6. Academic Integrity and Plagiarism

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In our final course module, we consider a common bump in the road: issues of academic integrity. At some point in your career, you will undoubtedly find yourself trying to understand a student’s intention and make a judgment call. This module shows you the different types of plagiarism you may encounter, how to help students understand plagiarism and use sources effectively, and UM’s policies and procedures for dealing with academic integrity problems.

We have included materials from UM’s Beyond Plagiarism project and the university’s Generative Artificial Intelligence website in this module. We highly recommend this site as a valuable tool with resources for both students and instructors.

In the introduction of her classic essay “Plagiarisms, Authorships, and the Academic Death Penalty,” Rebecca Moore Howard notes that,

most published discussions of student plagiarism proceed from the assumption that plagiarism occurs as a result of one of two possible motivations: an absence of ethics or an ignorance of citation conventions. (788)

Her summation clearly outlines the way the academy typically thinks about plagiarism—intentional and unintentional behavior.

Intentional plagiarism is purchasing or borrowing someone else’s work and passing it off as your own. Unintentional plagiarism includes citation problems and patchwriting. The UM library’s useful chart, Types of Plagiarism, explains which activities fall into the intentional and unintentional categories. The Council of Writing Program Administrators’ statement “Defining Plagiarism” uses a similar distinction and terms intentional behavior “plagiarism” and unintentional behavior “misuse of sources.” Taken together, these resources clarify what instructors should be aware of when reading their students’ writing.

Academic integrity can feel like an abstract concept. In the video below, Megan Sweeney, Arthur F. Thurnau Associate Professor of English and former Director of the English Department Writing Program, explains why proper use of sources matters to an academic community.

The clip presents two key points for students:

  • Effective use of sources helps you engage with others’ ideas and develop your own
  • Your teachers are available to you; instead of trying to fool them, use them as resources

The Effects of Plagiarism on the Academic Community

In a second video, Megan Sweeney offers advice for students feeling overwhelmed with work, which is the primary cause of intentional plagiarism. 

Key points in this video include:

  • Everyone experiences struggles with writing
  • We think better in dialogue with other people: as a result, times when you’re struggling are times to reach out for help
  • Instructors won’t judge you when you ask for help
  • In addition to talking to your instructor, you can talk to others, like your peers or other professors
  • There is always someone at the university you can reach out to

I’m feeling overwhelmed with work.  What should I do?

Both of these videos, filmed for the Beyond Plagiarism project, are resources you can offer students to frame conversations about what academic integrity is and why it matters.

One of the most effective plagiarism deterrents available to you is to teach your students how to use sources appropriately. Patchwriting, a form of writing in which students attempt to paraphrase a source but remain too close to the original language and sentence structure, is a common form of unintentional plagiarism. You should expect that as students begin learning new disciplinary discourses, they may start as patchwriters on their way to a more nuanced understanding of how to use sources. We recommend an excellent resource on the Beyond Plagiarism site called Patchwriting as a Technique, which teaches students what patchwriting is and how to use sources more effectively.

GenAI also presents challenges to academic honesty. As the technology continues to evolve, so do the responses from scholarly stakeholders, including citation guides and pedagogy experts. The U-M GenAI faculty resource page offers suggestions on how to teach writing with GenAI, including having open discussions with students about the potentials and pitfalls of the technology and explicitly teaching students how to cite all sources, including GenAI output. Here is one library guide, from UC San Diego, about the current best practices for citing GenAI for each major manual of style.

If you suspect a student has plagiarized, your best course of action as a GSI is to refer the case to your professor. The two resources below address how to respond to plagiarism and the university procedures in place for addressing academic misconduct.

In this interview filmed for the Beyond Plagiarism project, Anne Curzan, Dean of Literature, Science, and the Arts Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of English at the University of Michigan and former director of the English Department Writing Program, outlines several useful and practical approaches for responding to student plagiarism.

Topics addressed in this clip include:

  • I suspect plagiarism.  What do I do?
  • What do I do if a student denies plagiarism?
  • What do I do if a student gets emotional?
  • What should instructors avoid doing at all costs?

Responding to Plagiarism

This final resource is LSA’s page on Academic Integrity. If you feel that you have a case of academic misconduct that should be referred to the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education, this page explains the university’s procedures:

Procedures for Resolving Academic Misconduct in LSA

See the faculty FAQ for further information.

Even if you decide to resolve a plagiarism case without involving the Dean’s office, we still encourage you to report the incident. If there is a repeat offense, the university should know about previous academic misconduct.

Write 200 words or more in response to the following prompt:

As we come to the end of our course modules, we encourage you to take a moment to reflect on your work thus far. How has your pedagogical practice changed? What changes do you still hope to make? What are you interested in developing in the future?

Write a reply to at least one other response that fully engages with the issues and questions your peer presents. You might add another perspective, add another question, or contribute additional thoughts to your peer’s response.

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