Caught copying
Plagiarism present but not prevalent on campus
Andrea Benda
Issue date: 10/11/07 Section: News
When Charles Steele taught in China, 80 to 90 percent of his class plagiarized the first draft of their term paper. Even the most honest students, he said, thought that was the way to do things.
But in his two years at Hillsdale, the assistant professor of economics has not encountered any plagiarism in his classes. This, however, is not the case for all professors.
While not excessive, plagiarism does occur on campus.
"I think we're human beings," Provost Bob Blackstock said. "We're fallen, imperfect. [Plagiarism] is a problem here. I like to think it is not as serious a problem as it is in many places. I have pretty high confidence in the integrity of the students here."
Last year, professors reported four students for academic honesty violations, which include plagiarism and cheating, Registrar Douglas McArthur said. McArthur could not give statistics for previous years because he has only held his position since last year, but some professors have reported as many as 15 cases in 16 years.
Junior John McNamara said he doesn't think plagiarism is a problem at Hillsdale.
"The classes are small enough where professors know students' writing style," he said in an e-mail to The Collegian. "If a student were to turn in something he or she did not write, I am assuming they would be caught."
Professors report student violations to McArthur, who handles administrative aspects such as sending notifications to accused students and processing appeals.
The registrar's office makes a note of the offense on the student's transcript, but it is removed at graduation, Blackstock said.
The college gives students the opportunity to appeal plagiarism accusations to the Academic Honesty Review Board, which is led by Blackstock.
On average, the board hears one appeal a semester, Blackstock said, usually for second offenses, which are punished with expulsion.
"The students essentially throw themselves on the mercy of the board," Blackstock said.
But the language of the policy gives the board little leeway in decision-making, he said.
While the board can find accused students innocent based on evidence, it cannot overturn the second-offense expulsion rule except in "extraordinary mitigating circumstances," Blackstock said.
English Department Chairman Michael Jordan has reported two students for second offenses, and both were expelled.
Blackstock said the college "tackled a metaphysical question" when deciding to postpone expulsion until the second offense.
"We decided everyone is entitled to a mistake, but not a second one," he said.
Professors have discretion on how to punish first-offense students who plagiarize in their classes, Jordan said. Often they fail the student on the assignment or in the class.
Peers on the jury
In addition to Blackstock, the Academic Honesty Board comprises three faculty members and three students, all of whom serve one-year terms.
Blackstock said student involvement has been essential to the board since it was conceived 25 years ago because their presence increases the integrity and credibility of the board.
Senior Ashley LaCarter, a student member of the board, agreed.
"We're better equipped to understand their plea," she said.
Blackstock said students "historically are not soft on plagiarism."
Postponed appeal hearings
Two students, both of whom asked that their names be withheld, said they were dissatisfied with the inflexibility of the appeals process. They were both told they had to wait until after final exams for a hearing.
A junior, who filed an appeal for a false plagiarism accusation her freshman year, said her grades suffered in the interim because she was too nervous about the hearing.
A senior, who was accused of plagiarism his freshman year and ended up not having to appeal, said it would have been expensive and inconvenient for him to return to campus for the appeal trial because he lives 2,000 miles away.
Blackstock said the appeals trials are held as soon as the entire board is available and not intentionally postponed until after final exams. He said, however, hearings are often held at the end of the semester or after final exams because offenses tend to occur late in the semester, probably due to stress and heavy workloads.
Detecting plagiarism
Jordan said he has reported 15 cases of plagiarism to the registrar since 1991. In more than two-thirds of the instances, the students had taken material from the Internet, he said.
"It's easy to detect," Jordan said. "You can see shifts in tone, point of view, style and sophistication of the argument."
Steele said he also finds plagiarism easy to detect and that he is almost always right when he gets the feeling he has read something before.
"Unfortunately, I'm pretty good at it," he said.
In his History of Economic Thought class, Steele requires his students to turn in drafts so they can learn from their writing mistakes and cite properly.
Senior David Kern, who has taken classes with Steele, said the amount of time Steele spends talking about plagiarism in class has made Kern more careful about correct citation.
"He spent probably a whole hour of class talking about plagiarism, and he even walked us thought a PowerPoint presentation he had made with examples of acceptable versus not acceptable citations," Kern said in an e-mail to The Collegian. "Before a term paper, he always takes time to talk about plagiarism and the method of citation that he prefers."
Jordan said he tries to assign essay topics for which ready-made essays would be difficult to find on the Internet.
Jordan said he thinks plagiarism has increased in general due to the ease of cutting and pasting entire paragraphs from the Internet. Once, he said, he received a paper in which a student did not even change the font of a section he copied from the Internet.
Careless plagiarism
Professors say there are instances when plagiarism is not malicious but due to carelessness or lack of knowledge about proper sourcing. No professors said they would report students to the registrar in these situations.
Kern said he thinks this careless plagiarism is often a result of a lack of understand about citation.
"I know that sometimes kids think that because they are not copying an author word for word, they can use their words without being committed to citing them," Kern said. "So I think that if plagiarism is a big problem on campus, a big reason for that is that students don't realize that they have to cite an author even if they are not quoting directly, but instead just stating their idea."
Jordan said the English department tries to teach freshmen about proper sourcing early on to avoid those situations.
Associate Professor of Chemistry Mark Nussbaum said plagiarism in his department typically appears in the form of "sloppy referencing" or relying too heavily on one source. He said he has seen it most often in first drafts of theses and typically just tells the student to fix it for the final draft.
