Plagiarism and How to Avoid It

Forums: Internet, Teaching, Plagiarism
Email this Topic • Print this Page

There's an interesting article in the most recent Chronicle of Higher Education about the proliferation of internet services providing pre-written, reasonably researched essays and papers for students: Cheating Goes Global as Essay Mills Multiply. Some excerpts:

Quote:

The orders keep piling up. A philosophy student needs a paper on Martin Heidegger. A nursing student needs a paper on dying with dignity. An engineering student needs a paper on electric cars.

Screen after screen, assignment after assignment " hundreds at a time, thousands each semester. The students come from all disciplines and all parts of the country. They go to community colleges and Ivy League universities. Some want a 10-page paper; others request an entire dissertation.

This is what an essay mill looks like from the inside. Over the past six months, with the help of current and former essay-mill writers, The Chronicle looked closely at one company, tracking its orders, examining its records, contacting its customers. The company, known as Essay Writers, sells so-called custom essays, meaning that its employees will write a paper to a student's specifications for a per-page fee. These papers, unlike those plucked from online databases, are invisible to plagiarism-detection software.

Quote:

Go to Google and type "buy an essay." Among the top results will be Best Essays, whose slogan is "Providing Students with Original Papers since 1997." It's a professional-looking site with all the bells and whistles: live chat, flashy graphics, stock photos of satisfied students. Best Essays promises to deliver "quality custom written papers" by writers with either a master's degree or a Ph.D. Prices range from $19.99 to $42.99 per page, depending on deadline and difficulty.

To place an order, you describe your assignment, the number of pages, and how quickly you need it. Then you enter your credit-card number, and, a couple of days later, the paper shows up in your in box. All you have to do is add your name to the top and turn it in. Simple.

As a teacher, I reacted to this article by immediately vowing to replace all my paper assignments with in-class essay exams. Shortly after I calmed down a little bit, but this still disturbs me. Obviously this phenomenon is worrisome, but should it be worrisome enough that I should seriously consider doing away with research papers in my classes, or at least limit the number that I assign in a course? Or is that overreacting?

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 13 • Views: 3,629 • Replies: 34

@Shapeless,

I would think that a few questions asked of any student on the paper would reveal whether the research done was genuine, Shapeless.

0 Replies

Sorry to burst your bubble but.............the humanities are soft science at best; pseudoscience most commonly. There is much regurgitation and little solid empirical evidence to be had in the entire mess.

As such whether students spew their own regurgitated gruel or use someone else's recycled wank I see little net difference.

Sorry to be harsh, but most intuitions promoting the humanities do not support independence of thought let alone the diciplines of empiricism.

2 Replies

@Chumly,

Sorry to burst your bubble in turn, but given that my classes are about asking students to consider how history is reflected in art, the whole point of the endeavor is about independence of thought since half of that endeavor is subjective. Putting aside the irrelevant comparison of humanities and sciences, if arriving at one's own conclusions is not of value to you, hey, it's your nickel. I will expect more from my students.

0 Replies

@Shapeless,

Shapeless wrote:

As a teacher, I reacted to this article by immediately vowing to replace all my paper assignments with in-class essay exams. Shortly after I calmed down a little bit, but this still disturbs me. Obviously this phenomenon is worrisome, but should it be worrisome enough that I should seriously consider doing away with research papers in my classes, or at least limit the number that I assign in a course? Or is that overreacting?

I think that is overreacting. $200-$500 for a ten page paper? Not many students can fork that over. My guess is that if you get a paper written by a PhD from a student who would resort to this type of cheating, it would be obvious just from the language that the student didn't do the work.

1 Reply

@Chumly,

Chumly wrote:

Sorry to burst your bubble but.............the humanities are soft science at best; pseudoscience most commonly. There is much regurgitation and little solid empirical evidence to be had in the entire mess.

As such whether students spew their own regurgitated gruel or use someone else's recycled wank I see little net difference.

Sorry to be harsh, but most intuitions promoting the humanities do not support independence of thought let alone the diciplines of empiricism.

So much dumb packed into such a small space. Brilliant!

0 Replies

@Shapeless,

Shapeless wrote:

As a teacher, I reacted to this article by immediately vowing to replace all my paper assignments with in-class essay exams. Shortly after I calmed down a little bit, but this still disturbs me. Obviously this phenomenon is worrisome, but should it be worrisome enough that I should seriously consider doing away with research papers in my classes, or at least limit the number that I assign in a course? Or is that overreacting?

