Prevent Plagiarism with Creative Assignments
Ideas for Faculty
Ideas to help insure students doing their own work on the research paper:
1. Have students include an annotated bibliography instead of the traditional list of sources. This could be required early in the semester to ensure that they actually start researching and reading early,
2. Require photocopies of references with relevant
sections highlighted.
3. Have students present their papers orally, answer
questions, defend their positions.
4. Assign papers shorter than 6 pages (6 being the
minimum for most paper mills).
5. Require a certain number of recent references
restricted to holdings in the university library system.
6. Require students to relate their topic to one or
more specific sources--a particular article, what was discussed in class or in
the textbook, etc.
7. After the paper is turned in, have a one-on-one conference in your office with the
student to ask questions about different aspects of the paper. "What
did you mean by...?"
8. Have students write an essay to answer these kinds of
questions: What did you learn from the assignment? What problems did
you face and how did you overcome them? What research strategy did you follow? Where did
you locate most of your sources? What is the most important thing you learned from investigating this subject?
(Harris) What part of the project are you most proud of? This could
be:
a. Written in class on the day they turn in their
papers
b. Turned in with the paper.
c. E-mailed to you throughout the semester as they work
on the assignment.
9. Stagger due dates for different parts of the
paper--assign the paper as a process. Require the paper to be formed
through a series of small steps at weekly or biweekly intervals.
10. Have students read each other's drafts.
11. Require a research log -- what search engines were used, what
journal indexes, what librarians were consulted, what reference works were
used---with a note about what was helpful and what wasn't. This could be turned
in with the paper or with each piece of the process.
12. Have students create a
"person-noting" page acknowledging all persons who provided any type
of assistance.
13. Require a component in the paper consisting of a personal experience,
a survey, or a transcript of an interview.
14. Include a question on the final exam that asks
students to summarize the main points of their research papers.
15. Require students to hand in notes or outlines with
their papers.
16. If students are interested in their topics, they will be more likely
to do the research themselves.
17. At the beginning of the process, set up a work session in the
library--have a reference librarian talk to the class about the best sources for
their topics and provide time for students to begin gathering information.
In addition to getting them started, the librarian becomes a familiar resource
for them to contact in the future.
18. Have students turn in printouts from
database searches as an early step. Ask a librarian to look over them and
help you evaluate the effectiveness of students' research strategies.(Stilling)
19. Keep a writing portfolio of each student's past
written assignments for comparison; or at the beginning of the term have students write one
page in class to get evidence of writing level for future.
20. Do not allow students to change topics at the last
minute.
21. Change topics each semester.
Topic and assignment ideas to eliminate
paper mill use:
1. Write about local issues.
2. Assign various sides of an issue to students in the
class. Then have them debate it when they turn in the papers.
3. Research very narrow topics or an unusual
combination of topics.
4. Provide a list of topics. Change it every
year.
5. Ask students to write about current events as they
relate to class materials.
6. Choose a past event and trace how it was covered in the various
types of media (news, newspapers, magazines, journals, etc.)
7. Have students compare media coverage of two similar
events. e.g. Assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy. Could be
inventions, scientific or medical discoveries, etc.
8. Trace the coverage of an event in old newspapers and compare with what is
known about the event today.
9. Make the assignment an interview with a leading figure of the time.
Students would research the person, write up an introduction, compose 10
questions to ask the person, and write out what they think the person would have
said in response.
10. Have students select a primary source document such as a diary and write about its author, historical context,
identify/explain unfamiliar terms, customs, etc. The library has collections of many primary source
materials. Any of the reference librarians can help you.
11. Assign a multimedia presentation rather than a
straight term paper.
12. Have students write a diary as if they were
participants in a historical event.
13. Require comparison of two viewpoints or documents on
the same issue.
14. Have the student adopt the point of view of an
historical character.
15. Have students compare a scholarly journal article, a
magazine article, a newspaper article, and a Web site on the same topic.
16. Have students write a newspaper story describing an
event.
17. Have students write an editorial or opinion
piece. It could be in historical context.
18. Compare journal articles with conservative vs. liberal
tendencies.
19. Using bibliographies, guides to the literature and
the Web, ask students to find primary sources on an issue or event, and write
about them.
20. Interview older family members about their earlier
life; research that time period and weave personal material with background.
Use newspapers and magazines of the time to see what information the person was
receiving.
21. Have students write an extensive obituary (as in
the New York Times) for a person who is still alive.
22. Students choose (or are assigned) a scholar/researcher. Explore
that person's career and ideas by locating biographical information, preparing a
bibliography of his/her writings, analyzing the reaction of the scholarly
community to the researcher's work, and examining the scholarly network in which
s/he works. (Sexty)
23. Read the articles cited in a research paper. Explain how
each is related to the paper. In what circumstances is it appropriate to
cite other papers? What different purposes do the citations serve? (Sexty)
24. Examine the treatment of a controversial issue in several sources
(newspaper editorial, scholarly journal, journals from different disciplines,
etc.) (Sexty)
25. Ask each student to describe a career they envision themselves in and then research the career choice. What are the leading companies in that area? Why? (If they choose something generic like marketing, what is the best company in their county of residence to work for? Why?) If the company is graded publicly, what is its net worth? What is the outlook for this occupation? Expected starting salary? How do the outlook and salaries vary by geography? (Ricigliano)
Sources used:
Assignment design strategies. Dalhousie Libraries. http://www.library.dal.ca/how/assignment.htm
Collins, Terry. Strategies for preventing plagiarism. University of
Minnesota-Twin Cities. http://cisw.cla.umn.edu/plagiarism/faculty/strategies.html
Harris,
Robert. Anti-plagiarism strategies for research papers. Virtual
Salt. http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm
Kemmerer, Kathleen. Techniques for encouraging academic
integrity. Penn State-Hazelton. http://www.hn.psu.edu/faculty/kkemmerer/acadintegrity/ac-integ.htm
List of assignments which can help prevent plagiarism. Dalhousie
Libraries. http://www.library.dal.ca/how/assignexamples.htm
Preventing plagiarism. Montgomery College. http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/library/preventingplagiarism.pdf
Preventing plagiarism. University of Alberta Libraries. http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/plagiarism/preventing/
Preventing plagiarism in student writing. Psychology Writing Center, University of Washington. http://depts.washington.edu/psywc/handouts/facplag.html
Ricigliano, Lori. Ideas for Library Related Assignments. University of Puget Sound. http://library.ups.edu/instruct/assign.htm
Sexty, Suzanne. Ideas for library/information assignments.
Memorial University of Newfoundland Libraries. http://www.mun.ca/library/research_help/qeii/assignment_ideas.html
Stilling, Glenn Ellen Starr. Beyond the research paper: Working with
faculty to maximize library-related assignments. In: Integrating
Information Literacy into the College Experience. Pierian Press, 2003.
Karen McClaskey
Head of Public Services
Pickler Memorial Library
Truman State University
Updated 11/2006