Copycats Beware! Why cheating hurts everyone--and how to avoid it. (News Special).

Last November, biology teacher Christine Pelton sensed that something was wrong. Several of her high school sophomores had turned, in projects and reports that seemed more complex (difficult) than their usual work. Some students, could not explain sections of their own reports--words that they had supposedly written.

So Pelton did her own Internet research. She found that 28 of 118 students had copied sections of their projects from the Web. This happened even though she had warned students that "cheating and plagiarism will result in a failure of the assignment and parent notification."'

Pelton failed the 28 students. When their parents complained to the school board, the superintendent of schools ordered Pelton to change the grades. She quit her job instead.

The events at Piper High School, in Piper, Kansas, helped thrust the topic of cheating onto the front pages of U.S. newspapers. But, say researchers, plagiarism (the copying of other people's work) is nothing new. A recent study by a Rutgers University professor found that half of all high school students have stolen sentences and paragraphs from the Web. Fifteen percent have, submitted papers copied entirely from the Internet, and 74 percent have cheated on tests.

The Price of Plagiarism

According to Eric Noah, a librarian at Waunakee Middle School in Wisconsin, plagiarism by middle school students usually takes two forms. The first involves copying an article or poem from a book or Web site, then claiming it as one's own.

Noah remembers one student who handed in "poetry" that turned out to be song lyrics by the group 311. "Using a standard' Internet search engine, it only took me perhaps two minutes to track down the source," Noah told JS.

The other form of plagiarism, he adds, usually happens after students copy an important paragraph or sentence in their notes. They later include that section in their report "as is," without first understanding it and putting it into their own words.

Or, students may switch the sentences around and insert a few synonyms (words with same meaning). If they do not cite (mention) the source, or put quotation marks around a quote, they are plagiarizing.

Plagiarism hurts honest classmates, says Sammy Collins, an eighth-grader at Waunakee. "When I work hard on a project or paper," she says, "I feel good when I put my name on it because it was all my effort." Cheaters, though, have an unfair advantage because they may get the same grade without working nearly as hard. Cheating also hurts the cheaters, says Sammy. "If a student plagiarizes, [he or she isn't] learning anything at all ... and it doesn't help the student in the long run."

Easier to Detect

Most schools try to teach students how to avoid plagiarism. Waunakee Middle School, for example, gives eighth-graders a two-day lesson about plagiarism and its consequences.

Still, with the rise of the Internet, cheating has become easier--and easier to detect. Teachers need only conduct electronic searches. And at least one company, Turnitin.com, has gotten into the business of catching plagiarists. It uses powerful computers to compare student papers with millions of Internet sources--encyclopedias, newspapers, magazines, and other student papers. The company, which is now used by more than 1,000 schools, then sends a report to the teacher, highlighting passages that a student may have plagiarized.

Unfortunately, students aren't the only copycats. In recent months, noted historians have been accused of (charged with) plagiarizing parts of their best-selling books. One Latin scholar even passed off translations done by others as his own.

A Crime or a Mistake?

Most people agree that plagiarism is wrong. But they disagree about the seriousness of the crime, says Thomas Mallon, author of Stolen Words. The topic, he adds, is one "that many [people] prefer to avoid thinking about." Maybe that explains why teacher Christine Pelton received little support in her attempts to discipline students.

But sometimes, plagiarism is just an innocent mistake. Check out the box below to see how you can avoid the problem.

Word Match

__1. complex     A. charged with
__2. plagiarism  B. mention
__3. synonym     C. difficult
__4. cite        D. copying
__5. accused     E. word with same meaning

Answers

1. C
2. D
3. E
4. B
5. A
NEWS SPECIAL: PLAGIARISM

Select the letter of the word, name, or phrase that correctly
completes each of the sentences.

__ 6. Most people agree that plagiarism is:

      (A) harmless;
      (B) wrong;
      (C) equivalent to stealing a car.

__ 7. Rather than change the failing grades of 28 students,
      teacher Christine Pelton

      (A) quit her job;
      (B) appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court;
      (C) failed all 118 students.

__ 8. Research by a Rutgers University professor revealed that

      (A) about 50 percent of high school students copy entire
      papers from the Web;
      (B) very few students are able to use the Internet;
      (C) about 15 percent submit entire papers from the
      Internet as their own work.

__ 9. Who ordered Ms. Pelton to change the failing grades of 28
      students she felt were cheating?

      (A) the superintendent of schools;
      (B) a local court;
      (C) the voters of Piper, Kansas.

__ 10. One good way to avoid plagiarism is to:

          (A) do no research;
          (B) check at least three sources, make sure you understand
          the ideas, and put them into your own words;
          (C) put words and ideas you don't understand in quotation
          marks.

Answers

 6. B
 7. A
 8. C
 9. A
10. B

RELATED ARTICLE: Don't Be a Copycat

* Cite the source of an idea or quotation you include in a report. To cite this article, for example, you would write ("Copycats Beware," Junior Scholastic, March 25, 2002, pp. 6-7).

* If you copy the exact words from a text or individual, you must put the words in quotation marks in your report.

* Put information into your own words. One strategy is to read an important section from a book, then close the book and write the idea down in your own words.

* Check at least three sources before including information in your report.

NEWS/SPECIALS

1. Scientists were unable to clone a dog, but they succeeded with a kitten named "cc." (true)

2. This year, the Academy Awards will award an Oscar in what new category? (best animated feature film)

3. In what Olympic event did Canadian and Russian teams share gold medals? (pairs figure skating).

4. According to President Bush, what countries make up the "Axis of Evil"? (Iraq, Iran, and North Korea)

5. Who competes in the Paralympics? (physically disabled athletes)

6. How did Piper High School in Kansas make national news? (A teacher quit rather than change the failing grades of 28 students accused of plagiarism.)