Plagiarism On The Web Is As Easy As 1-2-3

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September 09, 1999 (5:36 AM EDT)

By Malcolm Maclachlan,

With the advent of the Internet, a wealth of information became available to students -- perhaps too much information.

Many teachers say cheating, especially in the form of plagiarized term papers, is on the rise because of the easy availability of material on the Internet.

Students have always been able to buy ready-made term papers, but the Internet has lowered transaction costs and drastically increased inventory.

Percentage of students in 1988 survey of Who's Who Among American High School Students that admitted cheating: 70

Percentage of students in 1998 survey of Who's Who Among American High School Students that admitted cheating: 80

Percentage of cheating students who say they were never caught, same 1998 study: 95

Percentage of parents of Who's Who students who said they believed their children never cheated, 1997 study: 63

There are dozens of websites that offer academic papers for sale. One, Research Central, has 30,000 papers available for sale for $7 a page. Two other sites -- The Term Paper store and CheatHouse -- each offer more than 9,000 papers at similar prices.

Essay.org offers 1,000 free essays and has a Web page where visitors can contribute their own. Such sites are generally considered legal. As long as the original authors of the papers do not complain, no law is being violated.

Last year, Boston University sought to shut down several sites selling term papers. A federal judge dismissed the suit in December.

"It's not new," said Theodore Glasser, a professor in the Communication Department at Stanford University, in California. "What's new is how easy it is."

What can teachers do to prevent students from buying research papers off the Web? Tell us in threads.

Glasser said a professor can usually tell if a student really wrote paper or not by sitting down and talking to the student about the material. The problem, he said, is even if the teacher is convinced the student did not write the paper, it is still the teacher's word against the student's.

Proportion of high school teachers that said cheating is a problem at its school, according to a 1998 survey by The American School Board Journal: nine out of 10

Proportion of teachers that said it believed it had students who plagiarized off the Internet, same study: nine out of 10

Proportion of teachers that said parental pressure discourages educators from penalizing student cheaters: seven out of 10

"Who wants to sit around looking through websites trying to find out if a paper is plagiarized or not?" Glasser said. "If you do that with a dozen students a year, pretty soon you're a full-time private investigator."

A growing problem is students who use unattributed sources without knowing it's wrong.

Joann Miller, director of external relations at New Technology High School, said she hopes the ease of Internet plagiarism helps force a much needed change in the way children are taught. Students can only cheat when they are taught under a system based on memorization.

Many instructors are fighting back. In an age when Web material can be added just by cutting and pasting, many instructors say it is important to post information defining what exactly is considered plagiarism.

Another method is to require students to turn in research notes as the work on a paper. This, however, creates more work for teachers.

There are also new software products whose makers say they can spot plagiarism. According to Glatt Plagiarism Services, its writing analysis software is used by more than two dozen colleges, including the U.S. Naval Academy.

However, some say much of the concern over Internet cheating is hype.

Percentage of college students that admitted cheating on written work in 1993 study by Donald McCabe (Associate Provost, Rutgers University and board member of the Center for Academic Integrity at Duke University): 87

Percentage that admitted cheating on a test, same study: 70

* Coming this fall, McCabe's next study on the subject will be the largest ever and one of the first to focus largely on the Internet: 4,000 students at 22 colleges and universities

"I think you are seeing a replacement effect," said Donald McCabe, a professor in the Rutgers University Business School, in Rutgers, N.J., and a leading researcher on student cheating. People who would have gotten papers in other ways get them on the Internet, he said.

McCabe said he plans to test this and other theories in his largest-ever study on student cheating. Set for this fall, it will involve up to 4,000 students at 22 colleges and universities. The study will partially focus on the Internet.