Educating about Plagiarism

Plagiarism has been a cause for concern for international students studying on Canadian campuses and their instructors. Cultural and language factors may influence instances of plagiarism which may not necessarily imply a dishonest intention on the part of the student. Students may come from cultures where there is little need to acknowledge source information as their writing practices involve repeating collective wisdom. Students also may lack the language ability to extract and paraphrase the relevant points in what they are reading. Here are some tips for instructors who may have to deal with this issue:

• Highlight the reasons why referencing is used and give examples of correct referencing styles
• Model the use of referencing in lectures, presentations, and tutorials
• When discussing required readings, highlight certain sections where the author has synthesized the main ideas and referenced them
• Develop tasks that ask students to evaluate and analyze ideas that they have read
• Use examples of previous assignments to demonstrate how ideas can be presented and sources referenced

Create teachable moments out of seemingly bad situations. If an international student – especially a new student – is suspected of plagiarism, do not automatically assume intent to be dishonest. If the student explains the process of how they completed the assignment, you may see cultural conventions at work and have the opportunity to explain that the practice is unacceptable. Adopting an educative approach to plagiarism is preferable to one based solely on punishment.