You're overreacting. Just slightly, though.

In-class writing assignments aren't a bad idea in general -- they should already be part of your pedagogical tool kit. Using them as a replacement for longer essays or papers, however, isn't the solution.

Canned papers are designed to address the kind of assignments that teachers traditionally assign. "Explain the origins of World War I" or "why is Hamlet seemingly reluctant to act?" -- those sorts of assignments that teachers routinely give out, without fail, year after year. By varying the topics you assign you can eliminate about 50% of the problem right there. Of course, that means that you won't be giving your students carte blanche in their topic assignments. No more "write a paper that discusses an extended metaphor in a favorite poem or short story." Those kinds of open-ended assignments, unfortunately, invite plagiarism and canned papers.

Of course, as a teacher, you know the capabilities of your students. If a "C" student gives you a paper that looks like it was written by a PhD candidate, you should be suspicious. Also, these paper mills will sell the same papers over and over, so keeping an archive of old student papers -- or at least the ones that look like they were purchased -- would be a good resource over time.

0 Replies

@Shapeless,

I was given this tool when I worked as an editor for a project where I suspected plagiarism (and found that my suspicions were valid). It was useful.

http://www.webmasterlabor.com/tools/checker/

I agree with Joe's comments, especially about learning each student's "voice" (a tough job, especially if you have a lot of students) through in-class exercises and then comparing that to the essays.

1 Reply

@sozobe,

Quote:

I agree with Joe's comments, especially about learning each student's "voice" (a tough job, especially if you have a lot of students) through in-class exercises and then comparing that to the essays.

It is easier to do in some classes than in others, yes. Next term I will have a class with about 10 students, so I'm not terribly worried about that one. Last term, by contrast, I had a class with 150 students. That's a bigger dilemma. Putting aside the task of monitoring 150 students taking an in-class essay exam in a big lecture hall, there's also the task of grading all of it in a timely fashion. My colleagues who teach similar classes have solved the problem (or at least the grading part of it) by giving Scantron exams instead, and that is what I wound up doing last term as well, but it seems like such a loss. (Not that the students minded terribly.) But I also acknowledge there aren't many better alternatives in a class of that size.

One of my professors in college had a system that seemed convoluted at the time but is starting to become more appealing to me: three times per semester, he would assign a series of essay questions that were relatively limited in their scope but, when combined, were the equivalent of a full paper. The catch was that we had only five days to write it. We'd get the questions on a Thursday and they'd be due the following Tuesday. (And, to top it all off, on that Tuesday we'd have an in-class exam.) Not plagiarism- proof by any means, but the short turnaround time over a weekend seems like it might discourage students from using these paper mills, since it sounds like the people at the paper mills have to do rudimentary research of their own in order to fill their orders.

0 Replies

It was easy for me because I rarely assigned pure essays. (We always had the kids run net searches on the available literature and have THEM give seminars complete with handouts and bibliographies) Also, Id assign a research papaer that focused on a specific rock unit or Formation. Id therefore, expect a map done by the students and Its awafully hard to fake that because they had to learn to use resources from other Geo agencies and U's. The topics were always to answer a different field question from the ame bunch of outcrops. I found that, if the kids did a bangup job, Id learn as much as they.

Shouldnt fear technology, should, instead,push it to its limits.
Assigning a topic for research or an essay that is based upon a present day problem is just like becoming a journalist. we arent interested in only history but also the news of the day. Keeping the deadlines shorter and the topics focused will help keep essay mills from flourishing in your class.

Chumly, I dont expect that youll get a lot of positive feedback on your post. I think, instead, youll get a lot of negs with several pages of references to say "thanks for your input but we will keep plugging away"

0 Replies

Joe has a good point about open-ended and obvious assignments which are classic assignments upon which "paper mills" can rely when making their offerings to students. I question, though, whether the internet is providing a new service. I have known quite a few people who did papers for students in university, and i acknowledge that i've done so myself on a couple of occasions. Most often, though, i would provide the service of editing someone's paper, and making suggestions about content. But i suspect that such services have always been available. I have heard, but cannot state to a certainty, the "Greek Row" has always had swot services, offering complete papers and exam questions for a price. The internet probably just makes it easier. One of my history professors used to assign a single paper for the entire semester. You had to turn in the paper with not just a bibliography, but your outline and a set of three by five cards on which you had worked up the material from your sources to flesh out your outline. This paper had to be turned in by week ten of a sixteen week semester--at which point he had his graduate assistants run down your sources. It wasn't fool-proof, of course, but it did require that the student come up with more than just the finished product.

