WRITING @ CASE

Academic Integrity

Plagiarism & the Internet | Sample Assignments | Additional Resources

Case Policies

Website: http://studentaffairs.case.edu/office/integrity/facultyguide.html
Academic Integrity Violation Report (MS Word document): ai_reporting.doc

This site contains a summary of the Academic Integrity Policy, as well as additional links and resources. Please consult the Dean of Undergraduate Studies about all cases of plagiarism and other violations of academic integrity (368.2928).

Back to the Top

Plagiarism & the Internet

The Internet has made all kinds of file-sharing possible, opening up new possibilities for research - and also for cheating. Sometimes, simply letting students know that we, too, are capable of using search engines to find ready-made papers is enough to deter them from such a solution to writer's block. Consider the following sites, perhaps as part of a class discussion of ethics and intellectual property:

• > Google.com - This and other search engines can be used to conduct research online (see also Google Scholar, an interesting new collaboration between libraries and the Web), but it can also be used to locate essays on a particular topic. To find the source of a suspicious paper, a professor need only extract a sentence and type it (within quotation marks) in the search box.
• > Commercial sites that sell custom-written (or stock) essays are easy to find online. For examples, visit School Sucks ("Download your workload"), Term Papers Corner (varying price per page, depending on speed of delivery), or CheatHouse ("Thousands of Free Essays").
• > Turnitin.com - Plagiarism detection services are becoming very popular. However, many of these sites (including Turnitin.com) keep copies of submitted papers in their proprietary databases. In effect, these companies profit from our students' intellectual property without acknowledgment or compensation (schools pay them to provide this "service").

Back to the Top

Sample Assignments

See also the Designing Assignments Page.

• > Consider using something like Creative Commons to discuss copyright and intellectual/creative property. Students are very likely familiar with the Napster case and, more recently, Grokster. These peer-to-peer file-sharing networks are providing new avenues for creativity, and for music piracy. Where do the two overlap? (For more information about these issues, see the Electronic Frontier Foundation.)
• > For more on authorship and intellectual property (and an interesting model for collaborative research at the undergraduate level), see Martha Woodmansee's Research Collaborative, "Beyond Authorship: Refiguring Rights in Traditional Culture and Bioknowledge" (Spring 2004).

Back to the Top

Additional Resources

• > St. Martin's Tutorial on Avoiding Plagiarism - There is general consensus that we can't solve all of the issues surrounding plagiarism simply by referring students to a website. Nonetheless, this tutorial may be a helpful resource, especially if instructors use it as a basis for classroom exercises and discussion.
• > Carnegie-Mellon's "Promoting Academic Integrity: A Discussion Guide for the CMU Community" - This site asks faculty to consider whose responsibilty it is to address issues of academic integrity.
• > Prentice Hall "Understanding Plagiarism" Tutorial - This is another tutorial available for students (and faculty). It is likely to be most useful if integrated into class discussions.
• > University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, "FAQ's for Educators on Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Plagiarism" - This site offers quick answers and is intended to supplement a white paper written in 1999.
• > Washington State University, "Plagiarism Information Site" - This site has lots of really interesting material, references, and links. See especially "Who's doing it?" and "Cultural Perspectives."

Back to the Top