Plagiarism
The online plagiarism problem
There is a common misconception amoung children that everything on the internet is free to copy and use. Plagiarism - the taking of ideas from another person and passing them off as one's own - needs to be explained to children as soon as they start using the net for school research.
The internet has made two types of plagiarism much easier, these are:
- cut-and-paste plagiarism, whereby a student finds a website, copies a part and pastes it into their work without referencing the original author or making it clear that the section they've copied is not their own work
- bought-and-paid-for plagiarism, whereby students simply buy someone else's work - this is very easy these days from the likes of Papers4Less.com, Cheathouse.com, Research-Assistance.com or Schoolsucks.com
The ease of access to information via the internet and the ability to paste into homework assignments is not only causing an increase in plagiarism, but is affecting pupils' critical thinking skills. According to recent UK research, 4 in 10 pupils aged 9 to 19 trust most of the information on the internet.
What to do about it
Parents can back up teachers when research assignments come home. You can start by helping your children conduct internet searches and then evaluating with them what they find. You can also show them how to cite the source(s) properly and, perhaps most important of all, you can help your children to develop their own reasoned judgement about the information they've found.
For younger children especially it's a good idea to bookmark a few websites that you know to be reliable sources of information. Sites from the BBC, or links recommended by the school, educators or librarians can usually be trusted. You can then encourage children to search within them.
The most important thing parents can do is encourage children to ask themselves questions about what they're seeing on the screen where it comes from, how reliable it is, and what use it's appropriate for. Seequick.org.uk for a good checklist of questions to ask about a web-based information source.
Next Steps
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