So What don't they understand...

About 'do not cut and paste!' I am so angry with my sophomore students right now - They have just handed in their first real research papers in English. I spent two class sessions with them doing research methodology, citing sources and impressing on them that the papers, apart from quotes and references, MUST be all their own work. They all also signed a pledge at the beginning of the semester not to cheat in any way. I have so far found 14 out of the 60 papers are over 80% plagiarism, and I haven't finished checking yet. Do they think I am stupid or something? And how can they risk suspension or worse, which is what they were told would happen if they did this? Some of them have been very clever, even inserting deliberate spelling mistakes to put me off, taking more time to cheat than to do it properly. I am so disappointed in them, I had hoped by now they would have got the message and had a conscience of some sort. I feel like resigning, which is ridiculous, but I just don't think I am making headway.

I had a problem student like that when I taught at a tech college. He was already on 'thin ice' with the administration whe I got a hold of him.

I'd say, if the papers count toward their total grades, give them F's, or zero points. If they balk at the grades, tell them next time they plagiarize, they'll get suspended.

if they pulled the plagiarized portions from the internet, print out those sites. That'll give you extra proof with the administration, or whomever does the suspending. You can also show those printouts to the students and maybe that'll give them the hint that you're on to them.

As for the student I had who pulled this? He was permanently kicked out of the school. He kept begging to return because without school, he'd get sent back to Mexico. I hope he's learned, but i doubt it. Smug little a******. I tried... I really tried. Some people will never learn you can't cheat the system.

Amanda

some people cheat because they are lazy, others because they are overwhelmed or cant cope with their work load.

maybe some of the more obvious cheaters were crying for help and wanted to be caught?

it made me sick when i had worked really hard on a project at uni only for people to have copied and pasted essays of the net.

Three suggestions:
1) You ask all students to also submit a soft copy of the essay so that you can send it to:
www.turnitin.com
which is a website that checks the essay for plagiarism. Inform them upright and show them the website. Quite a good site as its other business is helping in the enforcement of copyright by ensuring there is no unauthorised copyright material so it has quite a large database. I am sure there are other similar businesses but the one I am most familiar with is the above.

2) Tell your students you have also submitted essays to sites that sell term paper essays ... (You do not actually need to submit)

3) Impress upon them that at their level they need to back up their assertions and not be afraid if their essays is not original, as long as it is backed up. I recall writing papers in school where I had ZERO original thought but a huge amount of footnotes referencing where I got the idea from. Imagine an essay where sometimes there are only two lines on the page the the rest of the page is footnotes. Or more often essays where footnotes are longer than the essay itself.

we used turnitin at my uni, if you register the students can check their work before handing it in to make sure they havent accidently plagarised. i really reccomend it.

I had that problem when I was a teacher - and they were native English speakers! Just plain lazy. A couple of them simply printed out a page from the online encyclopedia, with headers and footers still on it. Really - did I have DUMB stamped on my forehead?!?

When my students get upset about thier grades I tell them 'Wrong is Wrong.' I won't make excuses, after all, they are gonna hit the real world soon and it won't be the least bit forgiving.

I hate having to do it but I give 0's if need be! Better for them to learn now! If you 'let' them get away with it here, who knows where it will go? They need to understand that they are growing up and are responsible for thier work and thier future.

They really put you in a tough spot though. Have you talked to any co-workers yet about it? When my students do stuff like that I usually go talk with another instructor so I know I'm not overreacting and that my follow up actions are appropriate.

In my line of work, I need to back up EVERYTHING I do as I work with people with disabilities and some use it as a crutch and expect you to make everything easy on them because of it. And they can go call different orgs and put in complaints about discrimination and what not, then come investigations and what not...making us look bad whether we are at fault or they are just lazy! While I am supportive and I work with everybody, I wouldn't be doing my job if I let every little thing slide. I know my people have great potential. Most you wouldn't really know they have a disability at all. I want them to realize they can go out there and get a job and succeed at it because they have what it takes, not because an employer is scared of discrimination suits! After all, an employer will most likely not care they way we do and they owe it to themselves to 'show the world' that a disability doesn't mean that they are any different from 'the rest of us.' Ok, sorry that was turning into a hyjack, it just seemed relevant in my mind!

Thanks,all. We can't afford Turnitin but I do use a software package to detect plagiarism, and the students know it! They all have to submit an electronic copy as well as a hard copy of their work so I can check. Some of it is so dumb - paras lifted with reference to examples that do not exist in the student's essay, and footnotes that come from nowhere! Others are more clever, as I said. The first thing I did was go to the Dean with the proof of the first 8, as itr was obviously a serious outbreak! We agreed to wait till I had final numbers, which should be on Monday.
As it is their first research paper, I told them that the standard would be easy. That I wanted to see how they had coped with the research, that structure and referencing were the important things, not so much the grammar etc.
I will give everyone with more than 10% plagiarism a zero. One essay is 100% - not an original word in it! Then letters will be sent to their parents and their year grade will be affected. Some may be suspended - that is up to the Dean, and for more than one it is a second offence, as we had some copied essays last year. SO we will certainly not ignore it - the Dean and Chancellor are determined to stamp it out. So I feel supported by the Faculty, thank goodness.

