The following suggestions are designed to help writing instructors teach the appropriate use of source materials more efficiently by integrating plagiarism prevention into the everyday learning environment of the composition classroom. Of course, no set of pedagogical guidelines can claim to prevent the most egregious cases of academic cheating. These suggestions are offered as a first step toward making a daunting and often thankless task more productive and rewarding both to the instructor and to the student in the freshman composition class.
1. COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY
Discuss the issue of plagiarism, in all its complexity, with your students. Make sure they understand what the regulations are, why they exist, and what the consequences of plagiarism could be. Encourage your students to think about what is and is not an academically acceptable use of sources.If your institution offers online access to its code of student conduct, consider having your students read the section on academic integrity for class discussion. (A good example of such an online code is the University of Illinois’ Code of Policies and Regulations Applying to All Students, Rule 33 [http://www.uiuc.edu/admin_manual/code/rule_33.html].)
Look into to the "gray areas" of plagiarism and discuss them frankly with your students. For example, share with them the story of Tanya, discussed by Glynda Hull and Mike Rose in "Rethinking Remediation." (For a quick summary, see the definition of patchwriting provided by Doug Brent of the University of Calgary [http://www .acs.ucalgary. Ca/~dabrent/ webliteracies/ patchwri.htm], which briefly discusses the Hull & Rose article.) Ask your students to decide if patchwriting would be considered plagiarism under your institution’s code of conduct. Is this fair? How should the university deal with students like Tanya?
If you want to discuss the immorality of cheating, be sure that in the process you do not "taint" the subject of unintentional plagiarism. Students need to learn the conventions of academic writing, and one of the most important things for them to understand is the proper use of sources within the genre. No one is born knowing when it is safe to use someone else's works or thoughts in an
academic setting and when it is not. Language, after all, is learned by imitation. If students are unsure whether their work is "too close" to their sources, they need to be comfortable asking their instructors, tutors, and peers for feedback without feeling that they are revealing a shameful secret.
2. ENCOURAGE INDEPENDENT THINKING
Insist that students avoid generalized, hackneyed research topics such as the Kennedy assassination or abortion, subjects that have been argued to death on the talk shows. Even very well-intentioned students will find it difficult not to simply borrow other people's ideas rather than come up with their own. As a result, even if you don't get instances of bona fide plagiarism, you'll get cut-and-paste, or at best highly unoriginal thinking.
Teach rhetorical strategies of invention that will help students create and develop their own ideas, then use sources to support, not replace, independent thought. Otherwise, students will rely on other people's invention, and that leads to plagiarism. Some excellent approaches to teaching invention (or planning) are provided by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab. [http://owl.english.purdue.edu/Files/65.htm]
3. RESPOND APPROPRIATELY TO STUDENT WORK
Don't let your expectations exceed your students' abilities. Expect students to write like students. Don't grade their papers as if you were copyediting them for publication. If students think that amateur writing is not acceptable, many of them will appropriate professional writing--just to give the instructor what she wants.
Rather than criticizing the deficiencies in student writing, consider the suggestion of veteran writing teacher Peter Elbow: "What we must learn to do," he writes, "is to read closely and carefully enough to show the student little bits of proto -organization or sort of clarity in what they’ve already written. We don’t have to pretend the writing is wonderful...Notice how much more helpful it is if we can say, ‘Do more of what you’ve done here,’ than if we say,‘Do something different from anything you’ve done in the whole paper’" (202-03).
Focus on the larger rhetorical issues in your students' work. Encourage and respond to depth and originality of ideas, quality of argumentative strategy, disposition of evidence, and use of source materials to support the student's ideas (rather than replace them).
4. INTEGRATE PLAGIARISM PREVENTION INTO RESEARCH
INSTRUCTION
Teach the research process meticulously. Break it down into its smallest components and show your students how it works step by step. Teach specific critical reading and note-taking techniques designed to prevent unintentional plagiarism. Experienced composition instructor Bethany Cooper offers several excellent suggestions for critical reading strategies at the University of Illinois Academic Writing Program website. [http: //www. english.uiuc. Edu/awpteach/ critical_ reading_ skills.htm]Show your students models of good and bad research techniques, good and bad use of summary, paraphrase, and quotation, etc. Online writing labs, such as the excellent site at Purdue [http://owl.english.purdue.edu/Files/31.html] , can provide exercises that will help your students work through the intricacies of academic source-use conventions.
5. SUPERVISE SOURCE WORK
Supervise as much of your students' work with source materials as possible. Use class time and/or tutorial time to watch your students use their sources and coach them through the process.
Have your students bring sources to class and/or tutorial and turn in photocopies of their sources with drafts and final papers. If this seems like too much work, your students are probably using too many sources and not making efficient notes.
6. ENCOURAGE COLLABORATION
Have students work together to develop a collective understanding of the source-use standards of academic writing. Consider having your students come up with their own set of guidelines based on a comparison of academic and popular materials for in-class reference.
Use peer response sessions to have students question one another's use of sources and give suggestions for better approaches when trouble arises.
Give students projects that require them to monitor one another's use of sources and foster one another's originality.
7. REACT IMMEDIATELY TO "SUSPICIOUS" WRITING
If your students are used to discussing the potential for accidental misuse of source materials in a practical, nonjudgmental way, you should find it much easier to respond immediately when you see notes or drafts that appear to be "someone else’s" writing. Simply ask the student to show you what sources she was using at this juncture. If she understands that your aim is to help her learn to avoid making embarrassing mistakes, she will be less reluctant to make herself vulnerable in this way. It is much more difficult to address these problems with a finished product than it is with a work in progress. In the draft stage, you are perceived as helping; in the grading stage, you are perceived as criticizing or even punishing.
Even if you have reason to suspect a student of intentionally cheating, it is far easier to ask for, and receive, source materials or disks for uploading to services such as www.plagiarism.org if you make such requests frequently enough for pedagogical purposes that the suspected plagiarist will not feel singled out.