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Practical tips to address plagiarism within the culturally diverse classroom

Patricia Presti, MIStCampus Librarian, Markham Library

Language and Cultural Diversity In Teaching and LearningMonday, March 12, 2007

Today’s WorkshopLearning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this workshop, faculty will be able to:– Identify at least five best practices

provided in order to create plagiarism-reduced classrooms and assignments

– Apply methods into current practice and new situations

– Explain how non-native English students may find Western notions of plagiarism difficult and frustrating

– Recommend other examples of best practices in anti-plagiarism design to their peers

45 minutes maximum:

• 20 presentation• 15 new web tutorial review on plagiarism• 10 minutes to discuss tutorial

Understanding plagiarism: Confusion for foreign students• Plagiarism is considered bad in

Western societies, but no clear-cut definition is agreed upon– So many underlying factors (motive)– Subtypes – self-plagiarism (failure to cite

oneself), auto-plagiarism (resubmitting work numerous times), cryptomnesia (hidden memory)

– What is defined as common knowledge?

JISCPAS (2001) http://www.jiscpas.ac.uk/apppage.cgi?USERPAGE=6264

Cultural factors: Asian tradition• Use verbatim material to share the wisdom of

the great scholars – common recognition of sources makes attribution redundant

• Teacher is always correct – quoting verbatim is encouraged – teacher-centred

• Focus on memorization from textbooks and exams

• Communal thought vs. independent thought (egoistical, impolite, arrogant)

• Deviation from societal norms and traditional values vs. innovation

• Current clashes with the West as a whole in this area (i.e. WTO – software and Peking University – academic honesty code)

Cultural factors: Arabic cultures• Authority is to be respected, both in person and

on the page• Critical assessment rarely done• Expert’s knowledge becomes your knowledge

once you read and believe it• Ideas evolve and depend on knowledge from

authority• Plagiarism is totally foreign concept

Meleis, 1982http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-1546%28198207%2F08%2953%3A4%3C439%3AASIWUS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W

Cultural factors: African / Aboriginal tradition

• “Folklore is a means of transmitting information, particularly in those cultures with historically non-text-based traditions of sharing knowledge. Folklore knowledge is considered to be in the public domain, and it would not be necessary to acknowledge the source or author. This interpretation can lead students to copy material without due citation.”

Universities Scotland (2000)http://www.universities-scotland.ac.uk/raceequalitytoolkit/Race%20Equality%20Toolkit.pdf

Cultural factors: Communist or ex-Communist countries• Notions of communal property vs.

personal property longstanding• Intellectual property new and complex

idea• “You Americans do not own everything!

The internet says www – world wide web. We can use whatever we want!” – post-Soviet Latvian student

Russikoff, Fucalaro, Salkauskiene (2003), http://www.csupomona.edu/~jis/2003/RussikoffFucaloroSalkaus.pdf

Situational factors for international students

Inherent contractions in Western academic writing:• Develop a topic based on what has already been said

and written but write something new and original • Rely on opinions of experts and authorities on a topic but improve upon and/or disagree with those same opinions

• Give credit to researchers who have come before you but make your own significant contribution

• Improve your English or fit into a discourse community by building upon what you hear and read but use your own words and your own voice

Owl at Purdue and Purdue University (2006), http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/

Situational factors for international students

• Differences in writing competencies • Lack of understanding what paraphrasing is

and confidence/aptitude in doing it well• Lack of essay writing experience at all• Lack of citation knowledge• Peers add to confusion• Instructors add to confusion• Fear of failure – family pressures• Educational/governmental system failures in

countries of origin and issues of “alienation”

How to prevent – in the classroom

Talk about it: “Student-student and student-instructor discourse on the topic of plagiarism must be encouraged” (Evans and Youmans, 2000) – increased knowledge through social construction

• “Talk about plagiarism as an ethical/moral issue, an issue of trust between students, faculty and peers

• Talk about plagiarism as a legal issue of fair use and intellectual property

• Point out the penalties (they aren't the same as for using the wrong margins or forgetting an apostrophe)

• Talk about past cases, let them know that you have caught other students and tell them what happened”

LeMoyne College, http://www.lemoyne.edu/library/plagiarism/prevention_strategies.htm

How to prevent – in the classroom• Tell your students you are aware of paper mill sites

– http://www.cheathouse.com/– http://www.schoolsucks.com/– http://www.allpapers.com

• Go over a sample essay (past class or from paper mill site) and pick out its strengths and weaknesses

• Get a handwritten in-class writing sample at the beginning of the term as a baseline for student writing style, vocabulary and level

• Review Seneca’s academic policy on cheating and plagiarism and discuss how notations on transcripts affect students long-term

• Be a good example – cite frequently in lectures and in handouts

How to prevent – in the classroom

• Always use the Seneca tools on citation– In print: “Guide to Research &

Citation” - Official quick reference guides in Bookstore - $5

– On the web: http://library.senecacollege.ca/Research_Help/Citing_Sources/index.html

– MLA / APA/ Turabian / Chicago guides in library

– Ask Us Now

** Also, have a librarian visit your class to teach proper research and citation technique

How to prevent – in assignmentsTopics:

– Create assignments that are new annually

– Avoid general topics that are too common in your discipline and easily found

– Create assignments that are from a list of pre-selected topics

– Make the assignment local/regional in nature (not easy to find on the internet)

How to prevent – in assignmentsTopics:

– Have the assignment have a reflective or opinion component that can’t be copied

– Have the student do an annotated bibliography on the topic first before commencing project, and early in the term

– Do not allow for last-minute changes in topic; topics need to be registered with instructor in advance

– Have student do case studies of local companies / individuals

– Include very specific questions that need to be addressed within the assignment

How to prevent – in assignmentsProcess:

– Have students include a section on how the research was obtained, where they looked, the steps involved

– Include an oral presentation component so that information must be learned in depth – or have a one-on-one debriefing

– Make the project involve steps (rough drafts, timelines, outlines, bibliographies, etc.) as a check in along the way – don’t give unstructured time

– When possible, make an expert interview (cited of course) part of the assignment

– When assignments are handed in, have each student do a one paragraph summary of the assignment in class

How to prevent – in assignmentsProcess:

– Make sure all resources in the bibliography are available through the Seneca Libraries (print and online)

– Make sure all resources are within a certain time period

– Have students hand in photocopies of source material along with essay

– Have a question on the final exam discuss the project – what they learned, how it fit into the rest of the course

– Make them handwrite/print out the assignment

– Include a multimedia component – PowerPoint, presentation board, website – so that cutting and pasting is difficult