Plagiarism in Dr. Makamson's Classes

I understand why students might cheat. Let us forego a discussion of rationales and reduce them to opportunity and the simple fact that those who chose to cheat can. The argument that it is a violation of the Code of Conduct and the plea that it is counter to learning are not persuasive to those that will cheat.

My objective in this Note is to:

1.  Make the student aware of what plagiarism is.

2. Inform a student who may contemplate cheating why is not rational to self-interest.

3.  Let students know the ways that I monitor plagiarism.

4.  Clearly state what actions I will take to minimize cheating and punish those who do cheat.

WHAT IS PLAGIARISM?

This is simply stealing: presenting someone else’s ideas and/or words as your own.

Not all stealing is equal. An example of minor cheating is taking someone else’s idea without giving credit through a footnote or taking a sentence written by someone else and presenting as your own when the quote should have a citation and be set off with quotation marks. An example of major cheating is copying and pasting someone’s text on a website or submitting someone else’s paper as your paper.

Using Ronald B. Standler’s, Plagiarism in Colleges in USA, definitions of plagiarism, I offer the following advice:

Quoted material. If you use someone’s words you must use quotation marks and cite the source of the statements in a footnote or in the text.

Using Someone else’s ideas. If you do use someone’s idea, you must give that person credit. Since we rarely have an idea that we alone own, in my courses this means that when you construct an argument that you have borrowed from someone else or written a paper based on someone else’s idea, you must give the source credit for the idea.

Paraphrasing. If you use someone else’s text but rearrange words, substitute words, and say the same thing with different words representing this as your work, you have cheated. To avoid this always give the source credit. For example: According to XYZ, the following was reported… .” And, footnote the citation.  This can be a problem for article criticism, but if you are citing the author of the article you are critiquing, there is no need to cite everything. The problem arises when you are using someone else’s ideas and presenting these as your ideas.  The main problem students have in writing a review and critique of an article is the temptation to paraphrase large segments of the author’s work. The difference between paraphrasing and writing the author’s thesis in your own words is clear to me: if a student rewrites an author’s text following closely the structure of the author’s paragraphs so that there is an evident parallelism in the student’s presentation, there is cheating.

Sourcing Submitted Material from a Commercial or Other Source. If it is not obvious, let me make it clear: If you buy your paper from a commercial source (such as a website) or submit a paper that anyone else wrote, you have committed the worse kind of plagiarism.  If I discover this, the incident will be reported as a Code of Conduct violation, period.

WHY CHEATING IS NOT RATIONAL.

A rational decision is one in which the benefits (higher grade) is equal to or higher than the costs. If you examine the weight that I assign papers in my courses and consider the way papers are graded, the marginal benefit for cheating is not worth the risk.

Assume a paper is 10% of your grade (10 points - you can adjust the math to any assignment). A not very well constructed original paper can receive 7 points. The difference between this grade and 10 (A+) is 3 points for the entire course (100 points).  If discovered you will loss at a minimum the 10 points for the assignment, and at a maximum the right to graduate from this institution. The issue, of course, is your assessment of risk. What probability of discovery can you envision that merits 3 points (3% of the course)?

HOW I MONITOR PLAGIARISM  

If the issue boils down to a student’s assessment of risk of discovery, the risk is high beginning Spring 2003.  Given a spate of cheating in Fall 2002, I have simply become more determined to catch and prosecute cheaters. I have always read same assignments at one sitting to rule out obvious cheating, but now I am examining closely use of words and phrasing. I can find “cut and paste” sources on the Internet much more easily and look for this. I have learned that the Internet provides a great resource of material to help teachers monitor for cheating. And, lastly, I use TurnItIn.com if I want a paper checked against commonly used databases of papers, including commercially obtained papers.

ACTIONS AGAINST PLAGIARISTS

When discovered, plagiarists will be managed at my discretion. What I will do depends upon how serious I deem the event. I have already described what I consider to be minor offenses. These may result in a grade of zero for the assignment. The student will have the option to contest this, but if contested I will submit the offense as a Code of Conduct violation. A major offense will not be negotiated and will be reported for a Code of Conduct violation. The advantage to me for adjudicating the problem in this manner is that I need only submit my evidence and let others decide and take action – it simply easier. If I refer a student for a Code of Conduct violation, I can only refer you to the Student Handbook for your rights and recourse.

If there is plagiarism there may be added legal issues including violation of copyright or fraud. According to Standler, Virginia statute (Virginia § 18.2-505) likely makes it illegal to sell course papers. If applicable, these are the student’s problems.

For more information, see Ronald B. Standler’s, Plagiarism in Colleges in USA at http://www.rbs2.com/plag.htm