I would like to welcome you to this humble page where I share some of my thoughts and experience on academic integrity as a whole, and most specifically on plagiarism. Feel free to share your point of view in the comment section and don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions relating to the concept of plagiarism from a teaching or a learning point of view. As you know, plagiarism is such a taboo subject as most educational institutions would rather turn a blind eye on its existence than confront it...and for obvious reasons. When asked about it, most college student admit that they have at one point or another in their educational experience been tempted to plagiarize. Some of them would even admit to plagiarizing. First, let's make a clear distinction between two forms of plagiarism: intentional plagiarism and inadvertent plagiarism. In my experience as an educator, most plagiarism infractions are the result of accidental plagiarism. This is due mainly to lack of academic and research skills, as most students have simply never been taught how to properly cite sources they have used in their work. In some instances, the student may be familiar with the citation rules, but he/she fails to apply those rules because of lack of organizations. I have personally consulted with students who plagiarized in their work because they were unable to locate and track the sources they used. Why? because they forgot to take notes of those sources during the research process. I have also dealt with students who were under the impression that submitting the same assignment for multiple courses was acceptable. Their argument was that it was their own work and they had the right to use in any way they wished. Let's not forget about the cultural factor, which is often ignored in this conversation. International students who completed their high school education in non-western cultures struggle immensely with the idea of intellectual property. For many, it's such a foreign concept since they were never taught not to plagiarize. In other words, the idea of intellectual property is not a common topic of discussion in many countries, which makes quite challenging for students who come from those countries to understand the gravity of violating the laws that protect intellectual property. The Goal behind this site is to address the issue of plagiarism at the college level, especially among freshmen students and identify potential strategies to educate students on how to engage with the ideas of others. Among the topics I will cover are: 1- An overview of plagiarism in academia 2- Why college students plagiarize 3- An exploration of universities' policies in regards to plagiarism 4- Tools to avoid plagiarism 5- Various approaches to educating students about intellectual property Addressing Plagiarism There are various schools of thought when it comes to dealing with plagiarism. Some educational institutions opt for investing in software solutions to detect plagiarism in students' writing, while others invest more in educating students about what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it. Obviously, a logical and more sustainable approach is a combination of both. A blind enforcement of the school's academic integrity policies is not a practical solution as it only encourages students to find better ways to cheat. On the other hand, it would be naive to trust that all students, once, educated about the principles of intellectual property, will necessarily abide by those principles. A more balanced approach is to invest in educating students about how to respect and acknowledge the ideas of others, and at the same time setup mechanisms to identify cheaters. The Technology First, let's acknowledge that digital technology has made it so easy for students to cheat. The web is an infinite source of valuable information, and with a simple click of the mouse ideas can be transferred from a web page into a student paper. In fact, copying and pasting verbatim from Internet sources is the number one form of academic plagiarism. Yet, when used effectively, technology can also be part of the solution. Many universities and colleges are now offering interactive e-learning lessons and modules to help students explore the concept of academic integrity in a way that is fun and interesting. At the same time, these schools are investing in plagiarism detection software to use primarily as a deterrent, but also as a corroboration tool when plagiarism takes place. It is critical, however, to be on the alert when signing up with a service that offers anti-plagiarism software, which is also referred to as a plagiarism checker. The vast majority of these services are ineffective and not to be trusted. In fact only a handful are U.S based, while the rest are what I would consider spam sites that would actually steal whatever text you submit and resell it to illegitimate paper-mill sites. So, do your homework first and stick with American companies such as Turnint in or Academicplagiarism. A fake plagiarism checker site is easy to spot. Simply click on their contact page and see if an actual physical address of the company and a phone number exist. Almost 99% of those websites only offer a contact form or an email address. That's what we call a red flag. The chart below highlights the results of data gathered from 31 universities in the U.S. The results clearly suggest that many students do cheat on a regular basis and that overall there is a steady increase in the number of recorded infractions nationwide. A great deal of research has been done in an attempt to demystify the root causes behind plagiarism, but unfortunately, little effort is being devoted to educating students about what plagiarism is and what it means to be part of an academic community that respects intellectual property. Most institutions are in denial about this problem and like to think that each and every students who walks into their classrooms has been taught how to properly work with sources and is familiar with most citation