Dealing with plagiarism: Dogmas and dilemmas

Shelley Yeo and Robyn Chien
Curtin University of Technology

Keywords: plagiarism; scholarly writing skills; evidence

Academic staff face many dilemmas when dealing with an alleged plagiarism incident: Is it plagiarism or not? If so, how serious is the incident? Is the evidence sufficient to accuse the student concerned? What can we do to support student learning? This interactive workshop will enable participants to

1. confront and classify some plagiarism incidents;
2. discuss their expectations of students' scholarly writing skills; and
3. review the evidence needed to initiate a formal response to plagiarism.

Workshop details: (1 hour interactive)

Three themes will be explored (particularly in relation to first year students)

• The seriousness of plagiarism incidents
• Judging the quality of students' scholarly writing
• Deciding to report an incident

Aims:

• Participants to reveal their beliefs about plagiarism - what it is and what it is not.
• Foster discussion on the criteria academics use to judge the seriousness of plagiarism incidents.
• Foster discussion on the amount and/or robustness of evidence needed to initiate a formal response to plagiarism.

Outcomes:

• A series of incidents ranked according to degree of seriousness (based on participants' collective views).
• (A list of) criteria used to judge the quality of students' scholarly writing.
• (A list of) factors that prompt academics to not initiate formal proceedings against a student.