Spring Break
UA finds ways to help students avoid plagiarism
Jessica Burk
Issue date: 9/12/08 Section: News
Plagiarism has been a problem among UA students in the last few years, according to statistics from the Office of Community Standards and Student Ethics.
In the 2005-06 school year, 147 cases of academic dishonesty were reported, and 66 of those cases were regarding plagiarism, said Sandra Vasquez, OCSSE assistant director.
In the 2007-08 school year, 123 cases of academic dishonesty were reported, 50 of those being cases of plagiarism, she said.
In response to these numbers, the Enhanced Learning Center, the Quality Writing Center and the OCSSE are offering a free workshop for UA students called "Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism."
Carolyn Wisniewski, a former UA graduate student, designed the program. In this workshop, UA doctoral student Grant Bain, who has been presenting the workshop since its beginning two years ago, explains to students what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.
Plagiarism, in its simplest form, is taking other people's ideas, words or arguments without giving them credit and passing those ideas off as original, whether it is intentional or not, said UA graduate assistant Kelly Westeen.
"Technically, taking any idea and representing it as your own [is plagiarism]," Bain said.
Plagiarism can range from things such as copying and pasting information to using photographs, charts, graphs and statistics without attributing the information, he said.
Minor forms of plagiarism include not using quotation marks properly and paraphrasing and summarizing incorrectly, he said.
"When in doubt, go ahead and cite," Bain said.
Because the university has a "no excuses" policy, students should familiarize themselves with the student handbook, Westeen said. The handbook can be found on the OCSSE Web site.
"You have to know what [plagiarism] is and what it constitutes," Westeen said. "Also, just talk to someone on campus."
Most students plagiarize because of time-management issues or because they feel their writing isn't up to par, she said. Resources on campus that can help students with questions they may have are the QWC, located in Kimpel Hall, and the ELC, located in Gregson Hall.
In the 2005-06 school year, 147 cases of academic dishonesty were reported, and 66 of those cases were regarding plagiarism, said Sandra Vasquez, OCSSE assistant director.
In the 2007-08 school year, 123 cases of academic dishonesty were reported, 50 of those being cases of plagiarism, she said.
In response to these numbers, the Enhanced Learning Center, the Quality Writing Center and the OCSSE are offering a free workshop for UA students called "Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism."
Carolyn Wisniewski, a former UA graduate student, designed the program. In this workshop, UA doctoral student Grant Bain, who has been presenting the workshop since its beginning two years ago, explains to students what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.
Plagiarism, in its simplest form, is taking other people's ideas, words or arguments without giving them credit and passing those ideas off as original, whether it is intentional or not, said UA graduate assistant Kelly Westeen.
"Technically, taking any idea and representing it as your own [is plagiarism]," Bain said.
Plagiarism can range from things such as copying and pasting information to using photographs, charts, graphs and statistics without attributing the information, he said.
Minor forms of plagiarism include not using quotation marks properly and paraphrasing and summarizing incorrectly, he said.
"When in doubt, go ahead and cite," Bain said.
Because the university has a "no excuses" policy, students should familiarize themselves with the student handbook, Westeen said. The handbook can be found on the OCSSE Web site.
"You have to know what [plagiarism] is and what it constitutes," Westeen said. "Also, just talk to someone on campus."
Most students plagiarize because of time-management issues or because they feel their writing isn't up to par, she said. Resources on campus that can help students with questions they may have are the QWC, located in Kimpel Hall, and the ELC, located in Gregson Hall.
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 5
Maria Ostridge
posted 2/24/09 @ 11:10 PM CST
I have to agree with teh poster above... :/ looks like a lot of hot air to me.
Jane Bailey
posted 2/25/09 @ 7:28 AM CST
Great article. I agree totally.
Caroline Pellyn
posted 3/05/09 @ 11:13 AM CST
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Dawn Redden
posted 3/09/09 @ 5:27 AM CST
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Rachel Whitney
posted 3/11/09 @ 2:42 AM CST
That looks like lots of fun. When I was in college we didn't had so many fun activities.
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