How to Avoid Plagiarism
                                 Jennifer Campbell, Richard Colby, and Heather Martin

The University of Denver has defined and outlined various degrees of plagiarism and its potential consequences (cf. DUs Faculty Senate approved Guidelines for Faculty on Student Plagiarism). As a teacher, there are many ways to address issues of plagiarism in the classroom including in-class writing, specific and unique assignments, and most importantly, discussions of writing including research and source attribution in professions or the discipline. What follows are examples and strategies that might be helpful in helping students avoid mistakes.

• Provide detailed and unique writing assignments every term.  Too general an assignment or a recycled assignment creates the potential for a student to accidentally or purposefully plagiarize.   Similarly, recycling the same assignment year in and year out may allow the opportunity to provide students with examples of past student work but it can also prevent them from thinking in unique ways about an assignment.
   
• Include community-specific or current events questions in writing prompts.  Assignments that ask class, community, or university specific questions ask students to actively create and synthesize connections with their own situations and a topic.  Similarly, design writing assignments that include discussion of current events. Students will have a harder time finding an essay on a pay site that deals with something that happened last week. Even in a history class or classical literature class, assignments can ask how recent events or publications compare to the topic at hand.
   
• Assign pre-writing.  Plagiarists often cite poor time management as an excuse for their behavior. A pre-writing assignment can compel the less organized or less motivated student to begin the process sooner, consider the assignment more thoroughly, seek help when needed, and, ultimately, complete the work on their own.  For instance, shortly after giving an assignment, have students write a paragraph in class telling you what they will write about and how they plan to start the assignment, and then ask them occasionally how their research/writing is progressing, possibly even asking for drafts that are still in the process of being completed.
   
• Assign in-class writing.  In-class writing, even a paragraph of observation or response to a reading, can offer insight into the writing abilities of students as well as their use of sources. These in-class writings can be read quickly and holistically to gain a sense of whether particular students need help citing and working with sources, their understanding of the discourse, and their ability to articulate ideas about topics in the discipline. Thus, throughout the term, an instructor may write a comment or two on these paragraphs that help the student better learn the expectations of writing in the discipline.
   
• Assign multiple drafts and allow revision.  When time and space allow, ask students to turn in their writing in multiple stages or drafts. You dont necessarily need to grade or comment on these attempts just a quick glance and a check mark will ensure that the writing isnt coming fully-formed from another source.
   
• Encourage students to thoughtfully reflect on their writing and writing process.  Students who know that they will be asked to discuss their work in a public forum (like the classroom) are less likely to submit work that is not their own.  For instance, have students complete a cover sheet for each writing assignment and then have them discuss it in class.  In the cover sheet, they can explain how they chose their topic, describe their writing process, explain what they like most about their paper, or what they would work on if they had more time. Not only will this reflective process help students think about what worked or didnt work, but it would be very difficult for students to complete this requirement if they didnt write the paper themselves.
   
• Schedule student-teacher conferences.  Meeting with students about a writing assignment will allow them to work out their ideas with you and can inspire confidence in their abilities to complete the task, as well as clarify your expectations for the end product. These meetings will also give you a sense of the direction that student papers are taking.
   
• Give specific source requirements.  For example, if a paper must include references from your course textbook and a journal article/web site, etc., students will be less likely to find a paper online that uses those sources. This approach can also encourage students to make use of a variety of resources types.
   
• Openly discuss definitions of plagiarism with students.  Before assigning writing projects, discuss definitions of plagiarism. Make it very clear what counts as plagiarism and what documentation conventions you expect students to follow. Students might not realize what is inappropriate, especially given the popularity of sampling and sharing in digital environments. Also, blanket statements about plagiarism are difficult because certain disciplines, cultures, and discourse communities may have different definitions of research, source attribution and citation. Rather than a simple example works cited or reference page, students might also benefit from discussions about why sources are given attribution, how and why past research is built upon and or critiqued, and what role the student has in entering this conversation.

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