I'm not entirely sure that they do realize the implications. I deal mostly with "returning" learners - when they were going through school the first time, plagiarizing with buying a paper off of someone, or copying directly from a book and passing it off as their own. To them, cutting and pasting isn't as severe as one of the other actions.
I make it a point to discuss cutting and pasting during orientation, and have seen the instances of it drop to almost zero in their fist class. (Prior to that, about 1/3 of my class would cut and paste at least once during a five week session.) Returning learners honestly don't know that there is anything wrong with that.
I always tell the students that the internet makes it very easy for them to copy...and also very easy for me to catch them at it. When I am doing a search for plagiarized material, it's often hard for me to determine the original source - the same wording is often on multiple sites!
I think you are probably right Julie. Students that are coming from high school don't know the seriousness of plagiarizing because that is not what they experienced in high school. In addition, technology has made plagiarizing so easy with internet research and the simple "cut and paste" function on our word processing systems.
Sometimes students do not understand the implications of academic dishonesty, and so they are not as vigilant as they perhaps should be about plagiarism. Many students are used to from high school only getting a small punishment for plagiarism, and in their experience, actually doing the work is more effort than avoiding plagiarism. I usually do not have a large problem with students plagiarizing once they are aware of what plagiarism is, and the implications of academic dishonesty within the university environment.
Great observations Cynthia. I agree with you that there is much more to plagerizing than simply cutting and pasting or copying. Students seem to understand that piece (although that doesn't stop them from doing it) but don't seem to grasp that not citing a source properly is also plagerism. I have experienced this several times as a teacher, regardless of how many times I remind students why citing sources is so critical.
Not only do I think they realize that we can check on plagiarism easily; but I think the problem is much more profound then simply taking someone's words and using them as your own. I think the part that students do not realize that is plagiarism is that it is also the unintentional lack of citing properly. I think the attittude is very laissez faire when it comes to citation of sources, especially online sources; but in addition, there seems to be an irresponsible aura of paraphrasing, and the lack of citation with such. Additionally, while one may cite a source for once sentence, the thought is that the citation covers muliplte sentences, althouugh it may not be an entie paragraph that is blocked to indicate a single source.
I agree that the internet has made plagiarism more accepting for some students. However, I don't think students realize how easy it is for us to check that they are plagiarizing due to the internet. Thanks for your comments Daniel.
I don't believe that they know. I have had several instances where students found the answer to a question via the internet, copied and pasted that answer into their papers, and were perfectly OK with that. They honestly believe that anything on the internet is in the public domain, and may be copied and used freely.
My institution has incorporated lectures on how to avoid plagiarism into a number of early courses. Addressing this issue in the students' first quarter has been very instrumental in assisting with student understanding of the concept and consequences.
