Plagiarism in the classroom: Prevention rather than detection

To prevent Plagiarism a student must first understand what it is.
The dictionary says Plagiarism is the unauthorized use, or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.
As a well-known saying says an ounce of prevention is still generally worth a pound of cure. This is why the dedicated, Teacher or Lecturer should make it clear to all students that prevention of plagiarism is better then detection.

It better, "not to do" than say" don't do it"

They must explain to the student why they see it is better to prevent a student from committing or being tempted to commit this act, and that detection is really quite easy for the trained and experienced eye and mind of a teaching professional.

But it is not enough to outline the reasoning or methods used to show when plagiarism has been committed, although it may actually convince and shock some as how easy it is to detect.
As we are all individuals and different in this society, so this is shown to be true by the fact we all have a different and distinct fingerprints. Writing of articles essays or even novels, provide a certain fingerprint in the production of written works.
The terms of reference, vocabulary, phraseology, metre, thought process, motivation, and emotive content that drives the text all provide a combination of style like DNA. All are used to indicate just who wrote this article. It can and will provide a profile of the writers character, there will never be two the same unless the text is copied.
It also is not enough to take a declared and recognized original work and change it slightly by replacement of words in a thesaurus to disguise the original text the character and true essence of the text will still show through, therefore it will be detected and a severe penalty will be applied to the student involved. This detection methodology is without the use of a computer; a computer properly programmed can detect rapidly any plagiarism act.

The true reason a teaching professional wants to prevent plagiarism, is that the student needs to understand it is not plagiarism to make reference to a text and declare it clearly, to some others work and use that for a building block to make their own expressed interpretation and opinion of the subject matter or text and if this has caused an original thought further to come from this then it is relevant and acceptable as a new thought.
The desire and expectation is for the student to not to deny themselves the journey of imagination, or to short change or cheat themselves of the realm of thoughts and possibilities that come from meditation of the text and subject involved, instead to think of other directions or purposes that may arise from such analytical thoughts and exploration, causing one to come to a conclusion about the subject matter or text or even the previous original author.
This then can be claimed as a new original thought.

If this understanding can be achieved plagiarism will not be seen as a viable option to any student they will ask for help and guidance in their studies and ultimately understand the opportunity they have to produce a lasting original thought that may cause the world to change.

Learn more about this author, Lindsay Raisbeck.
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