Plagiarism and its prevention

Paul LamResearch Assistant Professor

Centre for Learning Enhancement And Research (CLEAR), CUHK

• “The Chinese University of Hong Kong … adopts a policy of zero tolerance on cheating and plagiarism. Any related offence will lead to disciplinary action including termination of studies at the University.”

http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/index.htm

CUHK standpoint

• Honesty in Academic Work: A Guide for Students and Teachers

• http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/index.htm

What is plagiarism?

• “Using any words or ideas without giving credit to the source” (Harris, 2001: p. 26)

• Plagiarism (剽竊 *) ≠ Copying (抄襲 )

* 大英百科全書線上繁體中文版 (http://tw.britannica.com/)

“Plagiarism? But my roommate gave me permission to use his paper and said I didn’t have to cite him.” (Harris, 2001; p. 27)

• Copying: quality issue, marked down in grades

• Plagiarism: intellectual dishonesty, disciplinary actions

• “The most obvious and blatant type of plagiarism is copying whole articles, sections, paragraphs or whole sentences from other publications without acknowledgement. This is clearly unacceptable.

• However, even the use of a few words or paraphrasing (without actually copying any words at all) may constitute plagiarism if the source is not acknowledged.” !!!!

http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p01.htm

Why people plagiarize?

• Intentional

• Unintentional

• “Students sometimes unintentionally plagiarize because they are not aware of the very stringent rules that apply.”

http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p01.htm

Plagiarism is easily spotted

• Language proficiency

• Tone changes

• Familiar ideas

• Online services

http://www.turnitin.com/static/plagiarism.html

turnitin

• The CU Way: CUPIDE http://cupide.cse.cuhk.edu.hk/example/

When to reference?

• Don’t have to Reference• common knowledge (in your own words)• your ideas, thoughts etc.

• Have to Reference• common knowledge (in other’s words)• ideas taken from other • when in doubt (better safe than sorry)

Harris, 2001; p. 158

How to reference

• Direct (Quote and cite it)

• Indirect (Cite it)

• Paraphrase

• Summary

Examples: Direct quote (APA style)

• Nevertheless, some science educators advocate that generic skills should be “embedded into a student’s mainstream academic activity rather than treated as a generic add-on” and are of the view that “what you assess is what you get” (Challis, Houston, and Stirling, 2006, p.7 and p.14).

Interaction comes in many different forms. Swan (2003)

explains interaction as the

reciprocal events involving at least two actors and/or objects and at least two actions in which the actors, objects, and events mutually influence each other (p. 4).

She sees that eLearning is able to facilitate at least three main kinds of learning-enhancing interaction: interaction with content, with instructors, and with peers.

Examples: Indirect quote (APA style)

• There is, for example, increased discussion of, and stated commitment to, graduate capabilities such as critical thinking, problem solving, self-managed learning, and interpersonal and communicative skills (Sharma, 2000).

• Biggs(1996, 2003) put forth the idea of constructive alignment which focuses on the synergistic relationship that should exist between clearly stated learning objectives for a course and the assessment.

References

• Biggs, J. (1996). Enhancing teaching through constructive alignment. Higher Education 32(3), 347–365.

• Biggs, J. (2003). Teaching for quality learning at university (2nd ed.). Buckingham, UK: SRHE & Open University Press.

• Learn citation• What style to use?

http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p03_4.htm

• APA style: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/p02b.htm http://www.apastyle.org/elecsource.html

Common problems

• Wrong decisions about to cite or not

• Incomplete quotes

• Lacking page numbers

• Thought it is paraphrased but actually not

• Failure to state clearly all ideas from the same source

Case 1

Penguin (1991) said that social members experience various modes of control. Human beings often live or work in compact groups. They are groups in which people are personally known and to which they are tied by feeling of personal loyalty (the kind that sociologists call primary groups). A very potent and simultaneously very subtle mechanisms of control are constantly affecting behaviours. They are persuasion, ridicule, gossip and opprobrium.

Case 2

• Social members experience various modes of control exerted over them. “Where human beings live or work in compact groups, in which they are personally known and to which they are tied by feeling of personal loyalty (the kind that sociologists call primary groups), very potent and simultaneously very subtle mechanisms of control are constantly brought to bear upon the actual or potential deviant.” (Penguin, 1991. p. 87) These are the mechanisms of persuasion, ridicule, gossip and opprobrium.

Tips and resources

• Give yourself more time to write

• Good note-taking

• Software to help: • RefWorks: http://www.refworks.com/ • EndNote: http://www.endnote.com/eninfo.asp

• Good paraphrasing and summarizing skills • http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0070364400/stude

nt_view0/summarizing_and_paraphrasing.html#

• http://www.landmarkoutreach.org/documents/SeditaSummarizing.pdf#search=%22paraphrasing%20skills%20%22

Reference

• Harris, R. A. (2001). The plagiarism handbook: strategies for preventing, detecting, and dealing with plagiarism. Los Angeles. CA: Pyrczak Publishing.

Thank You

paul.lam@cuhk.edu.hk