At the same time the plagiarism thread was being developed on LM_NET, a
similar thread was being followed on the IB Proteus listserv by IB teachers
and librarians. The focus of that discussion was the impact of technology
on plagiarism. Plagiarism has become a big concern for International
Baccalaureate Diploma Programme educators especially in the areas of the TOK
prescribed essay, the extended essay written by all diploma candidates, and
of course, the essays written for English. I have compiled a hit of some of
the most useful suggestions and practices. I was particularly impressed by
the first one, both for its practical and realistic advice and for the
acknowledgement of a "true goddess of a librarian"!
----
The way we deal with the nasty "p" word in our English department is via the
process. We give just as much weight (point - wise) to the research process
as we do the final product. Once I have seen the written topic, outline,
notecards and bibliography cards, copied source pages from books, the
Internet, magazines, et cetera...it would be easier for them to write the
paper than steal it. While this system is not foolproof, it is highly
effective in most cases. We have a true goddess of a librarian who offers
to help us search the sites for papers we think are plagiarized also. The
other thing we have in our favor as English teachers, is that we read so
much of their writing that we know our kids' voices quite well before we
have them do research papers.
----
There is an excellent resource available called www.turnitin.com This
service can catch most plagiarism that comes from the net.
The deeper problem of making students learn research skills and learn how to
use and cite sources appropriately is more difficult to solve, but I think
that enforcement is a good first step.
----
I've been reading testimonials listed on turnitin.com. Of the first five
that I looked at, two contained mention of IB plagiarism. I guess I'm not
the only guy with a concern.
----
Have you tried using Google to trap the plagiarists? If the student has
taken text from a site which is not protected by a password then searching
for a particular sentence will find the site from which it came. If you put
the words between quotes then it will search for the exact text. eg "exact
theory of logical deduction and inference" did not sound like this
particular student's voice and so we googled him and got a hit within a
second.
----
I heard a good idea recently. One way to make plagiarism much harder is to
ask your students (after having chosen their title, and some preliminary
reading and thought) to write a rough first draft of the essay in a lesson
under exam like conditions (you can allow their notes in). This is collected
and is used as a reference point for their essay. They would have to justify
junking it and starting over.
When combined with some of the other good suggestions I have heard
(requiring plans, annotated bibliographies etc, checking the student's
voice), this can make plagiarism more work than writing one's own essay.
--
Mary Ellen Scribner, Librarian K-12 & TOK Teacher
Beijing BISS International School FAX: (8610) 6443 3156
No. 17, Area 4, An Zhen Xi Li, Chaoyang District Phone: (8610) 6443 3151
Beijing 100029, P. R. China scribner@netchina.com.cn
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