructor. The causes of these instances of plagiarism appear to be 1) lack understanding of the meaning of plagiarism 2) lack of prior knowledge of the process for writing an essay or research paper 3) ease of cutting and pasting from
References: Barlow, D. (May 2006). Cut, Paste, and Get Caught: Plagiarism and the Internet. The Education Digest. 71(9), 40-3. Bruster, B. (Summer 2004). Cut and Paste from Cyberspace: Competency 's Changing Face. The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin. 70(4), 38-40. Bugeja, M. (October 2004). Don 't Let Students "Overlook" Internet Plagiarism. The Education Digest. 70(2), 37-43. Ercegovac, Z., & Richardson, J. V. (July 2004). Academic Dishonesty, Plagiarism Included, in the Digital Age: A Literature Review. College & Research Libraries. 65(4), 301-18. Ma, H., Lu, E. Y., & Turner, S. (Spring 2007). An Empirical Investigation of Digital Cheating and Plagiarism among Middle School Students. American Secondary Education. 35(2), 69-82. McCullen, C. (November/December 2003). Tactics and Resources to Help Students Avoid Plagiarism. Multimedia Schools. 10(6), 40-3. Renard, L. (December 1999/January 2000). Cut and paste 101: plagiarism and the Net. Educational Leadership. 57(4), 38-42. Smith, C. B. (Summer 2003). Fighting Cyberplagiarism. Library Journal (1976). 22-3. Sterngold, A. (May/June 2004). Confronting Plagiarism: How Conventional Teaching Invites Cyber-cheating. Change. 36(3), 16-21. Wood, G. (May 2004). Academic Original Sin: Plagiarism, the Internet, and Librarians. The Journal of Academic Librarianship. 30(3), 237-42.