2 Replies

@Setanta,

There are also services which mine the internet for papers. Teachers submit the files their students email to them, and the service highlights plagiarized material down to the clause level.

I used to google, in quotes, sentences I found too elegant.

2 Replies

Um, like what Soz posted.

0 Replies

@Setanta,

Actually that method that your prof used is now easier to cross check on the internet. The 3X5 card , of course, is like a niddy noddy nowadays. I have my students give me a flash drive with their names written on it using a Sharpie. All their stuff, up to that date, can be safely presented to Teacher man.

0 Replies

@Shapeless,

I can understand how you must feel. When I was a student in college, it never occured to me to plagiarize. I soon found out that I wasn't the norm. In a Forms of Novel class, a remember handing in my first paper - I think it was on Pride and Prejudice about symbolism. Now I was an economics major so this was certainly not my area of expertise.

Any way, the next class after this assignment was handed in - the professor stood at the front of the class and everyone knew something bad happened by the look on her face. She then proceeded to state with disgust that at least 90% of the class had plagiarized - if I remember correctly she mentioned the use of Cliff notes. She then went on to say she thought of failing everyone who had cheated and then said instead, if you did cheat, you can stay in class right now and write your paper. If you did not cheat, you are free to leave. However, if you did cheat and leave, I will fail you and you may be kicked out of school.

I was torn - what should I do? Then I said, I now I did not cheat, I know I wrote this completely on my own so I got up and left. And wouldn't you know almost everyone in the class stayed behind other than a few.

I was shocked. I had thought better of my classmates.

2 Replies

@Gargamel,

Quote:

I used to google, in quotes, sentences I found too elegant.

Google has been a great boon in that regard. I've caught many students simply by Googling random sentences from their unusually eloquent papers. Usually the source from which they stole was the first or second hit.

I try to avoid generic paper topics as well; that might be the most any teacher can hope to do to evade the paper mills. This semester I've also introduced a new requirement, similar to what Set described: I require students to submit outlines of their arguments a weeks in advance of their papers. This way I can at least compare the final product with the ideas that students claim to be discussing. Again, not foolproof, but it's something.

0 Replies

@Linkat,

Quote:

I was shocked. I had thought better of my classmates.

And they all ended up with high paying jobs in government. Hell some of those same cheats and liars probably even made it as far as president.

2 Replies

@Gargamel,

Quote:

I used to google, in quotes, sentences I found too elegant.

I've used that method frequently, especially with the religious wackos. When someone comes here with one of those opaque, goofy religious rants, it is often possible to find the source which the author forgot to attribute. But i've also found it useful in other cases--sometimes people answer a question here by cutting and pasting directly from Wikipedia, or Answers-dot-com, or About-dot-com; and, as is so often the case, they forget to attribute their source.

Once, one of the religious nuts here who constantly argues against evolution put in a sneering post about a paeleo-anthropologist who had seen a finger bone and knew it belonged to a certain hominid species. He then waxed sarcastic about people who only see what they expect to see. He neglected to mention, however, that the author was a scientist, with 30 years experience in working with hominid remains. When i googled one line of his post verbatim, it returned two interesting results. One was the original article from which the quote was taken, and in which the quote wasn't chopped up the way this religious loony had presented it. That article, in full, told of the author's credentials, and crucially, pointed out that the site had been worked for three years, so the stratigraphy had already been done, allowing them to date any find they made with a good degree of certainty. The other interesting find was the quotes he used, chopped up the way he used them, at a creationist web site, which was probably the source for his sneer.

Verbatim searches are fun that way.

0 Replies

As a student, I always hated those paper assignments that required us to turn in our outlines and our notes on 3x5 cards. I was sort of a seat-of-the-pants writer, and I usually composed my papers with only the barest of outlines (if any) and my notes scattered on various random scraps of paper. Handing in an outline, therefore, was just additional work, not something that I would have written anyway.

1 Reply

@joefromchicago,

Yeah, me, too . . . but i do think that i benefited from the exercise, although i certainly didn't think so at the time . . .

1 Reply

Plagiarism and How to Avoid It

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know