Plagiarism

Starting on my essay on Plagiarism, I've come to realise the perception of what I thought to be a clear cut matter might be far more complex. This has made me reflect on the incident during my contract teaching when I pulled a dozen students to the discipline master for plagiarism. I believe my actions were and are still correct - what I've come to question is why several of the students had a difficult time comprehending the 'crime.' Indeed one student remained defiant to the end - refusing to admit what he had done could be considered plagiarism. In those cases, it was not a matter of a lack of citation but a clear and wholesale theft of words (and works!). What must be done then to explain more explicitly to students the boundaries they cannot cross - and what they should do when those lines are not so clear.

The Internet, ease of computer access and the students' early proficiency in IT certainly make active plagiarism easier. But I think the solution, if there is one, lies not with making a better mouse trap such as academic plagiarism detection systems like SafeAssign (NIE) or MOSS (Stanford). Ethics, moral education, closer teacher-parent-student involvement - I think these are things we have to do as educators.