Plagiarism: Keeping it out of the classroom

Academic Dishonesty

Dishonesty includes but is not limited to in-class cheating, out-of-class cheating, plagiarism, knowingly assisting another student in cheating or plagiarism, or knowingly furnish­ing false information to College staff, faculty, administrators or other officials. When a student is charged with plagiarism or cheating related to a class, and the instructor has reasonable proof or documentation or the student admits the violation, the instructor may select one or more of the following options:

a. Issue an oral or written notification and warn the student that further acts of this sort will result in additional disciplinary action.

b. Issue a NP or a failing grade (“F”) or “0” for the assignment in question.

c. Refer the student to the CSSO for disciplin­ary action.

See page 181 of the college catalog for more information.

The best way to educate students on how to avoid plagiarism is to schedule a library orientation!  Librarians can tailor orientations to address a specific assignment and we can dedicate time in the session to give students hands-on research practice.  Go to the Research Instruction Sessions page  to schedule a session today.  Other resources include:

• Center for Academic Integrity - http://www.academicintegrity.org/icai/home.php The International Center for Academic Integrity works to identify, affirm, and promote the values of academic integrity among students, faculty, teachers, and administrators. This website contains information about the Center and its activities, with a members area hosting resources and information about ICAI projects and a ListServ for exchanging ideas and information.

• Avoiding Plagiarism, Purdue Online Writing Lab - http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/1/ . Purdue University's Writing Lab has a section devoted to combating plagiarism which includes exercises for students to test their citing and paraphrasing knowledge.

• UC Davis, Student Judicial Affairs. Publications - http://sja.ucdavis.edu/publications.html. A collection of  student tip sheets on how to avoid plagiarism as well as advice to faculty on how to prevent all sorts of cheating. While it is specifically written with the UCD faculty in mind, there are several documents with advice all faculty can use.  

• Cheating 101 - http://ww2.coastal.edu/margaret/cheating_101.html. Librarians from Kimbel Library at Coastal Carolina University created this page from comments made to them by faculty and students regarding the availability and use of term paper sites.

• "You Quote it, You Note it!"  Interactive Plagiarism Tutorial from Acadia University - http://library.acadiau.ca/sites/default/files/library/tutorials/plagiarism/. A fun tutorial to assign your students. Students get to pick a character and work through the research and writing process.  This particular one is a favorite of Library 4 instructors. 

•  All about Plagiarism  - http://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/learningmodules/plagiarism/index.html . Short video on famous people/institutions that have plagiarized as well as a tutorial and other tools created by the University of Texas at Austin. 

The following articles can be obtained by searching Academic Search Premier at http://www.westvalley.edu/library/databases/index.html if a link  is not provided. 

• Alberts, Heike C., Helen D. Hazen, and Rebecca B. Theobald. "Classroom Incivilities: The Challenge Of Interactions Between College Students And Instructors In The US." Journal Of Geography In Higher Education 34.3 (2010): 439-462. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 May 2013.
• East, Julianne, and Lisa Donnelly. "Taking Responsibility For Academic Integrity: A Collaborative Teaching And Learning Design." Journal Of University Teaching And Learning Practice 9.3 (2012): ERIC. Web. 22 May 2013. <http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/EJ996016.pdf>.
• Gilmore, Barry. "Write From Wrong." Independent School 69.3 (2010): 106-113. Academic Search Premier. Web. 22 May 2013.
• Lea, Mary R., and Sylvia Jones. "Digital Literacies In Higher Education: Exploring Textual And Technological Practice." Studies In Higher Education 36.4 (2011): 377-393. ERIC. Web. 22 May 2013.
• Ryesky, Kenneth H. "Part Time Soldiers: Deploying Adjunct Faculty The War Against Student Plagiarism." Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal 1 (2007): 119-151. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 May 2013.

Here you will find tips and services on how to detect plagiarism. 

• Turnitin.com - http://turnitin.com/  The college subscribes to this service where your students "turn in" their assignments to check to see if they have been plagiarized. Students then get the opportunity to correct their mistakes.  Contact Max Gault for an account at max.gault@wvm.edu or 408-741-2627.

• West Valley College Library's Databases - http://www.westvalley.edu/library/databases/index.html . Databases such as Academic Search Premier offer full-text searching. Using quotations to search phrases, it is possible to identify if passages came from any of the full-text materials contained in the database.

• Google - http://www.google.com/ .  As the most comprehensive search engine on the internet, Google is a powerful tool for finding plagiarized passages. Search phrases by putting quotation marks around a passage. 

• Soovle - http://soovle.com/ . Soovle allows a phrase to be searched in a number of different search engines. Toggle between the icons of each of the search engines to automatically search the passage.