Understanding and 
Fighting Plagiarism
What is plagiarism?  Here is a basic definition from the University of Indiana.

A student must not adopt or reproduce ideas, words, or statements of another person without appropriate acknowledgment. A student must give credit to the originality of others and acknowledge an indebtedness whenever he or she does any of the following:

a. Quotes another person's actual words, either oral or written;
b. Paraphrases another person's words, either oral or written;
c. Uses another person's idea, opinion, or theory; or
d. Borrows facts, statistics, or other illustrative material, unless the information is common knowledge.

(quoted from Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct, Part III, Student Misconduct, Academic Misconduct, By action of the University Faculty Council (April 24, 1990) and the Trustees of Indiana University (May 4, 1990). Amended by the University Faculty Council (April 13, 1993; May 12, 1993, and October 8, 1996) and the Trustees of Indiana University (December 4, 1992; June 5, 1993, and December 13, 1996).
Ethics 101: Cheating, Plagiarism, Site Evaluation, Copyright and Your Students  Updated Winter 2006 - Long list of resources in all of these areas.
Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers  Excellent essay by Robert Harris, author of the Plagiarism Handbook
Visit www.plagarism.org for more information
Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism by the Council of Writing Program Administrators.
 
So what do we do to fight plagiarism?  
  • Learn to recognize it 
  • Practice what we preach and model use of proper citation
  • Provide training to our students in appropriate documentation of resources
  • Alter assignments to focus on synthesis of information, not regurgitation of fact
  • Discuss plagiarism and its consequences with your students
Recognizing Plagiarism

What is plagiarism at Indiana University?   A ten question quiz with examples of student work

Educator's Guide to Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Plagiarism   Essay written by graduate students in Illinois. Introduces the terms and issues

How to recognize plagiarism   A student tutorial from Indiana University

Citation Form and Avoiding Plagiarism

www.Bibme.org  Fully automatic bibliography maker used to build a works cited page.

www.Easybib.com automatic bibliography and citation maker

Citation Machine  Allows you to enter the information, then provides a correct citation 

Purdue Online Writing Lab   Brief summary of MLA style for the research paper. Includes examples.

MLA Style Guide   The Davidson County Schools use the MLA Style Guide as the preferred format for research papers. This is the official MLA website.


Viper, the Antiplagiarism Scanner can be installed on PC computers, intended for the writer to check written work for unintended plagarism.