I wouldn't dare think of cheating in any of my work!

As you probably know I'm in the midst of sitting my final exams at the moment and I went out half way during my Science exam for a toilet break and somebody offered me a whole wad of notes to take in because they'd already used them - I said NO THANKS!

I've been studying extremely hard, and if I do pass then I want to pass knowing it was my hard work paying off!!

When I was in school, I once asked a friend of mine why he went to such effort to cheat, rather than just do the work. He said, and I quote: "You don't get ahead by following the rules."

Well, I have to admit, that IS the message kids are getting these days, especially in America...and especially under this current misbegotten political regime. I think we need to teach kids something about ethics and the innate value of personal integrity before we even ATTEMPT to teach them anything ELSE.

I've never plagerized..Never had to really..I guess some kids do it because they think they are too stupid to think of their own stuff eh?

Jenny, I'm not teaching any courses where essays have to be written this semester (what a relief), but I know exactly what you're talking about. I usually do a Google and Yahoo search for phrases used, and do a search on CNN, BBC, etc., and it's amazing how many kids plagiarize. I simply give them no points at all, i.e., a failing grade, if more than one sentence has been plagiarized. I have actually experienced kids memorizing articles from TIME, Newsweek, or The Economist for essay tests! Our school no longer just gives essay topics, but a long list of specific questions about the subject-matter that the kids have to answer in essay form.

There's always going to be a fwe who push their luck, and especially the first time, just to see if you really meant what you said about the consequences of being caught. BUt I do agree that there must be some who feel a little overwhelmed and certainly terrified of the prospect of their first big assignment. I know I was literally terrified of my first assignment - and god alone knows how I passed it - so perhaps it would be worth pulling each of those students aside one at a time when you get the chance, just to talk over it with them where they don't have to face the rest of the class.

Ah, sophomores. What a wonderful age. There's a reason why the word sophomoric is used to describe immature or bad behavior. Yeah, they really do think their teachers fell off the turnip cart yesterday. If you can prove that they cheated, and you made the consequences clear from the start, then follow through. Those that cheated need to be suspended or fail the assignment, or both. Once they're sure that you will check up on their work and that there will be consequences for it, they will change their behavior.

If it's the first paper, they might change their tune when they see the big fat 'F' on the paper for plaigarism!

Wow //// I thought kids would be smarter by that age .... I think my school had issues in the jr high years but never high school...

If it's the first paper, they might change their tune when they see the big fat 'F' on the paper for plaigarism.... I sure would hope so ...

These are undergrad sophomores - 19 and 20 years old! Unfortunately some of them have cheated their way through 12 years of school and have no idea that it is wrong. But we spent all last year drumming it into them in smaller essays etc, and they have no excuse now. They will be punished with zeroes and letters to parents. I just feel so personally insulted though. I have to give them this kind of assignment if they are to learn both free expression in English and also research methods, as they have never had either before. I think I am also going to leave this assignment out of the final grades for everyone and I hope peer pressure may work some magic.

Originally Posted by jcat

I have actually experienced kids memorizing articles from TIME, Newsweek, or The Economist for essay tests!

Click to expand...

Actually I have heard of some teachers specifically telling their students to do that ESPECIALLY if English is not their first language AND they have pretty bad command of the language. They even give them tests requiring them to reproduce the model essay from memory.

Er. The problem is probably in the students. If they do poor in school and get D's and F's, then you know your problem. If they are all B+ - A+ students, then just give them the grade they deserve and tell them that next time you will fail anyone who plagiarizes.

Sadly, the Internet has made it amazingly easy to cheat. Also to be caught, though, which is good.

I can't remember which English teacher told me this in high school (lo these many years ago—woot! class of '89), but one of them told our class that if we used more than three consecutive words from a source, then that would have to be a quote, or it was plagiarism. That has stuck with me since, and it's something I pass on when I'm helping younger relatives with their English homework. We also were required to actually use several different sources in the papers and cite them.

You probably already know this, but maybe some of your borderline students (the ones who perhaps don't realize they are plagiarizing or don't quite understand how to avoid it) could use this tactic: when they are writing a point on a notecard—please tell me they still use notecards —it's helpful to read it, then write in on the notecard from memory, writing it the way THEY would say it in real life. They still have to cite it, of course, but there's less danger of lifting entire passages inadvertently.

As for the kids who just found entire papers online—there's no excuse for that, and they should flat get a zero on the assignment, IMO.