Developing a Consensus About Defining and Reporting Plagiarism

First Semester (September to December) Hypothetical Incidents Involving First-Year 104 Students:

1. The student's first paper contains phrases / sentences / paragraphs borrowed without quotation marks from a source it names, and the student is unaware anything was wrong with the practice.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

2. The student's first paper contains phrases / sentences / paragraphs borrowed borrowed without quotation marks from a source it does not name, and the student is unaware anything was wrong with the practice.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

3. The student's first paper appears to have been written for a previous high-school class on a topic similar to one you have assigned, but the student openly admits writing it, has ample drafts and notes to back up that claim, and says s/he always had been told that you couldn’t plagiarize yourself.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

4. The student's first paper closely resembles a paper you or a colleague received in another section of the same course, but no significant strings of words are identical.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

5. The student's first  paper closely resembles a paper you or a colleague received in another section of the same course, and several passages are identical. 

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

6. The paper is only a rough draft submitted for the second assignment in September, but its sudden improvement in quality leads you to discover it was copied in part from an Internet site.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

7. The paper is a final draft submitted for a grade in October but you discover it was copied entirely from an Internet site.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

8. The paper is a final draft submitted for a grade in December on the last day of classes, and you discover it was copied partially from an Internet site, but your grades are due at SAS in 24 hours.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

9. The paper is a final draft submitted for a grade in December on the last day of classes and you discover it was copied entirely from an Internet site, but the student probably will get a final grade of C or D if the paper is silently failed without notifying the Honor Board.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

10. The paper is a final draft submitted for a grade in December on the last day of classes, and variations in the paper’s “voice” lead you to suspect strongly that the paper has copied passages from a source, but you can’t find it on the Internet and grades are due in 24 hours.

 a) treat it as a teachable moment________      b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

Second-Semester (January-May) Incidents Involving First-Year 105 Students:

1. The student's first paper is adequately written and clearly depends on sources, which it has listed in a Works Cited, References, or Bibliography section, but it never actually cites any of the sources and never appears to quote any of them directly.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

2. The student's first paper is adequately written and clearly depends on sources, which it has listed in a Works Cited, References, or Bibliography section, and its voice shifts indicate it is quoting them directly, but it never identifies the sources it quotes.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

3. The student's first paper closely resembles a paper you or a colleague received in another section of the same course, but no significant strings of words are identical.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

4. The student's paper closely resembles a paper you or a colleague received in another section of the same course, and several passages are identical. 

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

5. The paper is only a rough draft submitted for the second assignment in February, but variations in the paper’s “voice” lead you to discover that some of its evidence was cut-and-paste copied from an Internet site that it cited but did not quote.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

6. The paper is a final draft submitted for a grade around the middle of second semester, but variations in the paper’s “voice” lead you to discover it contains passages cut-and-paste copied from an Internet site that it did not cite.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

7. The paper is a final draft submitted for a grade and College Writing Proficiency evaluation in May, on the last day of classes, and you discover it was partially copied from an Internet site.

a) treat it as a teachable moment________       b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

8. The paper is a final draft submitted for a grade and CWP in May, on the last day of classes, and you discover it was entirely copied from an Internet site.

 a) treat it as a teachable moment________      b) urge student to self-report_________           c) report immediately______________  d) other  ______________________

Then rethink these sequences of situations if the student were a sophomore or junior who was new to your major, and you were teaching a 200-level course.  Would your approach change at some point in the first or second semester, and if so, why?