The ugly side of research – plagiarism!
Posted by liberrylady on February 3, 2010
“Copy from one author, it’s plagiarism; copy from two, it’s research. “ Wilson Mizner (1876 – 1933)
Last week I presented a lesson to some grade 11 English classes on plagiarism. It’s not a favorite topic for anyone. Students don’t understand what they’re doing wrong and why they shouldn’t always share their work. Teachers get frustrated because it’s a negative occurance they have to deal with more often than they’d like. This is why teacher/librarians must constantly work with both groups to come up with ways of teaching everyone what exactly it is, and what they can do about it.
Students need opportunities to talk about the definition of plagiarism and should be given examples so they learn what it is and isn’t. For instance, the groups last week were very surprised to learn that one could actually plagiarize one’s self. Who knew you shouldn’t use an assignment completed for one class in another? It has the feel of being improper, but how wrong could it really be? After all, the student did all the work!
Teachers need to come up with assignments that don’t encourage the cut and paste approach. Higher levels of thinking must be encouraged so work can truly become one’s own. If students are asked to simply go on fact finding missions, it’s no wonder we encounter problems with copying. We must create opportunities for original thinking by designing critical questions that don’t promote plagiarism.
At the same time, we must teach students how to properly cite everything they choose to use. It’s so easy to do these days that there’s really no excuse! Many sites put everything together for you, and others provide their own citations. Giving someone credit for his/her ideas or work is actually a good thing!
Plagiarism is probably never going to go away so we must work with students and teachers to minimize it. Understanding something goes a long way in helping to prevent it.