QUESTION: I have a term-paper project that’s worth a lot and I’m afraid some students may cheat. What can I do if I suspect a paper may be plagiarized?
ANSWER:
There are many ways that students can cheat these days. They may cut and paste from electronic journals or websites; they may submit their friends’ papers as their own; they may even purchase papers from companies called “Paper Mills.” There are also software and online companies that offer plagiarism detection services, but research shows that none of these is perfect, and there are ethical and instructional concerns about these as well.
If you believe a student has submitted work that’s not his/her own, the first thing you can do is look for evidence of cheating. Many plagiarized papers are too well-written or for students‟ abilities or too poorly written in that styles and formats are inconsistent throughout. Other signs include out-dated and unusual references and unfocused or unrelated topics.
Finding the original sources of such papers is not usually difficult. Search engines like Google are a good place to start. Pick an unusual phrase (6-7 words in length) in the student’s paper, place quotation marks around it and search for it. In fact, try several phrases and see if anything comes up. It may seem like a simple method, but many instructors have success with this approach. You can also repeat the same steps in full-text searches of journal databases like Wilson Select or WorldCat. Each database is different so you may want to ask a CTLT staff member or a librarian for assistance.
Once you find the source of the plagiarized material, you should start documenting the case, talking with the student, and discussing the matter with Community Rights & Responsibilities (www.deanof students.ilstu.edu/about us/crr.shtml). This unit has a lot of experience handling academic dishonesty and offers many useful resources for faculty.
Ultimately, though, the best defense against plagiarism is a good “plagiarism proof” assignment.
