1. As an instructor how do you know when to bring up a
plagiarism concern? There are blatantly obvious examples like copying another
person’s work, but when it comes to citation mistakes where is the line between
accident and need for further action?
2. How would you go about teaching students how to navigate fair
use policy in a way that is organically integrated into classroom discussion? Do
you feel that it is your job as an instructor to remind your students of such
concerns?
Hi Sidney,
ReplyDeleteIn response to your first question, I would probably need to talk to the student one-on-one first off to try and get a feel for what actually happened as they were writing their paper. If I get the sense that it was a genuine mistake, both from context clues in the paper (whether or not they named the sources of their ideas and just forgot to cite specifically, whether they cited correctly in other areas) and from how they explain themselves, then I'm going to be more likely to warn them and perhaps deduct a letter grade. If its the case that a student straight up doesn't seem to care about citing properly, then I might be more inclined to pursue further action, especially if it is a repeat offense.
Hi Sidney,
ReplyDeleteI think that it is best to address plagiarism concerns at the beginning of the semester. If you start off the semester by explaining what constitutes as plagiarism, you give your students plenty of time to develop any questions that they might have before their first paper comes due. If you were to receive a paper in which a student cited incorrectly, I would suggest that you hold a conference with that student and explain how to cite properly and the importance of doing so. Then, the student better understands how to create citations, and they have some understanding as to why they need to cite properly.