Suggestions To Deter Plagiarism
Require submission of an annotated bibliography with all research paper assignments.
Alternatively, require submission of a copy of all references from the original document with the relevant sections highlighted, to be turned in with the paper.
Require graded oral presentations of papers; students answer questions about their paper and defend their arguments. This requires a deeper understanding of the subject material by the student, and provides useful public speaking experience.
Assignments could require a timeline or log of the research process with details of how sources were found, making it difficult to "defend" the use of a copied paper or one purchased online.
Personal interviews, surveys, or experiments could be required source material, which would eliminate the use of a copied or purchased paper.
Assign papers shorter than six pages (the minimum length available from online paper sites), which also trains students to be concise writers.
Require a certain number of current references.
Restrict a percentage of references to holdings in the James Library collection or books obtained from other NC Community Colleges.
Assign more in-class writing.
Adapted from "Copy These Strategies To Stop Plagiarism By Students", p. A19, The Houston Chronicle, 09/29/1997, by Gary M. Galles, Professor of Economics at Pepperdine University.
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