Teaching To Avoid Plagiarism:: How To Promote Good Source Use

210 Pages·2013·1.33 MB·English

by  Diane Pecorari

Teaching to Avoid Plagiarism
How to promote good source use
“This book makes a unique contribution to the field of plagiarism
management... Assessment tasks, broad questions and activities T
are provided at the end of each chapter, encouraging readers to e
understand both policy and practice in their own institution to a
better manage plagiarism and source attribution.” c
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Dr Wendy Sutherland-Smith, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health,
Deakin University, Australia i
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“Teaching to Avoid Plagiarism successfully turns attention away g
from the detection and punishment of plagiarism and focuses
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instead on understanding and prevention through the promotion o
of good source use… this important book should be required
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reading, not only for staff development officers and lecturers, but
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more widely throughout the higher education community.”
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Maggie Charles, Oxford University Language Centre
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Plagiarism is a serious problem in higher education, and one that the P
majority of university teachers have encountered. This book provides the
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skills and resources that university teachers and learning and development a
support staff need in order to tackle it. g Avoid Plagiarism
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As a complex issue that requires thoughtful and sensitive handling, a
plagiarism simply cannot be addressed by warnings, detection software r
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and punishment alone. Teaching to Avoid Plagiarism focuses on prevention s
rather than punishment and promotes a proactive, rather than reactive, m
approach to dealing with the issue. How to promote good source use
Topics covered in this book include:
- The causes of plagiarism
- How universities currently deal with plagiarism
- How teachers can support students in effective source use
- The role of technology
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- Issues for second language writers and international students
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Drawing on her teaching experience as well as her academic research, n
Diane Pecorari offers a unique insight into this pervasive problem as well as e

practical advice on how to promote good source use to students and help P
them to avoid plagiarism. With a series of activities to help readers solidify e Diane Pecorari
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their grasp of the approaches advised in the book, Teaching to Avoid
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Plagiarism is an essential guide for anyone in r
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a student-facing role who wants to handle
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plagiarism more effectively. i
Diane Pecorari is Professor of English
Linguistics at Linnaeus University, Sweden.
www.openup.co.uk
Pecorari Cover_teale.indd 1 25/06/13 15:07:33
Teaching to Avoid Plagiarism
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Teaching to Avoid
Plagiarism
How to promote good source use
Diane Pecorari
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Open University Press
McGraw- Hill Education
McGraw- Hill House
Shoppenhangers Road
Maidenhead
Berkshire
England
SL6 2QL
email: [email protected]
world wide web: www.openup.co.uk
and Two Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121- 2289, USA
First published 2013
Copyright © Diane Pecorari, 2013
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the
purpose of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher or a
licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Details of such
licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the
Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd of Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street,
London EC1N 8TS.
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
ISBN- 13: 978-0 - 33- 524593- 2 (pb)
ISBN- 10: 0-3 3- 524593- 5 (pb)
eISBN: 978- 0- 33- 524594- 9
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n- Publication Data
CIP data applied for
Typesetting and e-b ook compilations by
Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
Fictitious names of companies, products, people, characters and/or data that may be
used herein (in case studies or in examples) are not intended to represent any real
individual, company, product or event.
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Praise for this book
“Diane Pecorari’s book provides practical examples and activities on
handling plagiarism blended with research-based fi ndings. It is
useful for teachers wanting to improve their understanding and
practices in managing plagiarism, but also student advisors and
academic support skills staff who deal with issues of academic
integrity. This book makes a unique contribution to the fi eld of
plagiarism management as its structure affords direct professional
development opportunities. Assessment tasks, broad questions and
activities are provided at the end of each chapter, encouraging readers
to understand both policy and practice in their own institution to
better manage plagiarism and source attribution. “
Dr Wendy Sutherland-Smith, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health,
Deakin University, Australia
“Teaching to Avoid Plagiarism successfully turns attention away
from the detection and punishment of plagiarism and focuses instead
on understanding and prevention through the promotion of good
source use. Combining practical activities based on real-life examples
with wide-ranging original research, this important book should be
required reading, not only for staff development offi cers and lecturers,
but more widely throughout the higher education community.”
Maggie Charles, Oxford University Language Centre
“Diane Pecorari’s insightful research and scholarship on plagiarism
is used to excellent effect in this book which advocates a proactive
rather than reactive approach to the diffi culties faced by students in
learning how to integrate their source texts. Thoughtful activities
and discussion questions aimed at staff development are teamed
with advice on ways to build in support within disciplinary writing
which will help students master the necessary academic skills to
avoid plagiarism. The emphasis, quite rightly, is also on helping
students understand how plagiarism disrupts the ethical values of
the academy, and is not just another hurdle placed in their way by
academic insiders.”
Dr Ann Hewings, Director, Centre for Language and Communication,
The Open University
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“As stated by Diane Pecorari in the fi rst sentence of this excellent
volume, ‘plagiarism is a problem in our universities’. The volume
demonstrates clearly how teachers and students can deal with this
‘problem’ by developing a better understanding of the phenomenon,
on the one hand, and developing specifi c skills in dealing with it, on
the other. Working from the principle that ‘an ounce of prevention is
worth a pound of cure’, Diane Pecorari argues for a proactive
approach to handling issues of plagiarism, with an emphasis on the
need to train students how to deal appropriately with sources. As
well as a clear exposition of the theoretical issues at stake, the book
contains a wealth of practical activities and discussion questions
which will allow readers to develop the sort of competence in dealing
with plagiarism that is the goal of the volume. “
Professor John Flowerdew, City University of Hong Kong
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For Jeff, who helped in so many ways
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Contents
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction 1
Part One Understanding plagiarism 5
1 What is plagiarism? 7
Summary 7
Introduction 8
Defi ning plagiarism 9
Problems in applying the criteria 17
The incidence of plagiarism 23
Activity 26
Questions for refl ection or discussion 26
2 Why does plagiarism happen? 27
Summary 27
Why do students cheat (by plagiarising)? 29
Shades of intention 31
Electronic media 32
Strategies and skills for reading, writing and studying 33
Learning the rules of the game 34
Learning to play the game 35
Learning the parlance of the game 37
Learning to be a player 39
Assessing the causes 40
Activity 41
Questions for refl ection or discussion 42
3 How do we manage plagiarism? 43
Summary 43
Policy and regulation 45
Prevention 47
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