1. Cut-and-Paste Plagiarism
Presented by
Laura J. Toki
Assistant Director
Curriculum, Training and Development Services
Appalachia Intermediate Unit 8

2. What is plagiarism?
Spectrum: Failure to cite properly to wholesale cheating
May be unintentional or deliberate

3. Examples of Plagiarism
Buying a paper from a research service or “term paper mill”
Turning in another student’s work without his/her knowledge
Turning in a paper another student has written for you

4. Examples of Plagiarism
Copying a paper from a text without proper acknowledgement (i.e., citing source)
Copying materials verbatim, citing source, but leaving out quotation marks
Paraphrasing materials without proper source citation

5. Internet Plagiarism
Turning in a paper from a “free term paper” website
Copying and pasting whole passages of text without quotes and citations

6. How can I prevent plagiarism?
Teach and emphasize the research process:
Topic proposals
Idea outlines
Multiple drafts
Proper citation of sources
Photocopying or printing source texts to accompany final draft

7. How can I prevent plagiarism?
Require students to analyze thoughts and ideas, not just describe them (e.g., oral report with questions)
Require students to reflect personally on the topic or the research process

8. How can I prevent plagiarism?
Discuss plagiarism with students
What it is
School policies or disciplinary action
Long-term consequences of plagiarism (e.g., college application, plagiarism in college, etc.)

9. How can I detect plagiarism?
Check for unusual formatting or formatting that does not match your specific requirements
Look for jargon or advanced vocabulary or sentence structure
Read quotations carefully and look for proper citations

10. How can I detect plagiarism?
Look for all assignment criteria
Are there any parts left out?
Does any part read like it was “added on” to the paper?
Is the text the correct mode (e.g., informational, persuasive, etc.)?

11. How can I detect plagiarism?
Review the bibliography
Are citations in proper form?
Do all sources match those cited in text of the paper?
Pay particular attention to online sources

12. How can I track down plagiarism?
Check for original author identification clues and do a search for the author
Check for original source identification clues and do a search for the website
Identify unusual keywords or unique phrases and do a search
Look at original text of sources listed in the bibliography

13. How can I track down plagiarism?
Check these websites for free papers:
School Sucks
Other People’s Papers
Absolutely Free Online Essays
Free Termpapers International
Dorian’s Paper Archive

14. How can I track down plagiarism?
Check these websites that sell papers:
Evil House of Cheat
Research Papers Online A+
A1 Termpaper
Genius Papers

15. What else can I do? Let students know you know about these websites.
Take students to one of these sites and analyze the weaknesses.
Teach the class to use other websites as sources.

16. What else can I do?
Include specific instructions about bibliographies (e.g., required articles or websites).
Require specific components (e.g., interviews with experts, class readings, recent sources, etc.).

17. What else can I do?
Have students analyze paper mill papers and write an essay on ethics.
Have students research and write in class.
Teacher-student conferences
Student peer conferences
Students submit all notes and drafts with the final paper

18. What else can I do?
On the day papers are due, have students write a reflection on the process:
Features of the paper they’re proud of
Things they had trouble with
Things they learned by writing

19. What else can I do?
If you suspect a paper was downloaded from the Internet, enter key words or a string of words in quotation marks
Try 2 or 3 different search engines
AltaVista, HotBot, and Lycos Pro work best in finding strings of words or phrases

20. What else can I do? DON’T write to or email these websites.
Website publishers will use your complaints as publicity.