Plagiarism Prevention and Detection

1. Clearly define plagiarism at the beginning of the semester, ideally in the syllabus
   • • Teaching students about academic integrity is an opportunity to help them understand how to take part and influence the academic conversation.
       • When students can effectively build on others’ ideas, they become more aware and comfortable with their own ideas, as well as feel a sense of responsibility to the academic community they are contributing to.
     • Refer to this student guide on documentation and plagiarism – https://www.skidmore.edu/writing_guide/documentation.php
     • Reference the Skidmore Academic Honor Code and the statement on academic integrity
     • Academic integrity checklist for students
     • Include a clear distinction between acceptable forms of collaboration and plagiarism
     • Creativity and exploration are important, we don’t want to stifle these by being overly punitive. Be careful when setting the tone around this issue, striking the right balance is not always easy.
2. Provide examples of proper citation
   • • Give students examples of when it is necessary to cite others and what citation method they should use.
3. Create assignments that encourage originality and discourage plagiarism
4. Assessments that are formative, smaller and more frequent, and face to face when possible.
   • • As opposed to a single large summative assessment
     • Design assessments so students can show that they’ve learned, not to catch cheaters
5. Modify assessments from semester to semester
6. Request photocopies of all sources used in a paper
7. Make clear that all written assignments will be submitted to an automated plagiarism service, ie Turnitin.

• Give students a low-stakes writing assignment to begin the semester; for example, where they introduce themselves to the instructor and classmates via a discussion board. This can provide a good baseline writing sample in the student’s natural voice, for later comparison if necessary.
• Craft writing assignments that are not easily plagiarized, such as asking for unique, specific, and/or personal insights instead of more general information about a topic.
• Use scaffolded writing assignments (e.g., proposal, annotated bibliography, and multiple drafts)

• Writing that seems inconsistent with the level of the class and/or previous examples of the student’s writing
• Inconsistent writing style, with sophisticated and unrefined sentences mixed together
• Bibliography is unclear or has sources missing

MIT – http://cmsw.mit.edu/writing-and-communication-center/resources/teachers/detect-plagiarism/

Carnegie Mellon – https://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designteach/design/instructionalstrategies/writing/preventplagiarism.html

Northwestern – http://www.northwestern.edu/provost/policies/academic-integrity/how-to-avoid-plagiarism.html