2008 Woodie Awards
Plagiarism a concern for students, instructors
Gavin Turman/Ranger Reporter
Issue date: 5/4/06 Section: Features
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Plagiarism occurs everywhere, even at Amarillo College. Teachers are taking notice of the problem and are trying to detect it before it gets out of hand.
Plagiarism, according to the AC Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, can be defined as "the appropriating, buying, receiving as a gift or obtaining by any means another's work and the unacknowledged submission or incorporation of it in one's own written work."
"The instructor has the right to address any instructional issue. If the instructor feels that you plagiarized, they can count off, they can fail you for the assignment or whatever it is they decide to do," said Robert Austin, associate dean of student services.
"However, they also have the option to address it as a student discipline issue."
Another form of plagiarism is called collusion, which can be found in the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook as "the unauthorized collaboration with another person in preparing written work for fulfillment of course requirements."
"Studies have shown that students don't know as much about plagiarism as teachers think they do," said Jana Comerford, a library instructor. "Librarians are usually the ally in helping faculty find the original source of material suspected of being plagiarized."
According to http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism_stats.html, a national survey published in Education Week found that 54 percent of students use the Internet to plagiarize, while 74 percent of students admit to plagiarizing at least once in the past school year and 47 percent of students believe that their teachers seem to ignore the fact that they are cheating.
"It degrades our educational environment for everybody involved," said Scott Beckett, a music professor. "For professors, we have to spend extra time tracking it down, while it could be spent stimulating knowledge in their area to pass on to students, grading papers or sitting down with students to have conferences."
Plagiarism, according to the AC Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, can be defined as "the appropriating, buying, receiving as a gift or obtaining by any means another's work and the unacknowledged submission or incorporation of it in one's own written work."
"The instructor has the right to address any instructional issue. If the instructor feels that you plagiarized, they can count off, they can fail you for the assignment or whatever it is they decide to do," said Robert Austin, associate dean of student services.
"However, they also have the option to address it as a student discipline issue."
Another form of plagiarism is called collusion, which can be found in the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook as "the unauthorized collaboration with another person in preparing written work for fulfillment of course requirements."
"Studies have shown that students don't know as much about plagiarism as teachers think they do," said Jana Comerford, a library instructor. "Librarians are usually the ally in helping faculty find the original source of material suspected of being plagiarized."
According to http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism_stats.html, a national survey published in Education Week found that 54 percent of students use the Internet to plagiarize, while 74 percent of students admit to plagiarizing at least once in the past school year and 47 percent of students believe that their teachers seem to ignore the fact that they are cheating.
"It degrades our educational environment for everybody involved," said Scott Beckett, a music professor. "For professors, we have to spend extra time tracking it down, while it could be spent stimulating knowledge in their area to pass on to students, grading papers or sitting down with students to have conferences."
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