One of the most remarkable things about teaching today is students' ignorance of what constitutes plagiarism. I presume that virtually every high school in the U.S. and around the world simply fails to make this issue abundantly clear. Why it should even need to be mentioned or explained at the college level is a mystery to me. (If you have an explanation, feel free to contact me.)
I don't think I have had an online class where there were not instances of plagiarism.
That said, there ARE SOME REMINDERS THAT ARE IMPORTANT FOR ONLINE CLASSES. The for-profits, especially at the graduate level, make sure that they are at pains to enforce the following rule:
1. ALL quotations from the textbook must be identified as quotations with accurate and complete use of quotation marks and a proper citation.?Quoting from the textbook without using quotation marks is plagiarism. This applies to the discussion board, papers, and any other comments -- anything that is written and presented to the class.
Example:
WRONG (plagiarism in a discussion board post):
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?I think anyone who is not pure himself to attain the realm of
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?purity would be a breach of universal justice.?
RIGHT (proper credit):
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?Plato made a good point when he said, "For one who is not
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?pure himself to attain the realm of purity would no doubt
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?be a breach of universal justice" (Emerick and Birch 211).
Although some students (and even some Instructors) may think that the WRONG example cited is an innocent appropriation of the text, this is not the case. It is plagiarism because it meets the definition: "taking anther person's words or ideas as your own" (from Quick Study "Keys to High School Success," page 2, available from quickstudy.com, currently a free download). The post melds words from a quotation from Plato with the poster's own words, creating ambiguity about the authorship of the idea and the words used to express the idea.
The plagiarized post also violates "the 3-word rule" instituted by some colleges.
2. A good rule of thumb for avoiding plagiarism is that whenever you use three or more words in a row from a source it is always best to put the words in quotation marks and show the reader your source through proper citation.Obviously, it would be a good idea to go over all of the above with a class before grading any posts or papers. Personally, I am not in favor of much flexibility in plagiarism rules. "Forgetting" to use quotation marks is not an excuse when an entire paragraph has obviously been lifted from the text book or another source, or even when a potent phrase is "innocently" lifted from the textbook to make the post more academic in tone. Although I confess to usually letting the first "forgetting" offense go, with a warning and having the student do the post over, I am not really in favor of warnings. Ideally, all students should have passed a preliminary test on plagiarism. The standard punishments for plagiarism are:
First offense: "F" on the assignment.
Second offense: "F" for the course.
Third offense: Dismissal from the school.
Since many schools do not actually enforce these rules, online instructors get a steady stream of professional plagiarizers, much to the detriment of their schools and education world wide.
From the student side, plagiarism is such a simple thing to avoid! You have already read the text, already found the passage that you like and that is appropriate to the context of the question. Go ahead and quote from it! Make sure you punctuate it correctly using MLA or APA format. Next, just add your own two cents, explaining how and why this passage answers the question. Most instructors will give you a good score for that.
Source: http://teachingbe.blogspot.com/2012/09/plagiarism-3-word-rule.html
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