Have
a happy reading and decide what is best for you!
Before
you read the comments and testimonials of the concerned
parties, it is recommended that you read the following article
which has been written by Gary M. Galles who is a professor
of economics at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California.
The writer here comes up with strategies to stop plagiarism
and has succeeded in convincing many of his readers. More
articles would be posted in this section very soon:
Strategies
to Stop Plagiarism
By
Gary M. Galles
Anyone
who "prepares, sells, offers or advertises for sale
or delivers" academic material for cheating in Texas
is committing a misdemeanor. This plagiarism prosecution
is a response to increased cheating incentives from beefed
up school writing requirements, combined with dramatically
eased access to others' academic work via the Internet (at
websites of both paper mills that sell papers and free websites
such as CheatHouse.com or Schoolsucks.com).
Unfortunately,
the new law cannot eliminate such forms of cheating, since
it only makes them misdemeanors, and prosecution will be
difficult (for example, many websites protect themselves
by having users check a box to state that they will not
represent the work as their own, even though that does not
keep users from doing exactly that). Further, the law is
subject to jurisdictional and First Amendment challenges.
Therefore,
if efforts to upgrade student writing skills rather than
cheating skills are to be as effective as possible, more
is needed than the new law. In particular, what is most
needed are writing assignments designed to minimize the
ability of students to substitute others' work for their
own.
Since
writing is, in essence, formalized thinking, the educational
purpose of writing assignments is to learn the process of
organizing and disciplining one's thoughts about a topic.
Therefore, the most academically productive approach to
such assignments is one where the teacher is intensively
involved throughout the development of the paper, rather
than just being the passive evaluator of the finished product.
Not only would students learn more from policies such as
the serial submission of the topic, references, an outline,
and a rough draft prior to the final draft, with each stage
subject to comments and suggested changes by the teacher,
they would also effectively eliminate the possibility of
buying or otherwise using someone else's work.
Unfortunately
for both the educational progress of students and the possibilities
for plagiarism, class sizes and time constraints often preclude
the intense teacher involvement that would be required to
implement such an approach. Fortunately there are several
less "costly" paper assignment strategies available
that could go a long way toward the elimination of purchased
papers and other forms of plagiarism if we would but use
them. These do not hinder the learning we wish to take place
or impose heavy time costs on teachers, but they would reduce
the ability of students to claim credit for others' work
on writing assignments.
An
annotated bibliography, with synopses of all references,
could be required rather than just the usual listing. Alternatively,
all references could be required to be photocopied from
the original with the relevant sections highlighted, to
be turned in with the paper. Such rules would make the papers
virtually unusable, since finding the cited sources would
be very difficult unless the student actually did the research.
In the same vein, an abstract of each paper could be required,
as for a professional article. This would also raise the
cost of using a paper the student did not write.
Graded
oral presentations of papers, with students required to
answer questions and defend their arguments, would force
students to learn their material better, plus give them
valuable experience speaking in front of others, as well
as dramatically reducing the grade-point return of using
someone else's work. Similarly, papers could be assigned
on opposing views of a topic, with the writers debating
the subject before the class, giving similar results.
Assignments
could require a description of the research process, particularly
how the utilized sources were found, which would make it
extremely difficult to "defend" the use of another's
paper. In addition, some part of each paper could be required
to involve a personally conducted interview, survey, or
experiment, which would preclude the use of a "catalog"
paper.
Papers
shorter than six pages (the minimum length available from
most paper mills) can be assigned, which also trains students
to be concise rather than training them to pad papers to
reach a minimum length requirement. Topics that are idiosyncratic
to a class or are restricted to current events, and are
therefore unlikely to be available "over the counter,"
can also be assigned. These all would be even more effective
if certain particular references were required by the teacher,
which would make previously written papers unacceptable
for to the assignment.
Papers
could require a certain number of current references. All
references could be restricted to holdings in the school
library system, similarly restricting the use of prior papers.
In addition, first person voice or first person applications
could be required, since such papers would be unavailable
from others. And more in-class writing can also be used.
While
many of these strategies obviously would be unworkable in
a particular class, some would be appropriate in any class.
If we are to treat plagiarism as seriously as it deserves
to be treated, adopting some of them would be a reasonable,
low-cost first step toward the elimination of purchased
papers and other forms of unethical academic behavior on
our campuses. In fact, the new anti-plagiarism law may make
a serious dent in such behavior only if such strategies
also are adopted in the schools.
