Hi, Rebecca and other dear teachers. I have about 2 pages on citation in all of my syllabi where I explain how to do it, providing examples, and so on. I close that section with a very nasty statement, bolded, underlined and italicized that plagiarism is an actionable offense and if I catch you, we're going to the dean and I will seek the maximum punishment allowable.
Our dean is very supportive of the faculty and he's even helped me prove the case when I had not much more than a suspicion. The form is easy to fill out and he pulls the student aside to explain what has happened. I've had a few cases contested and in every case the dean and committee have agreed with my position. If it's clear in the syllabus, the student has very little room for defense when s/he plagiarises.
The other way I deal with it is to write different paper assignements every year and make them specific enough that they are really unlikely to find a paper mill that will have a paper to buy. That doesn't stop them from lifting paragraphs from websites here and there, but that's really easy to detect.
Hope that helps, A.
Department of Sociology
Willamette University
900 State Street
Salem, OR 97301
Phone: 503.370.6313
Fax: 503.370.6512
"It's not enough to know that things work.
The laurels go to those who can show HOW they work."
>From: "beccahenthorn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [email protected]
>Subject: TEACHSOC: Policy on academic dishonesty?
>Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005 14:19:39 -0700
>
>
>I was just wondering how the rest of you guys deal with academic
>dishonesty. Do you have a school wide or departmental policy? Do you
>have a statement about academic dishonesty in your course syllabus, and
>how is the student disciplined for such behaviors.
>
>Rebecca Henthorn
>Murray State College
>Tishomingo, OK 73460
>http://mscok.edu/~bhenthorn
>
