How some American students may view copying words as acceptable or even required

 How many submitted copied work?  50% or more in each of 4 classes

 

To see one set of the students’ work for one of those classes, click here.  The webpage lets you see both the students’ work and the source pages they used. Each student’s essay answer and the page(s) the student was using are color-coded to make it easier to compare. The color coding in their answers and in the source means:

Pink highlight

The student used in his or her submission the same words as the source and usually the same structure (“half-copy” plagiarism in the words of The Bedford Handbook).

Orange

highlight

The student used in his or her submission the same words but they were grabbed from another page of the source (“half-copy” plagiarism in the words of The Bedford Handbook)..

Blue __ underlining

The student used in his or her submission the same words but swapped the order (“half-copy” plagiarism in the words of The Bedford Handbook).

Orange __ underlining

The words that the student used (or ignored in the source) are warning signs of some factual error or equivalent problem.

 

This snapshot of the sample spread out across the floor lets you see the pattern of the errors in that sample, particularly the pattern of pink and orange.

 

WCJC Department:

History – Dr. Bibus

Contact Information:

281.239.1577 or cjb_classes@yahoo.com

Last Updated:

2012

WCJC Home:

http://www.wcjc.edu/