Since freshman year, students are taught that the issue of plagiarism is black and white — you either plagiarized or you did not. But recent events have revealed that what teachers believed to be so clear has always been, in students’ minds, gray, paving the way for plagiarism at PHS.
Plagiarism is “the act of using another person’s ideas or words without clearly acknowledging the source of the information,” according to the PHS Style Guide.
It can take many forms, including directly copying and pasting text, copying homework, or reading an unauthorized online learning resource, like SparkNotes, to prepare for a class discussion.
Social studies department chair Mark Cowherd views plagiarism as turning in work that is not your own.
“There’s a sad misconception that if you aren’t doing a direct quotation, then you don’t have to cite it,” Cowherd said. “Just because there are no quotation marks doesn’t mean it’s okay to throw it in there like it’s your own idea.”
Plagiarism does not only encompass unattributed online information, it can also stem from inappropriate help from tutors. Language department chair Virginia Leskowski said that although there is value in receiving outside help for a tutor, it is important to recognize when that help crosses the line.
“Their main goal is to get a person a high grade,” Leskowski said. “They are hired for that. Tutoring is something we want to support [as well as] decrease the pressure to achieve a certain grade. We have a very high grade-based community so we want to try to mitigate that and help people see the value of learning.”
English department chair Beth Black said that in her professional experience, she sees plagiarism most in smaller assignments, such as quote annotations assignments or writing discussion questions.
“To some degree there are some good quotes that people will gravitate to,” Black said, “but let’s say you are supposed to find 10 quotes and you find 10 that are from online. I don’t know if you read the book.”
Cowherd said he sees plagiarism most often with his sophomore students, who will copy each other’s homework notes. If caught, all involved students receive zero credit for the assignment.
“I don’t distinguish between who did what,” Cowherd said, “because if you’re helping someone cheat, you’re cheating.”
Computer science department chair Nathan Mattix said that plagiarism extends far beyond the humanities and is a huge problem in the computers world.
“It’s so easy to do,” Mattix said. “For one person to write a computer program and email it to another person. There are hundreds of other ways to transfer code from one account to another.”
Mattix said that he has had issues with plagiarism in every single class he has taught; however there are usually only two to three cases per school year.
“They say with cockroaches, for every one you see there are a hundred you don’t see,” Mattix said. “That could be what’s going on here.”
He said plagiarism in computers was more prevalent when he started teaching.
“Classes themselves have changes,” Mattix said. “Back when I first started teaching, all the computer classes were pretty brutal. They’re not necessarily easier but they are more friendly now.”
Black said that she does not believe there is an increase or decrease in the act of plagiarism, rather an increase in the potential of catching students who plagiarize.
“I think it’s always been there,” Black said, “but I think we ebb and flow as a staff. Some years we hit hard and then it drops.”
Black said that more active plagiarism-awareness periods often occur after a plagiarism-related incident erupts and brings the issue back into the spotlight.
“I think it’s all of a sudden finding it and recognizing it as a wake up call,” Black said. “Even if you’re using turnitin.com, it’s still happening and we need to be aware of it.”
To combat the issue of plagiarism, teachers use online applications that analyze student submissions to detect plagiarism. Turnitin.com is a popular resource among teachers.
For computer science, Mattix has used a program called JPlag which has the same concept as turnitin.com, but for computer programs. The program analyzes codes to see if there are similarity between different student submissions.
Mattix used JPlag for the first time last year in his Joy of Computing class. He has not used it since.
Aside from turnitin.com, Cowherd gauges whether a student has or has not plagiarized information based on the standard of common knowledge. Common knowledge does not need to be cited, however all researched or learned information does.
“There’s no perfect rule but that’s a better one,” Cowherd said.
Assistant principal Eric Mapes said that students might experience more temptation to plagiarize because so much information is easily accessible online. He said he is still discovering new online aids that he never knew existed.
“I’ve learned some new ones, like Shmoop,” Mapes said. “I’m learning stuff as I go, too.”
Cowherd said that students today have more access to online aides and study tools than he ever did growing up.
“When we were in high school we couldn’t just go look up a book online,” Cowherd said. “Where were you gonna find analysis of book?—in another book.”
Black said that she does not believe students who plagiarize do it solely because they are lazy.
“We are going through our education process and we can’t to be as smart as we can be,” Black said. “We want to show people we can we as smart as we can be, and if I’m unsure of myself I’m going to go to another source to make myself look smarter.”
Leskowski attributes the choice to plagiarize to the stress students face when they receive overwhelming loads of work. Part of the issue is procrastination, she said.
“I think it all comes down to people getting themselves backed up into a corner and they can’t get out,” she said. “It’s late, it’s due and they just make a poor decision.”