Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 2/17/05 Section: Campus News

More than 150 Academic Integrity violations are reported every year to San Jose State University's Office of Judicial Affairs.

This semester, more professors are choosing to use the interactive plagiarism tutorial created by the library.

"One of the SJSU librarians created a plagiarism quiz to help students get a better idea of what it is and how to avoid it," said Annette Nellen, Academic Senate chair.

The online tutorial describes the test as students having to register, reading through the materials, taking a pre-test and finally taking the actual test to receive a score. Students are prompted to take paragraphs and rewrite them to show their understanding.

The tutorial goes through an introduction of what plagiarism is, what paraphrasing is and how to stop plagiarism. Examples are given to make students gain a clear understanding of plagiarism.

"There are some students who I feel are truly confused as to what constitutes plagiarism, what is the difference between plagiarism, paraphrasing and how to incorporate the works and ideas of others into their papers," said Phil Carr, a justice studies lecturer.

"When reviewing papers with students, I sometimes found that they didn't have a clear understanding of the policy or the need for accurate documentation of their sources," Carr said.

A student of Carr's said this is true.

"I understood what plagiarism was, but I did not know the in-depth details," said Jacinta Hernandez, a junior majoring in justice studies. "There is a lot more to it than most people think."

During Fall 2004, 116 cases were reported to the Office of Judicial Affairs. There were 56 cases of cheating and 60 of plagiarism, with the College of Applied Sciences and Arts leading in reported cases.

"I believe some students do not know how San Jose State University defines it because they have never read the policy," said Debra Griffith, chief judicial affairs officer.

With the tutorial, students are given a chance to read through the policy that was updated in May 2004 by the Academic Senate and is a combination of the old policy and three amendments. The new policy focuses on ethics, student roles and responsibilities.

Students can face up to expulsion if they are caught plagiarizing, according to the new policy.

In Carr's class, it is his option to give the online tutorial.

"I decided this semester to require students in my class to review the policy and take the quiz as a learning tool," Carr said.

Carr said that it is a personal decision that each professor should make alone. He said he does not believe it should be mandatory for the college.

He said some might think it is waste of time, but others are testing the waters by having the students take the quiz.

"I may decide not to use it in the future, or if the quiz seems useful after this initial use in my class, I may include it in all my courses," Carr said.

The tutorial will soon prove whether it had an affect.

"After taking the quiz, there should be less people making mistakes," Hernandez said. "The statistics should drop."

Griffith agrees with Hernandez. She said that because of the differences in the new policy, there should be a decline.

"I think the quiz will help to reduce the number of plagiarized papers by reminding students that the college as a whole - and that I personally - take the problem very seriously," Carr said.

For people who plagiarize for reasons of stress or pressure from family members and other personal reasons, the tutorial might not change anything, Carr said.

"The very few cases where I have had students plagiarize an entire paper, each student admitted to the violation of policy and indicated they knew it was wrong," Carr said.

Students will always come up with a reason for what they did, Hernandez said.

"But for a variety of reasons - time problems, need for a higher grade, family pressures and expectations, too many writing assignments, etc. - they decided to turn in a plagiarized paper," Carr said.

With the tutorial, students are able to see all the consequences they will face.

"These students made a personal ethical decision, fully knowing their actions were wrong and the risk they were taking if discovered," Carr said.

Unlike these students, some students go to the Internet looking for a way out of an assignment.

"The variety of inaccurate information, information that is plagiarized by the Internet author, lack of references for the Web site information and the inability of Web site information to meet the scholarly test creates a variety of problems," Carr said.

Carr is not the only one on campus having his students participate in the online tutorial. From psychology and communication to nursing and English, many different academic departments are taking advantage of the online tutorial and looking for results.

"More professors need to have their students take the test," Hernandez said. "It may seem ridiculous at first, but once you take it, you learn a lot."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools