Detecting Plagiarism

GEN105 Week 4 Checkpoint

CheckPoint: Detecting Plagiarism

University instructors can enforce consequences for plagiarism such as failing a student’s plagiarized assignment or failing a student from a class. In serious cases, instructors may choose to report instances of plagiarism to University administration. To detect plagiarism, University faculty use tools like the Plagiarism Checker, a service provided by the Center for Writing Excellence (CWE).

 Resources: University Library, Center for Writing Excellence (CWE) Plagiarism Checker

 Due Date: Day 5 [Individual] forum

 Retrieve the following article from the Gale PowerSearch Database found in the University Library: Lab Courses Go Virtual by Thomas F. Edgar. Copy and paste the text of the article into a Microsoft® Word document and save it to your desktop.

 Imagine you are an instructor who received the Edgar article in an assignment post from a student, and that this student has claimed to have written the article herself. In actuality, she plagiarized the article from the University Library.

 Submit the article to the Plagiarism checker from the Center for Writing Excellence. From your student course page:

1. Select the Library tab

2. Select the Submit Paper for Grammar and Plagiarism Review link.

3. Enter the Paper Title and use the Browse button to find the Word document on your desktop that contains the Edgar article.

4. Click the box marked Plagiarism Checker and wait for the status icon to change from a gold In Progress diamond to a green Ready square.

5. After waiting a moment, click your browser’s Refresh button to view results. Click the Ready square once it appears to view results.

 Post a 200- to 300-word response describing the results from the Plagiarism Checker. Still imagining yourself as a faculty member, include what you think your course of action would be toward the student who submitted the assignment. Describe to the student why plagiarism is dishonest, and what other types of behavior constitute academic dishonesty.

Upon submitted the paper “Lab Courses go Virtual”, the results came back as a full 100% plagiarized paper.  The student has obviously copy and pasted an original paper and is trying to pass it off as their own.  As the faculty member, since the offense was an obvious and total stolen paper, I would move to fail the student from the course.  I would probably ask the student to take a workshop on what constitutes plagiarism, possibly an academic honesty course also.  I would ask the school to require a passing grade in the both workshops and some time off from school before retaking the course.  If the student did all that and was remitted into the course, I would have the student be put on probation for a suitable time period.  If this was not a first offense, I would seriously consider not allowing the student back into my class at all. 

I would tell the student when you plagiarize; you are stealing someone else’s work.  Someone else stayed up late and worked on that paper, someone else did the research for that paper;   someone else put themselves into that paper.  When you steal someone else’s work, you do an injustice to that person.  You take away credibility of the paper.  Not only that, but you also do an injustice to yourself.  You learn nothing from the assignment.  There are many other ways of committing academic dishonesty, besides plagiarizing a paper.  Even quoting another’s words without giving credit to the original writer is dishonest and considered plagiarism.  Completing another’s assignment and letting them turn it in is another form of academic dishonesty.  Allowing someone to turn in an assignment that is not their own is also considered dishonest.  Even by not informing the school if you know someone that turned in an assignment that was not their own is considered dishonest.