Troy Priest, Senior Instructional Designer

As academics, we understand that our professional reputations depend on us properly using and citing scholarly sources in our writing and research. Every so often we hear of academic reputations being ruined by allegations of plagiarism. 

As instructors we stress the importance of academic integrity to our students, and we require them to adhere to the codes of conduct laid out by the university including avoiding plagiarism in the writing assignments. But are all instances of plagiarism the same? Should we deal with all examples of plagiarism the same way?  How can we use and make them teaching opportunities?

Intentional vs. Unintentional Plagiarism

Not all instances of plagiarism are intentional, but when they are it is usually fairly obvious. The most egregious examples of plagiarism include turning in another student’s paper and claiming it as one’s own work, having someone else write one’s assignment, or copying and pasting sections of text and passing them off as one’s own ideas. These forms of plagiarism are clear-cut examples of academic dishonesty and must be dealt with appropriately.

Unintentional Plagiarism is less nefarious and may provide us with a teaching opportunity. The ability to find and select relevant and reliable scholarly sources; successfully incorporate those sources (including deciding whether to use direct quotations from the source or paraphrase the ideas) to support a coherent and cogent argument; and properly cite those sources according to the style guide of the course discipline can be daunting for students who haven’t practiced these skills. Many students have been ‘taught’ these academic skills, but because they are skills, students need to practice them to be proficient. 

This is particularly true of students who are non-native speakers of English. Many second language learners may struggle with paraphrasing scholarly sources or understanding how citations and sources function within the formation of an academic argument. Therefore, successful integration of sources into their writing may be more challenging. 

Strategies to Prevent Plagiarism 

As a former writing instructor, I have learned it’s important not to make assumptions about what students are able to do with regards to using scholarly sources. Just because they were ‘taught’ how to use sources and citations before doesn’t mean they are necessarily proficient at it. It is a skill that has to be practiced.  For those of us who have spent many years in university, both as students and teachers, citing sources has become so integral to what we do that we often take it for granted. For our students, this may not be the case. Providing students with resources and opportunities to practice is important. 

Some specific strategies and resources to help students are: 

• Clearly define what you mean by plagiarism. For many of our students it may not be clear what constitutes plagiarism or what is considered appropriate use of sources or citations. 
• Providing students with models of writing that incorporate and integrate sources and citations effectively. These examples should model the kinds of work and scholarship you require from your students for the course. Using peer-reviewed articles as examples may not be helpful to students.
• Require rough drafts. Writing is developmental, and breaking up the writing assignment or research project into parts allows you to check in with students and give feedback. This ensures they are on the right track and eliminates surprises when the final paper is submitted. If for example the assignment is worth 20 points, break up and distribute the points for the assignment to each step or submission.
• Incorporating annotated bibliography into the assignment. Annotated bibliographies  ensures that students have engaged with the texts and are able to paraphrase and/or summarize the ideas of the authors. Paraphrasing and summarizing are advanced linguistic and cognitive skills. These skills can be particularly troublesome for second-language learners.
• Use plagiarism tools such as Safe Assign as educational resources rather than just detection tools. Safe Assign is integrated in Blackboard and is a useful tool for instructors to check to see if a paper is original or has been plagiarized. However, Safe Assign can also be a learning tool. You can allow students to use these tools to check for plagiarism in their own papers before submitting them to you. This allows them to see if they inadvertently left out a citation or failed to paraphrase or quote a source.
• Inform students of support services. There are university  resources available to students as well. These include The Writing Center, Academic Success and Tutoring Center, and Stony Brook University Libraries just to name a few.

If you have questions or would like to discuss with one of our instructional designers ways to incorporate these strategies in your course(s), please contact us at celt@stonybrook.edu.