Student Tip: Avoid Plagiarism
In online courses, teachers
sometimes have difficulty determining if students have plagiarized or are
submitting their own work. As a student, you can prevent
any misunderstandings about the originality of your written work by following
some of the following strategies.
1. Take the Practice and Test to determine how much you
already know about plagiarism. Too easy? Try another Plagiarism
Quiz.
2. Be sure you know
the definition of plagiarism, what style guide is required by your instructor
and how to follow it. Take a look at these Plagiarism Examples , Style Guides and correct Citation Examples.
3. One of the best
ways to avoid plagiarism is to use a well organized process for researching
and writing your assignment or essay. Sometimes students plagiarize accidentally
simply by rushing the research process and/or keeping sloppy records of references.
First, set up a timeline for completion of your written
assignment using the Assignment
Calculator. That way you can stay on track and avoid writing your paper
at the last minute and making careless mistakes.
Next, use a careful system for keeping track
of your references as you go along your research process.
4.
After writing and submitting
any written assignment you ought to be able to answer the following questions
from your instructor:
- What did you learn from
the assignment?
- What problems did you
face in gathering information you needed and how did you overcome them?
- What research strategy
did you follow?
- Where did you locate
most of your sources?
- What is the most important
thing you learned from investigating this subject?
Answering
these questions will help you think about your own learning as well as provide
evidence to your instructor that you did your own work. If your knowledge
of written work you submit is sketchy then your instructor may be concerned.
5. Some instructors
use an online service, such as Turnitin,
to check student written work for plagiarism. You may want to try this for
yourself BEFORE you submit your written work just to check.
6. Imagine serving as a student representative on a Student Appeals Committee
where you have to decide on a grade in a student plagiarism situation.
- What evidence would
you want from both the instructor and the student?
- How would you decide
if the student plagiarized or if it was an honest mistake?
- What are some benefits
of citing sources in written work?
- What skill-building
opportunities are lost by students who plagiarize?
7. To learn more about plagiarism, complete these tutorials.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.