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Students that copy the work of others are screaming:
I want Freedom!*
*The ideas, thoughts, and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflecte those of the OAS or of its member states. The opinions expressed are the sole responsibility of the authors.
- In your personal experience as a grade school pupil and later as a college student, did you feel that copying or plagiarism was an issue at your school? If so, which of the reasons for copying listed in the above article best describe why you or one of your classmates copied?
- Yes this is an issue. Some of the causes are a lack of connection with the teacher or professor, good grades with less effort, good grades by pressure of the parents or the student himself.
- As a lecturer at a University, I do see plagiarism as an issue at my institution. Students copy for various reasons: unable to understand written material, unable to edit matrerial, do not know procedures for referencing are among the main reasons.
- As a grad student using other people's articles and work is something that is talked about. The University favours the policy of not copying any books, but in reality when learning about new ideas and theories, you can not escape the fact that you have to use whatever information that is out there. Just make sure to acknowledge that they are the owners.
- Plagiarism, in my opinion, is more of a problem in content-heavy subjects such as biology and other sciences in which one is required to explain lengthy procedure.
- From a school teacher or university professor’s standpoint, what kind of strategy or focus in school work would function best to eliminate this tendency or need for copying?
- I think by giving a same topic between all the students in the class hour with the obligatory participation of all of them in the discussion. The focus of a school in giving homework or taking exams is not to expand the parameters of knowing but of approximation. I think the school should give students new approaches to knowledge based on things most children like, or want. For example, young people in the university prefer to escape from reality in different ways, because they don’t like what they are studying.
- Stating rules at the beginning of the course, teaching students how to reference materials correctly, and penalties for plagiarism.
- The strategy that I would use is that in this information age, you must have access, just make sure that you acknowledge who was the author of the theory or article that you are using while formulating your opinion. It's impossible to totally eradicate the use of other people's work.
- The school heavily penalizes all who are found guilty of plagiarism by the teacher. The work is failed and the student is placed on disciplinary watch for one week.
- In today’s schools, searching the Internet is a frequently practiced activity; the result is that the “cut-and-paste” practice is being resorted to as a strategy for completing work assignments, often leading to plagiarism without adequately citing the authors. How can we take advantage of this trend of Internet usage while, at the same time, direct students towards more original, creative and productive work?
- If I was a teacher I would give my students a topic or paragraph of a certain internet page (giving them the internet address) about a specific topic and they would paste it in a report, expecting different kind of analyses....the most original (that means even use of fantasy) would gain the best score, that incentivizes the inner creativity instead of the act of copying. Alternatively, I would give them an unfinished story to be continued by them....that’s the beginning of dreams and a lot of investigation in pure sciences....
- Have students do practice exercises in class of reading internet articles, sifting internet articles for necessary information and using the information for their assignments with correct reference style.
- Indeed you must stimulate them to be critical while using the authors and of course correctly citing. Yet, nowadays there is software that is used to check and make sure that papers and theses are checked to see if they are not products of plagiarism.
- Work should be available for reading purposes; i.e- placed online in an image form, to make it harder for it to be plagiarized. In language and skill-based subjects, one's own style should be sought after diligently in order to allow a student to fully express his/herself. At the beginning of each semester, ONE assignment should be given, on any subject the student likes. Then, it should be corrected according to standard grammar. However, one's own style should not be changed. At the same time, a "learning styles" test should be given; either Kolb's or another. This is to efficiently cater to a student's learning needs both in self-study and schoolwork. This would greatly assist students in completing work while absorbing information.