Making Students Aware of Copyright Laws will Help Prevent ...



Making Students Aware of Copyright Laws will Help Prevent Plagiarism

Jeffrey R. Bouwman

With all of the technological advances made with today’s computers, many find the copy and paste features to be quite helpful when creating Word documents. However, these features are often tempting for students to use when creating assigned papers and/or reports. These features have made it possible for students to take the “easy way” out of writing, thus making plagiarism an educational concern. The copy and paste features make it easy for students to click, highlight, and extract information from the Internet and place it into a report with ease. Therefore, it has become extremely difficult for teachers to prevent plagiarism (McCullen, 2002). Plagiarism is defined as using another person’s ideas or expressions in one’s writing without acknowledging the source (University of Michigan, 1998). McCullen also states that the numbers of websites that prepare essays, reports, and papers for students to either copy and/or pay for are growing substantially. When students either plagiarize and/or turn in a paid-for prepared report that is trademarked, he/she becomes subject to copyright laws. Copyright laws are designed to protect one’s intellectual property, and permission must be obtained to use one’s previously trademarked ideas and/or information. Protected (trademarked) works can include: music, digital images, videos, written words, and a wide variety of other media forms. Anyone who is caught plagiarizing trademarked work without permission is subject to being prosecuted in a court of law (The Learning Center, 2007). Plagiarizing jeopardizes academic honesty, and harsh penalties are in place for stealing (plagiarizing) another person’s work. It is important for school districts to strongly encourage students to avoid plagiarizing. In my opinion, there are three steps that a school district can implement to help prevent plagiarism. First, teachers must educate students on how to accurately reference and cite information, as well as provide students with an understanding of the multimedia fair use guidelines. Second, a clear-cut policy with rules and consequences must be in place for elementary, middle school, and high school students. Finally, a district needs to select a tool to help teachers and administrators check for plagiarism. A school district that makes students aware of plagiarism and copyright laws, as well as the consequences of breaking such rules, will better inform and discourage students from plagiarizing another’s work.

Potential arguments against developing a district wide anti-plagiarizing policy could be the amount of time and money necessary to develop such a program. First, teachers may want to reject a school-wide anti-plagiarism policy due to the amount of extra time he/she may have to dedicate to search for plagiarism. With an already busy workload of planning lessons, correcting papers, and meeting with parents, etc., teachers may find it difficult to find the extra time necessary to devote to the program. Second, with constant budget issues, how can a district afford to fund an extra program? In my opinion, the answer is easy - to help encourage academic honesty and discourage plagiarizing, school districts must find a way to stop students from copying, pasting, and submitting. Although it may add extra time, educators must make students aware of academic honesty and the consequences that come with breaking federal copyright laws. Students must understand the importance of avoiding plagiarizing. As far as budgeting issues, writing is often judged on standardized state testing. If a school district does not make a conscious effort to stop plagiarism, students will not be able to perform up to par on designated writing portions of standardized tests. When students do not meet standards and benchmarks of the No Child Left Behind Policy, poor results reflect poorly upon the school district’s academic progress goal (Roberts, 2007). It is in the best interest of a school district to find a way to provide funding to help put a stop to plagiarism.

In order for a school district to make a positive stand against plagiarism, every teacher (both tenured and non-tenured) must discourage students from copying, pasting, and submitting information that is not their own work. Plagiarism defeats the purpose of writing assignments (University of Oklahoma). Teachers must encourage students to “use their own words.” If students quote, paraphrase, or summarize, it is important that he/she knows how to cite and reference all material incorporated into their paper/project. Students must also be provided with important copyright information such as a summary of multimedia fair use guidelines. Most students probably have no idea of the number of pictures, audio, database information, etc. that he/she is allowed to use safely when creating a report/project. For instance, students are only allowed to incorporate either ten seconds or 30 percent of a song, whichever is less (Harper, 2001). Discouraging plagiarism and providing guidelines for students to cite, reference, and fair use will help prevent plagiarism, potential prosecution by law, and better encourage academic honesty.

