Introduction
Students soon discover that writing papers and doing projects can involve
quite a bit of work. Unfortunately, some students try to reduce their
academic workload by copying material for their papers and other
assignments from classmates or other sources. Some have reduced the entire
operation to a simple copy-and-paste procedure taking just a few minutes.
The educational establishment objects to this practice, however,
because such methods subvert the learning process. Assignments are
designed as learning experiences, but nothingof any value is learned
through copying someone else's work. That's why colleges and
universities make such a point of clarifying--and
enforcing--their policies on plagiarism (see below).
In the larger sense, plagiarism is frowned upon in just about any setting
one can mention. Reputations and careers have been damaged by attempts to
"borrow" thoughts and ideas from others and represent them as
original. Copyrights, patents and other ways of protecting
"intellectual property" exist primarily to keep that kind of
thing from happening.
Another problem is that in so many cases, the sciences particularly,
blindly copying the work of others leads to the perpetuation of myth
and misinformation. Thorough research tends to reveal the differences of
opinion on a given topic, and without this kind of responsible scholarship,
people are likely to represent all kinds of nonsense as factual and accurate.
This WebQuest will make you aware of the issues involved and show you how
to avoid this major "gotcha" in academic life and beyond.
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The Task
The task is to research the issue of plagiarism and become aware of
how the larger world views it. You will then go on to see how to avoid
plagiarism by following the proper procedures in doing research and
citing the sources of your information and other material.
The task, then, is to write a well researched and thoroughly
documented paper on the topic. Be sure to keep up with all the
sources of your information and cite them in proper MLA style on
your Works Cited page.
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The Process
The first step is to become familiar with the topic. The
Resources section below will guide you to
the information. Pay particular attention to the sites you consult.
You'll need to cite them later.
The next step is to write your paper. Since this is a research paper,
the assumption is that almost every fact (and even most of the opinions)
came from another source. They all need to be cited.
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Resources
Evaluation
Your paper will be evaluated on the basis of how thoroughly you have researched the issue
of plagiarism and how completely you have documented your paper (cited your sources). Be
sure to use the proper form, not just something you made up or that "seems right" to you.
NOTE: Be careful here.
What was "good enough" in another setting might not do here. An old saying goes like
this: There are thousands of ways to be wrong but only one way to be right.
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Conclusion
You'd be surprised how many people have been tripped up by plagiarism. Maybe this project
will keep you from being one of them!
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Designed by Michael Byers
Orange High School
Hillsborough, NC
Last updated June, 2008.
Based on a template from
The WebQuestPage