Preventing Plagiarism
- Be careful to give specific, non-generic instructions for papers. An assignment to "write about AIDS," for example, might tempt students to use one of the three AIDS papers at schoolsucks.com. A more specific assignment will make plagiarism much more difficult.
- Include specific instructions about bibliographies, such as requiring all students to include material from required readings among their sources.
- Require other specific components, such as theoretical, professional, or disciplinary vocabulary learned in course readings; interviews with experts; recent sources.
- Require a personal component to the paper. For example, have the students relate the paper topic to their personal experience or a campus issue.
- Watch your students write. Ask them to bring notes or drafts to class, have short conferences about the assignment, use peer groups to comment on drafts, ask for drafts to be submitted with the final paper.
- Require a letter of transmittal. On the day papers are due, ask students to write a letter to you reflecting on their process, the features of their papers they're proud of, the things they had trouble with, and the things they learned by writing the paper. Or right after they hand in the paper in class, have the students write a reflective paragraph about the research paper.
- Require the students to attach (or email) copies of the articles they used in the paper.