Write from Wrong Barry Gilmore Lausanne Collegiate School TCTE 2008 Preventing Plagiarism by Rethinking Writing and Research

Plagiarism: no laughing matter?

My totally original plagiarism presentation (according to my students) English teachers—lend me your ears! I come to bury plagiarism, not to praise it. Four score and seven years ago, in the best and worst of times, it was a truth universally acknowledged that a student in possession of a good website must be want of an A…

Case Study: Take It or Leave It Christine Pelton – “The Leaf Project” The project Classroom results Student/parent contract Administration/School Board response Long-term consequences

Case Study: Take It or Leave It “I was kind of upset ‘cause I was pretty sure I didn’t do it,” [one student] says, claiming he copied from the internet but didn’t plagiarize... “I put that as two different sentences,” he says. “So it’s not like I copied it straight from the Web site. I changed it into two different sentences.” (48 Hours, 2002)

Where do you stand? Students/Parents Students deserve another chance School Board Reduce value of assignment Teacher/Admin Students receive a zero

My Questions What factors haven’t we considered? Merit of Assignment Failure vs. Zero Plagiarism Instruction vs. Plagiarism Expectations School Policy vs. Classroom Policy

Grades 3-5 Grades 6-12 Teachers didn’t discuss plagiarism Teachers did discuss plagiarism 49%61% 37%22% (understood) (felt it was okay) Addressing Plagiarism

WHENPRIVATE CAMPUSES WITH HONOR CODE LARGE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY WITH MODIFIED HONOR CODE CAMPUSES WITH NO HONOR CODE On tests23%33%45% On written work45%50%56% Addressing Plagiarism

“Plagiarism? I’d define it as an easy A if you don’t get caught, and an easy F if you do.” -Andy, age 15 Part One: The problem How? Why? Consequences Part Two: solutions Classroom culture Assignments School culture

“Plagiarism? I’d define it as an easy A if you don’t get caught, and an easy F if you do.” -Andy, age 15 Part One: The problem How? Why? Consequences Part Two: solutions Classroom culture Assignments School culture Classroom culture Assignments School culture Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Prompt Attention Write a 3-5 page formal essay on “Harrison Bergeron.”

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Prompt Attention "It took me about ten seconds to find a free essay online, but it wasn't very good. I could have paid $6.95 for a better one, though--probably worth it."

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Prompt Attention Make your prompts more specific Make your prompts more personal Use unlikely comparisons

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Prompt Attention Choose three characters from the story "Harrison Bergeron" and find two quotations from each character. Using those six quotations, write an essay in which you compare the motivations and choices of the three characters. "What a pain, I have to cut and paste those quotations into an essay that I found online on the general topic. This would take me about ten minutes, I guess, and I might have to pay for the original essay if I wanted it to be any good."

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Prompt Attention Imagine you could spend one day in the world of “Harrison Bergeron” and talk to the characters in the story. Write a letter to the U.S. Handicapper General describing your experiences and your views on the society within the story after your visit. "The personal voice makes this one harder, but not too hard. I could probably do it mainly by changing pronouns with the find and replace function in Word and with a bit of formatting. Most teachers wouldn't catch on."

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Prompt Attention Write an essay comparing “Harrison Bergeron” to the story “The Lottery.” "Done. Took me about a minute. Do you want that double-spaced?"

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults What Do We Know? It’s not just about preventing plagiarism, it’s about how we teach and how students learn.

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Prompt Attention Read the story “Harrison Bergeron.” In groups/as a class, brainstorm possible essay topics and discuss. Choose an individual essay topic. Look for textual evidence and write a thesis statement. Share thesis statements in class and draft a first paragraph. Write an essay.

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults What Else Do We Know? Our goal isn’t simply to produce students who complete tasks well, but to encourage critical thinkers who create the tasks and their parameters.

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Research (about research) 65% of students: wrote a research paper for English 38% of students: wrote a research paper for social studies Of English papers, 67% on historical/biographical topic 75% used all or primarily internet sources

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Research: Thoughts Assignment: Are students invested? A discipline problem: What does research for an English class look like? Digital literacy: Are we teaching students to use the internet wisely? Process vs. Content: What’s the point of the assignment, anyway?

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Digital Literacy

S.E.A.R.C.H. Peer source checking Required source analysis (credit reports) Advanced search methods Digital Literacy Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults

S.E.A.R.C.H. Search using Google Scholar Examine reputable sources Assemble a source/search list Return to Google/Google Scholar Collect more keywords and sources Harvest a list of sources (and visit a library)

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults The Ethics Gap Web Culture Rules of Victory 77% say Internet plagiarism is “not a serious issue”

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Downloading an entire paper online Cutting and pasting to make an entire essay Making up sources Peer copying Substituting words in a sentence Cutting and pasting a sentence or two Working with a partner too closely Poor paraphrasing skills Including sources in a bibliography but failing to cite in-text Taking material directly from a textbook to answer a homework question Intentional Plagiarism Unintentional Plagiarism copying, cheating poor paraphrasing

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Team Efforts Collaboration or cheating?

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Making the Grade Research shows three reliable effects when students are graded: They tend to think less deeply, avoid taking risks, and lose interest in the learning itself. The ultimate goal of authentic assessment must be the elimination of grades. -Alfie Kohn

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Making the Grade Research by Eric M. Anderman: Students who cheat tend to… worry about school perceive their school as focused on grades and ability believe they can obtain some kind reward for doing well in class attribute failure in school to outside circumstances avoid using deep-level cognitive processing strategies, such as trying different ways to solve a problem

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Making the Grade Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic WIK charts Honor rolls?

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults May I Have the Honor? Honor pledge Advisory-style discussion Honor code embedded in the curriculum Student-driven reminders

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Under Pressure While 24.5 percent of students reported “often,” “very frequently,” or “sometimes” having cut and pasted text from the Internet without proper citation, 27.6 percent reported having done the same with conventional texts. Meanwhile, more than 90 percent of students reported that their peers “often,” “very frequently,” or “sometimes” copied text without citation from conventional sources. (Kellogg)

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Under Pressure Get cut, or cut and paste? Gender Low achievers and high achievers

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults A career in modeling 22.6% of students in grades 6–12 felt copying from the Internet was okay when teachers discussed the issue, but that number jumped to 36.9% among students whose teachers did not discuss the issue. -Anne Ruggles Gere

Assignments Prompts Research Classroom Culture The Ethics Gap Good Intentions? Team Efforts School Culture Grades Honor Codes School pressures Questions, Comments, Insults Questions and More Barry Gilmore