Upcoming: Beyond the Quotation Marks: Preventing Plagiarism and Teaching about Academic Discourse (Feb 28)
Time & Date: 4:10—5:30 p.m., Monday, February 28
Facilitator: Derek Bruff, Assistant Director, CFT
Audience: Faculty, Graduate and Professional Students, and Post-docs
Panelists:
- Andy Van Schaack, Assistant Professor of the Practice of Human & Organizational Development
- Roger Moore, Senior Lecturer in English and Director of Undergraduate Writing (A&S)
- Lynn Ramey, Associate Professor of French
Co-Sponsored by the A&S Undergraduate Writing Program
Cut-and-paste plagiarism has never been easier. However, in an August 2010 New York Times article, reporter Trip Gabriel wrote, “The Internet may also be redefining how students—who came of age with music file-sharing, Wikipedia, and Web-linking—understand the concept of authorship and the singularity of any text or image.” Gabriel cites a Center for Academic Integrity study in which 40 percent of undergraduates admitted to “copying [at least] a few sentences in written assignments.” In a December 2010 opinion column, Vanderbilt senior Katie Des Pez said, “Often cheating comes from a student who feels overwhelmed, underprepared, and generally pressured to succeed… They may feel as if cheating is really the only way to perform at the same level as their peers, who they might suspect are also cheating.”
Given the seriousness with which the academic community takes plagiarism, changing societal norms about authorship and originality, and the competitive culture our students often experience, how can we effectively educate our students about plagiarism? What steps can we take to help students understand the nature of academic discourse and academic norms about working with sources? What kinds of assignments and resources we can provide that reduce our students’ motivation and ability to plagiarize? This Conversation on Teaching will feature a panel of faculty sharing their answers to some of these questions, as well as roundtable discussion of this challenging topic.
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