Plagiarism Case Study Files

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Cut and Paste Plagiarism:
How to Detect It and How to Prevent It

Adapted from the Center for Academic Integrity
http://www.academicintegrity.org
(Now at) Clemson University • Clemson, South Carolina 29634

Josh Hart is a first semester sophomore at Woebegotten College in Lake Woebegone, Minnesota. He is currently enrolled in the Exercise and Sports Science (ESS) program of the College. Dr. Keeler has assigned a semester project in which students are to compile a model program for personal fitness training for themselves. Dr. Keeler has explained verbally and also included in his syllabus a good deal of information about the college honor policy and the importance of honesty in all assignments. He indicates that students are to complete this assignment on their own with no involvement of third parties other than reference materials.

In completing the assignment for Dr. Keeler, Josh uses a variety of text sources, his own experiences and information from a cd-rom program titled “The Personal Trainer for You” by Arnold Atlas. Josh purchased the cd-rom to enhance his own skills in physical training. The cd does contain copyright information.

Josh prints various tables and charts from the cd and makes clean copies to include along with his narrative and other materials. As he turns the paper in, he is sure he has a good paper and hopes for an “A”.

Dr. Keeler has also anticipated Josh’s paper. As he begins to grade Josh’s paper, he is impressed at first. As he continues to read on, he becomes aware that the language and concepts used seem highly developed for a student of his experience. Several paragraphs seem almost too good to be true and none of the material is cited in his references which include books and periodical articles.

Dr. Keeler turns to the Internet and a search engine often used by ESS majors. He finds several sources and immediately finds selections of research on physical training that appears to be identical to Josh’s. He also learns that there is a cd-rom available and includes model programs for physical training.

Dr. Keeler realizes that he will have to request an honor policy conference with Josh. He sends Josh an email and asks him to schedule an appointment for the next day.

Discussion
1. What would you do to prepare for the scheduled appointment?

2. What questions would you ask Josh during the appointment?

3. If Josh does not believe he has plagiarized, how will you handle this?

4. If Josh’s case is referred to the honor policy for a hearing and review, and he’s found responsible, what sanctions should be imposed, if any?

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Case Study: Plagiarism
by Larry Harper
Humanities/Philosophy

Professor H. teaches an Honors writing course at the community college. Fall semester, she has one student, Nephi L., who has been struggling getting assignments in on time. The library research paper the student hands in is one day late, but it's fairly good, and receives a B, which is docked one full grade to a C. The student receives a C for the course.

The following summer, a young woman, Sara B., asks to speak with Professor H. She informs the good professor that her ex-friend, Nephi L., had borrowed a research paper she had written for another class-"just to get an idea on how to do this sort of thing"-and, she claims, had then just retyped the paper-changing the wording here and there-and handed it in to Professor H. last Fall as his own work, a fact she says she only recently learned. Sara then produces her own paper as "proof." Professor H. looks over the paper, vaguely remembers the topic (she reads hundreds of papers each semester), and thanks Sara for bringing the issue to her attention.

Questions:

What should Professor H. do?

Why did Sara come to Professor H. now?

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Academic Integrity Case Studies

from iStudy for Success! (Penn. State U.)

Read each of the following scenarios and answer the questions. While reading the scenarios, think about what the problem is and what the best solution would be based on Penn State's principles and policies. Use the "My Notes" tool on the right side of the tool bar at the top of the page to type your responses to the questions.

Case Study #1:

David is a senior and only has three more classes this semester before he graduates. He feels the pressure to uphold his 3.65 GPA, as well as just wanting to finish and get the classes out of the way.

 In one of his classes, an extra credit assignment is to read through a set of given texts from certain articles and books that have been given by the instructor throughout the semester, and then to compile personal thoughts based on the principles covered. To David, it seemed like basically doing something he already had done in the class—read the same information again. He figured the instructor just wanted to make sure the students really did read the articles, so David wrote his paper using direct quotes and verbatim phrases from the reading without correct citation. It was just extra credit, after all, so if it was not as good as his other work, it couldn’t really hurt his grade.

Is what David did wrong? Why or why not? Do you think David is right in thinking that this assignment really doesn't matter and can't really hurt his grade because it is only for extra credit?

Read responses of others.  

Case Study #3:

Chris, Todd, and Mike are assigned to work on several group assignments together in a history class this semester. One of their projects includes each of them researching different events on a given time line, and then combining the information together.

