Plagiarism and how to avoid it

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Plagiarism and how to avoid it
Keele UniversityInternational Postgraduate
Students Induction

• Stephen Bostock and Mike BroughSeptember 2005

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Summary

• What is it?
• Why is it a problem?
• How is technology involved?
• Why does it happen?
• International students problems
• Keeles position
• Advice on avoiding plagiarism and collusion

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Plagiarism

• Passing off someone elses work or ideas as ones
  own, without credit
• Literary theft, cheating, copying
• The unoriginal sin (Colon 2001)
• Including
• Plagiarising published/web sources
• Colluding (not collaborating)
• Fraudulent authorship

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Where do you draw the line?1
A. Copying verbatim from a source without an
acknowledgement. B. Copying a paragraph and
making only small changes e.g. replacing a few
verbs, replacing an adjective with a synonym. C.
Cutting and pasting a paragraph by using
sentences of the original but omitting one or two
and putting one or two in a different order. D.
Composing a paragraph by taking short phrases
from a number of sources and putting them
together using words of your own to make a
coherent whole. E. Paraphrasing a paragraph by
rewriting with substantial changes in language
and organization the new version will also have
changes in the amount of detail used and the
examples cited. F. Quoting an original paragraph
by placing it in quotation marks with the source
cited and discussing it in your own words.
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Why is this a problem?

• For the student
• failure to achieve academic learning outcomes
• treated as academic misconduct
• For the teacher
• a waste of time
• For the institution
• threat to reputation and value of degrees
• QA, regulations, and legislative context

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Technology

• Electronic writing makes it easier to plagiarize
• Web documents give more opportunity cheat Web
  sites
• Internet communication widens the geographical
  scope
• But technology also aids detection

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Collaboration and collusion

• Collaboration is encouraged even in preparation
  for individual assessed writing
• Academic discussion, prewriting, sharing sources,
  peer review, copy editing
• Collusion is shared work, claimed to be
  individual
• Sharing text
• Sharing ideas/problem-solving that leads to the
  same answer
• Technical editing, redrafting
• Where to draw the line may vary with discipline
  and with assignment check with your tutor.
• Acknowledge any help you got including copy
  editing (this should be given in an
  Acknowledgements statement)

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The JISC plagiarism detection service (PDS)
www.submit.ac.uk

• The PDS detects use of the web, collusion within
  and between cohorts, and published text books.
• A demonstration web site open to all.
• Guides for teachers and students are available.
• Keele licenses its use Schools use it to provide
  consistent good practice across the university.
• Students should expect to have work checked
  without notice, either to investigate a suspicion
  or (occasionally) to screen a whole cohort of
  work.
• We dont want to detect it, we want to deter it.

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Why do a few students plagiarize?

• Poor writing skills, poor time management
• Unintentional bad practice through ignorance (in
  the past)
• Cultural differences
• More time pressure on some students part-time
  working
• More pressure on some students to get a good
  qualification
• Intention to deceive (cheating)

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International students

• International students are (statistically) more
  likely to be caught plagiarizing. Why?
• may have weaker English writing skills
• may arrive with cultural assumptions that some
  plagiarism is OK
• may have more time pressure through working in a
  second language
• All these problems are also found in some UK/EU
  students

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Keeles position

• Keele is a scholarly community with a culture of
  research and teaching.
• Plagiarism (and collusion) is serious misconduct.
• We (the University and the students Union) want
  to raise student expectations of scholarly
  writing, providing guidance teaching.
• Staff will set a good example in their own
  materials.
• Regulations and procedures are applied
  consistently across the University.
• Each School has an Academic Conduct Officer.
• Software supports the detection/confirmation of
  plagiarism or collusion.

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Writing right

• Ideas from other authors must have their source
  acknowledged cited in the text and listed in
  the references.
• Text/diagrams from other authors must be
  acknowledged cited in the text and listed in
  the references.
• Where plagiarism is found in assessed work, it
  does not just reduce the grade. There is no mark
  it is academic misconduct.

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References and reading

• 1. From Academic writing for graduate students by
  Swales and Feale, University of Michigan, 1993
• 2. Colon, A. 2001 Avoid the pitfalls of
  plagiarism, Writer 114 (1) p. 8
• 3. JISC Plagiarism project 2001
  http//online.northumbria.ac.uk/faculties/art/inf
  ormation_studies/Imri/Jiscpas/site/jiscpas.asp
  including A guide to good practice by Jude
  Carroll Jon Appleton
• 4. Park, C. 2003 In other (peoples) words
  plagiarism by university students literature
  and lessons, Assessment and Evaluation in HE 28
  (5) 471-488

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Web sites

• The Keele key skills package has a section on
  plagiarism http//www.learn.keele.ac.uk/lskills/TL
  TP3/entersite.htmlPostgraduate induction
  materialshttp//www.keele.ac.uk/depts/aa/landt/pg
  /index.htm
• Frequently asked questions on assessment
• http//www.keele.ac.uk/depts/aa/regulationshandb
  ook/faqs.htmassess

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