It’s a real nightmare when you discover plagiarism in someone’s paper. Most students don’t know how to cite correctly, so they use online paper writing services. Unfortunately, in most cases, these services provide students with plagiarized work.
Of course, dealing with plagiarism is a complex task that is related not only to the educational sphere. However, teachers should prevent their students from cheating and learn how to minimize the risk of plagiarism.
In this article, we’ll present several approaches to the problem of plagiarism, including best practice techniques and simple but effective measures that teachers can take in order to detect plagiarism.
But, first of all, we’d like to emphasize that it’s not your fault if your students submit copied work. History has proven time and time again that one of the most effective tools for preventing student plagiarism is education. But it’s also important for teachers to pay attention to some other useful methods for dealing with plagiarism. So let’s dig in.
Make Use Of A Plagiarism Checker
In the majority of instances when text has been plagiarized, it could be readily recognized by a free online plagiarism checker software, which enables you to find instances of missing citations promptly.
Even if the software is already helping to prevent plagiarism, making students aware that you use the program to detect plagiarism is an excellent strategy to limit the number of instances of plagiarism that occurs.
Students may get an understanding of how to correctly cite sources by seeing the report generated by the program, which may also show instances in which the student relies excessively on quotes.
Craft More Efficient Projects
Creating tasks that are purposely difficult or impossible to plagiarize is another tactic used to combat the practice. Students’ research and writing may be “scaffolded” in several ways to achieve this goal.
Ask them to develop a proposal in which they detail their intended topic, a research question, possible sources, and a timeline for completing the report. An alternative method involves having students create an annotated bibliography before writing a rough copy, which will ultimately lead to the finished paper. Scaffolding helps students by providing them with constructive criticism of their work, increasing their agency in the learning process, and relieving the stress that might lead to cheating.
Creative assignments that are tailored to the needs of the current situation are also more difficult to outsource or plagiarise. It’s possible that you’ll want your students to draw parallels between what they’re learning in class and external factors like the news, a recent occurrence, or their own life.
The Importance Of Teaching About Intellectual Property
Make sure you introduce the topic of intellectual property early in the semester and provide students with a clear definition of plagiarism and a plagiarism policy. Students may learn to value the work of others if teachers instill a healthy fear of copying without permission.
Give pupils real-world instances of plagiarism to help them grasp the idea. Before turning in a final work, it’s a good idea to offer students a chance to practice referencing, quoting, or paraphrasing with comments.
Make sure your students know about the university resources available to them, such as the writing center and the reference librarians. Plagiarism tests and tutorials are two examples of the various internet tools that might help you avoid being accused of the offense.
Assist Students In Achieving Their Goals
An important step in preventing plagiarism is encouraging kids to believe in their abilities. If they feel confident in their ability to do the work themselves, students are considerably less inclined to plagiarise. Some of the most effective ways to give students agency are to use scaffolding in assignments (as mentioned previously), to use rubrics to make expectations clear, and to encourage students to adopt a development attitude.
Develop A Classroom Environment That Is Accepting Of All Students
Academic dishonesty has been shown to have a strong correlation with the classroom climate. When students like and trust their professors, academic dishonesty is reduced. They learn best in classes where they have a personal connection with the instructor and where they believe the instructor has a genuine interest in their development as students. Students are less likely to plagiarise if they do not perceive themselves to be “anonymous” in the classroom.
Final Words
Plagiarism is a menace to our society, and in this digital age, it can be hard to catch. But, with the tips we’ve outlined above, you should be able to do just that. Teaching your students how to cite correctly is an important first step toward eliminating plagiarism.
And if you implement some of these other tips as well, like utilizing plagiarism tools or developing a comfortable environment in your classroom, you may catch instances of plagiarism easier than ever before.