Students must understand the importance of academic honesty and the potential threat of persecution for stealing copyrighted material. It is necessary for school districts to have a clear-cut anti-plagiarism policy in place with specific rules and consequences. Teachers should explain their district’s policy in depth to better aid student understanding (McCullen, 2002). Specific rules and consequences must be set up for elementary, middle school, and high school students. As elementary students learn how to write essays, papers, and create projects, it is important for teachers to strongly discourage copying another individual’s work. Less harsh consequences should be in place for elementary students as students are trying to learn how to write reports, and most students typically do not know how to cite and reference material used. As students grow older, he/she will become more informed to their school’s plagiarism policy. As students progress, the penalty for plagiarizing should become stricter. By providing a clear-cut guideline, detailing rules and consequences, students will know that it is expected to avoid plagiarism.

To make it easier for educators to check for plagiarizing, there are numerous companies and/or products that school districts can utilize and/or purchase. With constant budget cuts, it is often difficult for school districts to fund additional resources and services. To save money, educators can perform keyword searches utilizing one of a wide variety of search engines provided on the Internet. Teachers can take keywords, phrases, and/or whole sentences and search the World Wide Web to find duplicated work (Valenza, 2004). Another option is purchasing a digital service. There are numerous digital services provided on-line that compare a student’s work to both information found on the Internet and other student papers that have been turned in previously. The service looks in-depth for plagiarism. In order to choose an electronic digital service, a school district needs to find a service that is easy for their teachers and administrators to utilize. A district’s budget must also be taken into consideration when purchasing a service. Teachers can also become better prepared to stop plagiarism by becoming aware of electronic paper mills that sell prepared papers to students. Using a keyword search, one can view various paper mill websites and take notice to specific topics and details provided by specific companies. Teachers might even have the opportunity to view an essay that students could purchase and/or copy, paste, and submit. It is believed that plagiarism decreases when students know that teachers can check his/her work and compare it to other sources found on the Internet (McCullen, 2002).

In conclusion, plagiarism is a major academic concern in today’s classroom. With all of the information and content that is readily available on the Internet, it is very tempting for students to click, highlight, copy, and paste information and label it as their own work (McCullen, 2002). When students steal another individual’s work and take credit for it, academic honesty is lost and students can be subject to prosecution for breaking copyright laws. In order to discourage students from copying, pasting, and submitting, a school district must take a strong stance against plagiarism. First, teachers must inform students on how to properly cite and reference every quote, paraphrase, and summary. This will show students how to give proper credit to the founding author(s). Teachers also need to teach students how to put ideas into “their own words”, as opposed to copying information word for word. Students must be aware of the multimedia use guidelines, and know how much content he/she can use in their reports/projects. Second, a school district must have a clear-cut anti-plagiarism policy in place for elementary, middle school, and high school students with specific rules and consequences. A well-defined policy will better inform students about the rules and consequences of plagiarism. Third, it is easier for teachers to check for plagiarism with the use of an Internet search engines and/or a digital service. These options/services search the Internet and/or other students’ previously turned-in work to check for plagiarism. It is my firm belief that if a school district educates its students to properly cite and reference information, has a clear-cut anti-plagiarism policy, and utilizes scanning tools, students will avoid plagiarizing.

In today’s world where “technology makes everything easy,” educators must solemnly commit to stopping plagiarism. Although this task sounds easy, the Internet provides students with a world of information right at their fingertips. To develop one’s plan of action, I recommend that educators search the Internet to find anti-plagiarism ideas. There are websites and educational articles that provide information regarding reasons why students copy, paste, and submit, suggestions on how to look for plagiarism, as well as information on how to prevent plagiarism. As every educator has his/her own unique style of teaching, each must dedicate the time to find ideas that he/she feels best suit their teaching style, and then implement their newly discovered ideas into practice.

Resources

Harper, Georgia. (2001). “Copyright Law in the Electronic Environment.” Retrieved August 8, 2007, from .

McCullen, Caroline. (2002). “Preventing Digital Plagiarism.” Retrieved August 8, 2007, from .

Roberts, Bill. (2007). “7 in 10 Schools Don’t Meet Statewide Goals.” Retrieved August 10, 2007, from .

The Learning Center. (2007). “Plagiarism Definitions, Tips on Avoiding Plagiarism, Guidelines.” Retrieved August 12, 2007, from .

The University of Michigan Libraries. (1998). “Plagiarism” Retrieved August 12, 2007, from .

The University of Oklahoma and the UOSA Honor Council. “Nine Things You Should Already Know About Plagiarism.” Retrieved August 12, 2007 from .

Valenza, Joyce. (2004). “Anti Plagiarism Campaign: The Struggle for Academic Integrity.” Retrieved August 9, 2007, from

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download