"It's a learning process," he said. Nussbaum said intentional plagiarism that professors would report to the registrar is "very rare" in the chemistry department.
But in his two years at Hillsdale, the assistant professor of economics has not encountered any plagiarism in his classes. This, however, is not the case for all professors.
While not excessive, plagiarism does occur on campus.
"I think we're human beings," Provost Bob Blackstock said. "We're fallen, imperfect. [Plagiarism] is a problem here. I like to think it is not as serious a problem as it is in many places. I have pretty high confidence in the integrity of the students here."
Last year, professors reported four students for academic honesty violations, which include plagiarism and cheating, Registrar Douglas McArthur said. McArthur could not give statistics for previous years because he has only held his position since last year, but some professors have reported as many as 15 cases in 16 years.
Junior John McNamara said he doesn't think plagiarism is a problem at Hillsdale.
"The classes are small enough where professors know students' writing style," he said in an e-mail to The Collegian. "If a student were to turn in something he or she did not write, I am assuming they would be caught."
Professors report student violations to McArthur, who handles administrative aspects such as sending notifications to accused students and processing appeals.
The registrar's office makes a note of the offense on the student's transcript, but it is removed at graduation, Blackstock said.
The college gives students the opportunity to appeal plagiarism accusations to the Academic Honesty Review Board, which is led by Blackstock.
On average, the board hears one appeal a semester, Blackstock said, usually for second offenses, which are punished with expulsion.
"The students essentially throw themselves on the mercy of the board," Blackstock said.
But the language of the policy gives the board little leeway in decision-making, he said.
While the board can find accused students innocent based on evidence, it cannot overturn the second-offense expulsion rule except in "extraordinary mitigating circumstances," Blackstock said.
English Department Chairman Michael Jordan has reported two students for second offenses, and both were expelled.
Blackstock said the college "tackled a metaphysical question" when deciding to postpone expulsion until the second offense.
"We decided everyone is entitled to a mistake, but not a second one," he said.
Professors have discretion on how to punish first-offense students who plagiarize in their classes, Jordan said. Often they fail the student on the assignment or in the class.
Peers on the jury
In addition to Blackstock, the Academic Honesty Board comprises three faculty members and three students, all of whom serve one-year terms.
Blackstock said student involvement has been essential to the board since it was conceived 25 years ago because their presence increases the integrity and credibility of the board.
Senior Ashley LaCarter, a student member of the board, agreed.
"We're better equipped to understand their plea," she said.
Blackstock said students "historically are not soft on plagiarism."
Postponed appeal hearings
Two students, both of whom asked that their names be withheld, said they were dissatisfied with the inflexibility of the appeals process. They were both told they had to wait until after final exams for a hearing.
A junior, who filed an appeal for a false plagiarism accusation her freshman year, said her grades suffered in the interim because she was too nervous about the hearing.
A senior, who was accused of plagiarism his freshman year and ended up not having to appeal, said it would have been expensive and inconvenient for him to return to campus for the appeal trial because he lives 2,000 miles away.
Blackstock said the appeals trials are held as soon as the entire board is available and not intentionally postponed until after final exams. He said, however, hearings are often held at the end of the semester or after final exams because offenses tend to occur late in the semester, probably due to stress and heavy workloads.
Detecting plagiarism
Jordan said he has reported 15 cases of plagiarism to the registrar since 1991. In more than two-thirds of the instances, the students had taken material from the Internet, he said.
"It's easy to detect," Jordan said. "You can see shifts in tone, point of view, style and sophistication of the argument."
Steele said he also finds plagiarism easy to detect and that he is almost always right when he gets the feeling he has read something before.
"Unfortunately, I'm pretty good at it," he said.
In his History of Economic Thought class, Steele requires his students to turn in drafts so they can learn from their writing mistakes and cite properly.
Senior David Kern, who has taken classes with Steele, said the amount of time Steele spends talking about plagiarism in class has made Kern more careful about correct citation.
"He spent probably a whole hour of class talking about plagiarism, and he even walked us thought a PowerPoint presentation he had made with examples of acceptable versus not acceptable citations," Kern said in an e-mail to The Collegian. "Before a term paper, he always takes time to talk about plagiarism and the method of citation that he prefers."
Jordan said he tries to assign essay topics for which ready-made essays would be difficult to find on the Internet.
Jordan said he thinks plagiarism has increased in general due to the ease of cutting and pasting entire paragraphs from the Internet. Once, he said, he received a paper in which a student did not even change the font of a section he copied from the Internet.
Careless plagiarism
Professors say there are instances when plagiarism is not malicious but due to carelessness or lack of knowledge about proper sourcing. No professors said they would report students to the registrar in these situations.
Kern said he thinks this careless plagiarism is often a result of a lack of understand about citation.
"I know that sometimes kids think that because they are not copying an author word for word, they can use their words without being committed to citing them," Kern said. "So I think that if plagiarism is a big problem on campus, a big reason for that is that students don't realize that they have to cite an author even if they are not quoting directly, but instead just stating their idea."
Jordan said the English department tries to teach freshmen about proper sourcing early on to avoid those situations.
Associate Professor of Chemistry Mark Nussbaum said plagiarism in his department typically appears in the form of "sloppy referencing" or relying too heavily on one source. He said he has seen it most often in first drafts of theses and typically just tells the student to fix it for the final draft.
"It's a learning process," he said. Nussbaum said intentional plagiarism that professors would report to the registrar is "very rare" in the chemistry department.
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