Avoiding+Plagiarism

First things first... let's debunk the myth about English teachers and plagiarism. We, as teachers, are constantly on the hunt for plagiarism in order to make the next notch on our belts... (bagged another one!). We have neither the time nor desire to catch our students "cheating" on papers and essays. When it happens it's fairly obvious. For example, it would be incredible rare to read the following from the typical high school student's essay: "The government's initial response to the current environmental disaster has been plague with both technicological and economic pitfalls which has put the entire Gulf ecosystem in jeopardy of survival." I'm not saying a high school student couldn't write this, but the style and vocabulary a simply more mature than the average high school English student. It's especially apparent when the student's typical writing looks like this: "The government has no clue what there doin with all that oil in the gulf" (errors intended). This type of discrepency sends a red flag to English teachers.

The type of plagiarism above is actually rather rare. Most of the time students plagiarize without even knowing it. It is this unintended form of plagiarism, the innocent mistakes, which we are trying to address and prevent. An innocent mistake in high school could cost you a course grade in college. Below you'll find a series of files which help explain in more detail what exactly plagiarism is and how you can prevent it. Make sure to take the self-quiz about what plagiarism is at the bottom of the page.

