NYT New Speak

The story is much too true. The problem is rampant and it is exacerbated by teachers who are simply too lazy to do some checking, too incompetent to care in the first place, and too wrapped in the concepts of self-esteem-teaching to impose any penalties when they stumble across it.

Plagiarism Rampant in Schools

I hope you noticed the liberal innuendo in the Times' headline. Plagiarism lines aren't blurry at all. They are clear and immutable.

What makes it the most pathetic is that the crime so easy to uncover. It isn't like the dark ages when most of us went to school. The teacher doesn't have to plod to the library, search the stacks for the reference or scan miles of microfiche to validate a reference. You simply read what your student wrote and apply common sense.

I'm teaching in a community college. I've done it for going on fifteen years now as an adjunct (that means I don't work full-time). I can tell within two paragraphs when it isn't the student's own writing. They simply don't write in meaningful, coherent sentences. Of course that is a manifestation of yet another problem. They don't have a vocabulary of more than a few hundred words. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is. If a word is one you don't hear at McDonald's the sentence is plagiarized.

Checking is easy. Cut a phrase and paste it into Google or Bing. Search and you've got the original. Compare and you'll see big chunks of the online text you've found throughout the student's paper. Guilty!

But, it is easier still. There are several online dedicated web-sites that schools subscribe to which check on originality and report within seconds. The one my school uses is TurnItIn.

You can have your students submit their papers directly to TurnItIn and then review the reports listing percentage of original work. To submit a paper student's can upload formatted files or simply cut/paste (they know how to do that obviously!) directly. Or, I can paste a suspect paper in just a few seconds.

The instructor gets a detailed report, a list of all the papers submitted with percent originality grades color-coded from green (OK) to yellow (suspicious) to red (plagiarized). The specific report on each paper highlights the copied text and links you to the source website for validation. No effort required.

Schools all have policies on academic integrity. It is required for certification. Applying the policy is apparently where we are lacking. Where I work the first strike by a student is a failing grade on the assignment. Second instance is removal from the course and board review for expulsion from the school.

I don't know if the school has ever expelled anyone. I know I've got one or two students each semesters with a zero in their grade report. I don't mind taking a second or two to catch them. It improves my self-esteem.