styles. The reality, however, is different as the vast majority of freshmen students know very little about all these rules. Sadly, the burden of helping these students falls on the shoulders of their writing instructors in their freshman English courses. Image source: http://stopstealingnow.wikispaces.com Finding plagiarism With the advent of the Internet, students have access to unlimited information in the form of websites, blogs, digital libraries, and much more. For the majority of learners, this is a good thing as part of learning involves accessing others' ideas, understanding and synthesizing those ideas in order to come up with fresh and unique ideas. Unfortunately, there are some who are easily tempted by the availability of good information and don't hesitate to use it and presenting it as their own. This happens at all levels really and is not limited to college and high school students. The web is full with daily stories of artists, academicians, and politicians who are caught plagiarizing from others. The good news is that there are solutions to detect plagiarism. A simple solution is to use a search engine like Google and run a check on a few sentences and phrases. Google is incredibly effective in finding matches on the web. While this may be a simple approach, it is not really a practical when checking long papers and dissertations. A more effective solution in cases like these is to use a professional service for detecting plagiarism. A service like Academicplagiarism allows you to upload large documents for a detailed analysis of the text. The plagiarism software uses complex algorithms to detect the slightest alterations of content in case a author attempted to cheat the system by using synonyms. After uploading a document, the software will generate a similarity report which includes the percentage of plagiarized content along with the suspected sources of plagiarism. All you need to do as a user is to click on the sources to verify that indeed the text is not original. Having access to the sources is also important since it can be used as evidence to support a cheating allegation. A word of warning. There are some many sites on the web that claim to check for plagiarism. The overwhelming majority of these sites are created by programmers who have absolutely not connection to education or academia. The software is often buggy and cannot be trusted. What's even worse is that some of these services would actually steal the content you upload and sell it to paper mills. So, do your homework and use a service that is 1- Based in the U.S., 2- Is a legitimate company with a phone number and a physical address and 3- last but not least, you get what you pay for, so avoid free stuff. Don't be tricked by a pretty and elaborate website and do your homework before committing. When in doubt, opt for a reputable plagiarism software such as Academicplagiarism or Turnitin.
One of the most effective ways to avoid plagiarism is to learn the basics of paraphrasing and summarizing. These are essential skills that take time to master, but are key to properly integrating the ideas of others into your writing. The video below is an excellent tutorial that goes over these two strategies. Art appropriation In this video the narrative, Joanna Boudreaux is talking about appropriation in art which means copying someone else's work in order to start creation of a new piece. According to Boudreaux, appropriation is a postmodern art movement where the artist merges images or concepts into their work but this is not considered as plagiarizing, as the intention of the artist is not to hide the original. Instead, she/he wants you to understand the image appropriated such as a work of appropriated Mona Lisa by Paul Giovanopoulous. The first example given in the narrative is from the artist Marcel Duchamp who appropriated Leonardo da Vinci s Mona Lisa in 1919, by adding a mustache, beard to and a title, l.h.o.o.q. which can be translated as “she's got a fire down below” from french. But he is also famous for another scandalous work: a piece called The Fountain which is a porcelain urinal, with the word “r.mutt" written on it, the fountain was submitted and rejected by the society of independent artists in 1917 and it was considered as the most influential work of 20th century. The video follows with work of Pablo Picasso, which is an appropriation of Diego Velasquez's, Las Meninas and Picasso made the series of 56 paintings in 1957 from the original and named it the same. Also Picasso had his painting called the young ladies of Avignon, appropriated in 1985 by Robert Colesescotts and called it the sound ladies of Alabama. Then Picasso is quoted saying:"good artists borrow. Great artists steal. “ Against the history of appropriation, there have been issues of copyright, Andy Warhol who is a leading pop art artist is known with his marilyn monroe one from 1967. Despite the fact that Andy Warhol experienced lots of accusation from photographers when his reinvention of Paula Caulfields flowers photo was shown in the gallery in 1964, Caulfield threatened legal action, the situation was solved by Andy Warhol paying to Caulfield and gifted 2 of his paintings. Besides the series of Campbell soup cans of Andy Warhol from 1962 never had a legal difficulty, because using the photographs and paintings was considered as two different pieces. He captured 32 different soup cans, in an effort that asks the question: "why can't a tin can of food found in millions of American homes be considered a work of art?" The appropriation artists continues to reinvent and to show us different new perspectives. Appropriation, therefore, is a controversial issue in the art world. While some may see it as a creative form, others consider it as theft of intellectual property or visual plagiarism. What makes this issue even more complex is the fact that laws governing this type of art are themselves vague and not clear, which leaves room for multiple interpretations.
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