Preventing plagiarism

God damned fucking plagiarism. Every professor has seen it. Every student has done it. It is the most annoying, common, time-consuming problem in undergraduate education. 

I first encountered student plagiarism in my first class in my first assignment in my first semester of teaching. I was an instructor for First-Year Composition at Purdue. As such, the course required us to teach students about citations and plagiarism. In fact, we were considered the course that would teach students how not to plagiarize and they would retain that information for the rest of their undergraduate education. I literally covered every meaning of plagiarism. I made worksheets, examples, quizzes, everything. But of course, I encountered in the first assignment, a proposal for their research paper, which would be the one major assignment of the semester and their introductory training in how to research and compose an original paper. I was reading this research paper proposal, by a freshman, and I came across the word "hegemony" used in an unquoted, uncited sentence. Red flag. 

As a first-year Master's student, I barely knew the meaning of the word hegemony. I typed the sentence into Google and it appeared word for word in an Amazon summary of a book that was on a topic related to the student's paper and in their preliminary bibliography. I was FURIOUS! I had given every piece of instruction. I had given examples. I had given warnings. I had given threats. My students knew what plagiarism was and they knew the consequences. I had to figure out how to confront this student about their plagiarism. I had weekly writing conferences with students as a required part of the course, so I didn't have to make an excuse to meet with her individually. At our next conference, I asked the student to explain the main points from the proposal, specifically engaging the word "hegemony." They could not. I asked where they got the information. They said they wrote it. I again asked them to explain it to me. They could not. I revealed that I had found those exact words online. They acted shocked. I showed them. They claimed coincidence. I expressed disbelief. I informed them that they would fail this assignment and they would need to submit a new original proposal, for no credit, in order to proceed with the rest of the paper. They stopped attending class. And that was fine with me. 

So just to recap, in a class that was devoted to teaching students how NOT to plagiarize, I had my first case of plagiarism. and I had many, many more to come. And so, the question for the ages...

How can we prevent plagiarism?

Some of the most common methods include, depending on the type of assignment and course:

• Create original questions/assignments that require students to compose original answers  
• Provide instruction on the meanings of plagiarism
• Provide instruction on citation methods
• Provide examples of proper citations
• Require multiple steps, such as proposal, annotated bibliography, and rough draft, for major papers
• Use of plagiarism checkers like TurnItIn or SafeAssign
• Failure for assignment
• Failure for class
• Report to university office in charge

I have tried everything on this list and there is no one correct answer.  As noted above, it is all dependent on the class and the assignment. For example, I cannot require students to give rough drafts for quiz questions, but I can easily give them zero for cutting and pasting online answers. Plagiarism checkers are quite frustrating. They either catch every instance of "the" "it" "is" "be" "but" etc. or they catch nothing of use.For advanced courses with writing requirements, I provide copious instruction on the meanings of plagiarism, examples of citations, multiple parts of assignments, utilize plagiarism checkers, threaten with failure....basically, all of the above. I explain the definition and examples of plagiarism in every single class that I teach. And yet, I receive unoriginal work every single semester. In quizzes, in book reviews, in research papers. Nothing seems to stop this academic epidemic.  

I NEVER plagiarized in undergrad. Or high school for that matter. I admit I once submitted a book report for Hatchet twice. Once in Warrensburg in 7th grade and then again in Ticonderoga for 8th grade. So I committed self-plagiarism. But I was terrified of getting caught, even accidentally, for any unoriginal writing. Maybe it was because the Internet was slightly newer then, in the early 2000s. My students today have grown up with the Internet their entire lives. They are very accustomed to loosely quoting information from online sources, as well as reblogging and reposting without attribution. In addition, I have heard that some middle and high school teachers encourage students to cut and paste information for homework assignments. I have heard that from students in middle school and high school. Frankly, I don't fault them completely, because they have enough bullshit to deal with in terms of state requirements. But at the same time, if younger students are not penalized for copying information directly off the Internet, they think it is okay. They are taught it is okay. So they just keep doing it in college. And hence, my plight. 

I have no idea how to stop plagiarism. I will just keep fighting the good fight with instruction, examples, checkers, threats, and penalties. *Le sigh*

Asking the right questions

I have a problem when professors and teachers say things like, "My students are so dumb! They all got this question wrong!" For me, that means a mistake with the question. When all/most of my students make the same error in the same place/way, that means I fucked up. I don't blame students for my mistakes.

Earlier in the semester I asked my students an online quiz question and the answers were wildly wrong. Here is the question.

______________________________________________

 

Week 2 - Reading Quiz - Post-Civil War South 

Question 9 

 

The following image shows the Barrow Plantation, located in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, in 1860 and later in 1881. The plantation's residents stayed mainly the same across this time period, but their living arrangements changed. Explain how the living patterns appear to have changed according to the map and how this new arrangement demonstrates the shift from slavery to sharecropping/tenant farming across this time period?

 

Barrow Plantation, Oglethorpe County, Georgia

______________________________________________

In addition, the textbook (which the students were assigned to read) contained the exact same image, with an accompanying reading passage about how many former slaves became poor tenant farmers on the same or very nearby plots of land in the post-Civil War South, as well as a discussion of the horrible system of debt that emerged as farmers were forced to pay for land, equipment, supplies, and a host other expenses by white landowners, who were often former masters.

I assumed that students would use the passages in the book to help answer the question. I also assumed that students would be able to infer information from the pictures and labels that was not explicit. Essentially, I hoped students would see from the reading and the images that although the living quarters changed, the owner of the land did not change. I also hoped that would mention from the picture and book, that the landowners, who were often former masters, charged exorbitant rents, equipment fees, and required tenants to give back half their harvests. As a result, share-cropping and tenant-farming perpetuated poverty and economic inequality in the post-war South, and prevented economic advancement.

A fraction answered correctly using information from the book and/or previous knowledge. But the majority of students wrote that free blacks got to own their own land and start earning money to help them escape the inequality of slavery. They simply looked at the two pictures and saw the living arrangement change from slave quarters to scattered plots of land. They assumed the slaves had bought the land and were making a profit.

At first I was annoyed as I gave student after student 5/10 on the question. After about ten wrong responses, though, a red flag went up in my mind. Why were so many students getting it wrong? I went back and reread the question and then I realized, that was really all I had asked them to do in the question. I had hoped they would read the book and incorporate that information. I had hoped they would they the owner of the plantation remained the same. I had hoped they would consider the word "tenant" and know that it means renter.  But I didn't tell them to do any of those things. Instead, they read the information I gave in the question, looked at the two living arrangements, and gave the obvious answer. Not the correct historic answer. Not based on the information in the book. But it was correct based on the information given.

It is moments like this that I am frustrated by how literal and lazy my students can be at times.  But I held myself partially to blame. From this point forward, I started questions like this with the phrase, "Based on information in your reading...." as well as providing more essential content in the question. The questions have improved and the answers have improved. Lesson learned for me.