Avoiding Plagiarism
in an Online Graduate Environment
Disclaimer
By
C.B. Crawford, Ph.D.
Assistant Provost for Quality Management
Fort Hays State University
600 Park Street
Hays, KS 67601
(785) 628-5950
Presented at the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs
Conference,
October 2002, Chicago, IL.
Online Ed. Jennifer Sauer
Defining
Academic Plagiarism
Defining the obvious can be difficult. Professionals
grapple with acts of plagiarism every day, but it is challenging
to define. Plagiarism, as defined in most circles, is the
presentation of another work as one's own.
The central focus of determining the occurrence
of plagiarism is fraud and intent.
Fraud:
Fraud is easiest to determine. If the work
is not original, if it was written by someone else, if the
citation is missing, or if quotations are not used, then
some level of fraud has occurred.
Intent:
Intent is substantially more difficult to
understand and impossible to prove. Trying to understand
the intent of the student who committed the fraud is as
impossible as understanding the intent of any criminal to
commit a crime.
Howard and Kelley (2001a) say, "University
catalogs tend to describe plagiarism …avoiding any
insistence on intention to defraud, which could be difficult
to prove" (p. 1). Nonetheless,
intent is often what faculty members must judge when they
suspect that plagiarism has occurred:
- "Did the student
know what (s)he was doing?"
- "Did the student understand the
assignment?"
- "Does the culture of the student
allow such actions as ordinary?"
While our focus here is on the fraud,
the intent of the plagiarist must be considered in
any implementation and enforcement of classroom or university
policy.
Other Links to this Document:
TIitle
Page
Introduction
Defining
Academic Plagiarism
Types
of Plagiarism
Detecting
Plagiarism
Prevention
and Management of Plagiarism
Other
Strategies
References
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