 On a test that covers some of the information gathered by Todd, Mike cannot remember what the answers are. He reasons that because the three of them had worked on the project together as a collaboration and got a good grade, it shouldn’t be a problem to ask Todd what the answers are. Since they sit not far from each other in class, Mike asks Todd to tell him the answers. Todd does not want to offend his friend, so he moves his arm so Mike can see his paper. Chris also sits nearby, and sees this.

Is this plagiarism/academic dishonesty? Are all three of them at fault? Is Mike more so than Todd? Is Chris obligated to tell the instructor what he saw?

Read responses of others. 

Case Study #4:

Jennifer really enjoys the art history class she is taking this semester. She spends a lot of time on her final project—a portfolio of works of art that she selects, writes a brief background about the artist, and then describes what she feels about the piece. She is careful to make sure all her information about the artists is correct, and reads several essays on the artists she has chosen. She agrees with most of what the essayists have to say regarding the pieces. She represents some of their thoughts in her project as her own, reasoning that since it is not fact, and instead intangible opinion, and because she agrees with them, then she is not plagiarizing.

Is she right or wrong? Why?

Read responses of others. 

Case Study #5:

Lee has to write a paper on some of the causes and symptoms of drug abuse for a public health class. He accesses the Web and finds several chat rooms that feature posted questions which are answered by doctors. He uses their answers in his paper, citing just "Internet" as the source. He also finds a site that is put together by the mother of a recovering addict which contains information that she has compiled as a resource for other families in similar circumstances. Steve also uses this information, and since the author of the site does not indicate which books she got the information from, he cites "Internet" again as the source.

Is this sufficient? Is this a form of plagiarism/academic dishonesty? Why or why not?

Read responses of others. 

Case Study #6

Jack and Diane are both in business class. Toward the end of the semester, the assignment is to do an analysis of a business plan. The paper is due in a couple of days and due to a family emergency, followed by being in bed all weekend with the flu, Jack hasn’t had a chance to work on the paper and is very stressed out. Diane feels badly for Jack and since she has finished her analysis, she offers to loan Jack a copy of her paper so he can look it over to get a sense of how she broke down the assignment and then structured her response, figuring that should help Jack not feel so overwhelmed and make the project manageable. Jack gratefully accepts the offer. Diane sends him her analysis in an e-mail attachment.

At this point, is this academic dishonesty? If so, what kind (plagiarism, cheating, etc.) and why?

Read responses of others. 

As Jack reads over Diane’s paper, he agrees with the majority of Diane’s analysis, but there are a few things that he would word a bit differently. Jack reasons that since he agrees with Diana’s concepts, it would make more sense to make a full copy of Diane’s paper and go through it line by line, changing the sentences to sound like him. Occasionally he adds a couple of sentences to expand on a thought. He then creates a coversheet with only his name on it and turns it in.

At this point, is this academic dishonesty? If so, what kind and why?

Read responses of others. 

As Prof. Mellencamp reads through the analysis, he is struck by the similarity between Jack and Diane’s papers, in fact when he compares them, he realizes that they are outlined identically and in parts, they are worded identically and even where the wording varies, the concepts are the same.

If you were Diane, how could you explain your role in what transpired?

Read responses of others. 

 Case Study #7

Susan and Lucy are both international students from Narnia and in the same science class. Lucy has a strong grasp of the English language is doing well in her classes. Susan’s grasp of the English language is not nearly as strong as Lucy’s. With Lucy’s help, she’s working hard to expand her standard English vocabulary, plus learn all of the science vocabulary. But Susan is having a hard time retaining the information, most likely because she isn’t eating or sleeping well. One day, there is an exam in their science lab. Susan is having a hard time understanding what is being asked in the questions and therefore doesn’t know what to put down for the answers. She starts to panic that she’ll fail the lab and the class. The TA notices that Susan and Lucy are talking to each other in Narnian and he asks them what they are talking about. Lucy explains that she is only translating the questions for Susan. The TA asks them not to talk and if Susan has questions about the test, then she should bring them to him (the TA). Susan asks him about one of the questions, but the TA can’t explain it without giving away the answer, so Susan goes back to her seat, uncertain what to do. Twice more during the exam, he catches Susan and Lucy talking in Narnian. Again, he tells them to stop talking. The TA knows Lucy is a solid student and thinks it is very possible that Lucy is only translating the question and is not providing Susan with the answers, but he isn’t sure. He decides to report the situation to the professor who teaches this section.

 Is this a case of academic dishonesty? What would you have done if you were in Lucy’s place? How could the problem have been solved differently?

Read responses of others. 

