The Baruch College Faculty Handbook

Plagiarism
Definitions, Tutorial for Students, Procedures, Hints for Discouraging

Last updated on 5/11/12

Definitions
Brief definitions of plagiarism are available within the A Faculty Guide to Student Academic Integrity. For a direct link to the definitions, go here. The sections on plagiarism in the College's writing handbook may be helpful: our newest freshmen (entering September 2007) should have Fowler and Aaron, The Little, Brown Handbook (pp. 629-38); undergraduates who entered as freshmen from September 2002 through September 2006 should have copies of Ann Raimes, Keys for Writers, (4th ed., pp. 116-128; 3rd ed., pp. 104-112). Also see the Plagiarism Tutorial (below).

Plagiarism Tutorial for Students
The plagiarism tutorial was prepared by members of the Newman Library staff and revised during AY 2010-11. Easily accessible to all students online, it has an accompanying interactive self-test that is available only via Blackboard. The self-test must be imported into your class Blackboard site. To import the test, contact Prof. Aisha Peña: (646) 312-1611 or Aisha.Pena@baruch.cuny.edu.

Help in Detecting Plagiarism: Turnitin.com
Faculty members may arrange for their students' work to be submitted to the online commercial service called "Turnitin.com." To learn how to gain access to Baruch College's subscription to this service and for suggestions about how to use it, contact Prof. Gerard Dalgish: (646) 312-3919 or Gerard.Dalgish@baruch.cuny.edu.

Policies and Procedures
The College's policies and procedures for dealing with violations of academic integrity, including plagiarism, are delineated in detail within A Faculty Guide to Student Academic Integrity and are summarized here.

CUNY's Academic Integrity Policy, revised July 2011, is available here.

Some hints to help discourage plagiarism (also see the Faculty Guide)
* Define plagiarism clearly and clearly convey that you will not tolerate it. (see above for sources for definitions, examples, and explanations), including the plagiarism tutorial.
* Create writing assignments that require students to synthesize materials from different sources (compare/contrast) or to use materials discussed/provided in class.
* When students have handed in written work such as a substantial paper, ask them to write a summary in class of its main points and how they made them.
* Ask students to submit copies of their sources along with research papers (photocopies of pages from books, pages from the web etc.) with the relevant material highlighted.

Additional materials that might be relevant are available on Baruch's academic integrity home page. Also: a website on plagiarism detection may be found at http://www.plagiarism.org; a site with numerous links to "best practices" developed at various colleges appears at http://www.collegecrunch.org/steering-clear-of-plagiarism-in-the-college-crunch/ . Another that brings together a number of useful links is http://www.marcaria.com/internet-resources-on-citing-the-trademark-of-a-good-writer.asp.