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Plagiarism

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Composition@Bedford/St. Martins

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Web-based course tools such as WebCT, Blackboard, or soon, Bedford/St. Martin's Comment, make it easy for students to share files with one another. It's simply a matter of uploading their work to the Website where classmates or the instructor can read the work. In other settings, such as computer labs, students often share files by using a common public drive or folder. File sharing makes peer review possible. It also helps students mark and keep track of drafts. By putting files online regularly, students create copies of their work, so even if they don't use File/Save As to rename files for each draft, they have copies online that mark drafts, copies which can later be downloaded and put in a portfolio. Collecting drafts is one of the best ways to counter plagiarism, is, along with assignments that evolve from class discussions and postings, the most effective way to prevent plagiarism.
 

File Sharing Ideas

1. Set regular due dates, for projects large and small. Have students upload files. Regularly uploading files and storing them creates an online record of drafts.
2. Don't feel you have to comment and access every draft. Teach peer review to take off some of the burden. Sometimes it's just fun--and useful--to collect drafts and simply read them. You can use email or a web discussion board to share general, classwide impressions. Plain reading also lets students know you're not always judging, that you're simply reading their stuff for its communicative value. Reading is a great way to get to know your students' voices and ways with words.
3. Have students keep a reading journal online--where they respond to any 'text' they 'read': whether it's an article in a reader you assign, a web page they find, a television show they watch, a lecture they attend, an art exhibit they see, and so on. Each entry can be posted as separate file, or they can reload the same file and add new entries to the top. (This simulates the phenomenon of Blogging).
4. Peer Review, Peer Review, Peer Review. Students can upload files into course tools in rich text format, or send them as e-mail attachments (another way of sharing files), or use a the web discussion boards or chats or a program such as Comment to share files and give feedback to one another.