Case Study #8

Last semester Ben took an ecology class and one of the papers he wrote was about the effects of DDT on bald eagles. This semester he is taking a wildlife biology class and realizes that his paper from last semester would work for one of the assignments for this semester too.

 Is it academic dishonesty for Ben to turn the same paper in twice? What is the best thing for Ben to do in this situation?

Read responses of others. 

Case Study #9

Shawn and Mimi are in the same program with about 40 other students. It is Mimi’s first year in the program and Shawn’s second year. This year Mimi has an assistantship in the same office where Shawn had an assistant last year. At some point, Mimi finds several papers that Shawn wrote last year on the hard drive of the office computer. She sees that one of the papers matches an assignment coming due soon; an assignment that Mimi sees as being a lot of detail work that she’ll never use in the real world. Shawn’s paper is well written and so Mimi lifts large sections of it and uses them in her paper, which she turns in to the same faculty member who taught the class last year when Shawn took the course.

If you were Shawn and the faculty member called you in about the similarity in the papers, what would you say? What would your reaction be to Mimi?

Read responses of others.

What if the faculty member did not notice the text was plagiarized, but one night when you, Mimi, and some other people from your program are out socializing, Mimi told you what she had done. How would you react?

http://istudy.psu.edu/FirstYearModules/CopyrightPlagiarism/

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Additional Academic Integrity Case Studies to Consider:

http://www.lib.umich.edu/acadintegrity/instructors/case_studies/casestudy1.htm

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How to get better essays while reducing your work and plagiarism

Up: Home > Reflections on Teaching > Assessment & Monitoring

Contact: Dr. Cillian Ryan

University of Birmingham

C.Ryan@bham.ac.uk

Published October 2001

Several years ago while working as an external tutor on a distance-learning Masters programme I had to deal frequently with students who had an excessive reliance on textbooks and other sources while writing essays. Some, but not all, of these students did not have English as a first language. We found that even if they could be persuaded to avoid outright plagiarism, many students invariably structured their essays slavishly using the same framework and argument-structure set out in the primary reading resource. The result was a set of essays which were boringly similar, and which demonstrated little evidence that the student had actually assimilated the material let alone had moved on to the higher levels of analysis. By contrast their final exam answers, despite being written in more trying conditions, demonstrated a much higher level of independent exposition, comprehension and analysis.

In addition to the central support provided to encourage students to produce better essays I wrote a short piece which I would send to my tutees with some suggestions. In particular, I encouraged them to have confidence in their ability to write without the crutch of textbooks open in front of them. I suggested they read the source material, make notes as they felt necessary, and reflect on the topic for a time in the light of their reading. Once that process was complete they should then, and only then, attempt to write the essay, placing all the original source material in another room, and relying only on the draft outline and notes they had previously compiled. Despite my entreaties I suspect most of these distance learners were reluctant to forgo the support of the textbooks.

The more I thought about this, the more I realised that this was the way I wanted all my students to write essays. I suspect my experience mirrors that of most lecturers in that the essays by my conventional students also tend to rely excessively on the textbook and there is often a suspicion about the extent of plagiarism both between students and from outside sources. Given this, the logical thing to do was to implement an essay writing structure which mirrored the model I set out for the distance-learning students, with the difference that I could enforce compliance with the final step.

As a consequence I abandoned the conventional home-written essay. Instead students were given an essay topic to research several weeks in advance and then on a set day they had to write the essay in a lecture room. Students were allowed to bring in with them one A4 page with an essay plan and notes and this page had to be submitted with the essay. The time allowed was 90 minutes for a full essay or 50 minutes for a short problem-based tutorial essay. I am usually flexible on the time allowed for the full essay but students rarely feel they need more time.

Assessment

The result was vastly better written essays which were clearly thought through, displaying a high level of comprehension and analysis, and vastly superior to the usual regurgitation we receive. The exercise had the additional benefits that the essays were substantially shorter than their home-written counterparts, were easier to mark, and were clearly the students' own work. An independent comparison of essays on identical topics written for conventional weekly tutorial groups in two succeeding years concluded that the essays written under this method appeared to be systematically better. While students were initially very wary and nervous about the process, subsequent feedback via focus groups and questionnaires suggested that a majority of students preferred this process. In particular they felt that they spent less time messing around trying to figure out where to start and that the process forced them to assimilate the material better and to reflect upon it in a more substantial fashion. The fact that the question was identified in advance and that they were allowed to bring in notes meant that the exercise did not have the same level of pressure associated with an unseen examination. The questionnaire scores for 'usefulness of assigned work' rose from an average of 3.4 to 3.8 (out of 5) with no discernible change in variance.

Applicability