Prevent Plagiarism with
Creative Assignments:
Ideas for Faculty
Ideas to help insure students doing their own work on the research paper:
1. Have students include an annotated bibliography instead of the traditional list of sources. This could be required early in the semester to ensure that they actually start researching and reading early,
2. Require photocopies of references
with relevant sections highlighted.
3. Have students present their papers orally, answer
questions, defend their positions.
4. Assign papers shorter than 6 pages (6 being the minimum for
most paper mills).
5. Require a certain number of recent references restricted to
holdings in the university library system.
6. Require students to relate their topic to one or more
specific sources--a particular article, what was discussed in class
or in the textbook, etc.
7. After the paper is turned in, have a one-on-one conference
in your office with the student to ask questions about different
aspects of the paper. "What did you mean by...?"
8. Have students write an essay to answer these kinds of
questions: What did you learn from the assignment? What
problems did you face and how did you overcome them? What
research strategy did you follow? Where did you locate most of
your sources? What is the most important thing you learned
from investigating this subject? (Harris) What part of the
project are you most proud of? This could be:
a. Written in class on the day they turn in
their papers
b. Turned in with the paper.
c. E-mailed to you throughout the semester
as they work on the assignment.
9. Stagger due dates for different parts of the paper--assign
the paper as a process. Require the paper to be formed through
a series of small steps at weekly or biweekly intervals.
10. Have students read each other's drafts.
11. Require a research log -- what search engines were
used, what journal indexes, what librarians were consulted, what
reference works were used---with a note about what was helpful and
what wasn't. This could be turned in with the paper or with
each piece of the process.
12. Have students create a "person-noting" page
acknowledging all persons who provided any type of assistance.
13. Require a component in the paper consisting of a personal
experience, a survey, or a transcript of an interview.
14. Include a question on the final exam that asks students to
summarize the main points of their research papers.
15. Require students to hand in notes or outlines with their
papers.
16. If students are interested in their topics, they will be
more likely to do the research themselves.
17. At the beginning of the process, set up a work session in
the library--have a reference librarian talk to the class about the
best sources for their topics and provide time for students to begin
gathering information. In addition to getting them started,
the librarian becomes a familiar resource for them to contact in the
future.
18. Have students turn in printouts from
database searches as an early step. Ask a librarian to look
over them and help you evaluate the effectiveness of students'
research strategies.(Stilling)
19. Keep a writing portfolio of each student's past written
assignments for comparison; or at the beginning of the term have
students write one page in class to get evidence of writing level
for future.
20. Do not allow students to change topics at the last minute.
21. Change topics each semester.
Topic and assignment ideas to eliminate
paper mill use:
1. Write about local issues.
2. Assign various sides of an issue to students in the class.
Then have them debate it when they turn in the papers.
3. Research very narrow topics or an unusual combination of
topics.
4. Provide a list of topics. Change it every year.
5. Ask students to write about current events as they relate
to class materials.
6. Choose a past event and trace how it was covered in the various
types of media (news, newspapers, magazines, journals, etc.)
7. Have students compare media coverage of two similar events.
e.g. Assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy. Could
be inventions, scientific or medical discoveries, etc.
8. Trace the coverage of an event in old newspapers and compare with
what is known about the event today.
9. Make the assignment an interview with a leading figure of
the time. Students would research the person, write up an
introduction, compose 10 questions to ask the person, and write out
what they think the person would have said in response.
10. Have students select a primary source document such as a
diary and write about its author, historical context,
identify/explain unfamiliar terms, customs, etc. The library
has collections of many primary source materials. Any of the
reference librarians can help you.
11. Assign a multimedia presentation rather than a straight
term paper.
12. Have students write a diary as if they were participants
in a historical event.
13. Require comparison of two viewpoints or documents on the
same issue.
14. Have the student adopt the point of view of an historical
character.
15. Have students compare a scholarly journal article, a
magazine article, a newspaper article, and a Web site on the same
topic.
16. Have students write a newspaper story describing an event.
17. Have students write an editorial or opinion piece.
It could be in historical context.
18. Compare journal articles with conservative vs. liberal
tendencies.
19. Using bibliographies, guides to the literature and the
Web, ask students to find primary sources on an issue or event, and
write about them.
20. Interview older family members about their earlier life;
research that time period and weave personal material with
background. Use newspapers and magazines of the time to see
what information the person was receiving.
21. Have students write an extensive obituary (as in the New
York Times) for a person who is still alive.
22. Students choose (or are assigned) a scholar/researcher.
Explore that person's career and ideas by locating biographical
information, preparing a bibliography of his/her writings, analyzing
the reaction of the scholarly community to the researcher's work,
and examining the scholarly network in which s/he works. (Sexty)
23. Read the articles cited in a research paper. Explain
how each is related to the paper. In what circumstances is it
appropriate to cite other papers? What different purposes do
the citations serve? (Sexty)
24. Examine the treatment of a controversial issue in several
sources (newspaper editorial, scholarly journal, journals from
different disciplines, etc.) (Sexty)
25. Ask each student to describe a career they envision themselves in and then research the career choice. What are the leading companies in that area? Why? (If they choose something generic like marketing, what is the best company in their county of residence to work for? Why?) If the company is graded publicly, what is its net worth? What is the outlook for this occupation? Expected starting salary? How do the outlook and salaries vary by geography? (Ricigliano)
Sources used:
Assignment design strategies. Dalhousie Libraries.
http://www.library.dal.ca/how/assignment.htm
Collins, Terry. Strategies for preventing plagiarism.
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
http://cisw.cla.umn.edu/plagiarism/faculty/strategies.html
Harris, Robert. Anti-plagiarism strategies for research
papers. Virtual Salt.
http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm
Kemmerer, Kathleen. Techniques for encouraging academic
integrity. Penn State-Hazelton.
http://www.hn.psu.edu/faculty/kkemmerer/acadintegrity/ac-integ.htm
List of assignments which can help prevent plagiarism.
Dalhousie Libraries.
http://www.library.dal.ca/how/assignexamples.htm
Preventing plagiarism. Montgomery College.
http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/library/preventingplagiarism.pdf
Preventing plagiarism. University of Alberta Libraries.
http://www.library.ualberta.ca/guides/plagiarism/preventing/
Preventing plagiarism in student writing. Psychology Writing Center, University of Washington. http://depts.washington.edu/psywc/handouts/facplag.html
Ricigliano, Lori. Ideas for Library Related Assignments. University of Puget Sound. http://library.ups.edu/instruct/assign.htm
Sexty, Suzanne. Ideas for
library/information assignments. Memorial University of
Newfoundland Libraries.
http://www.mun.ca/library/research_help/qeii/assignment_ideas.html
Stilling, Glenn Ellen Starr. Beyond the research paper:
Working with faculty to maximize library-related assignments.
In: Integrating Information Literacy into the College
Experience. Pierian Press, 2003.
Updated 11/2006
