One of the most frustrating aspects of teaching in today’s world is the cheating epidemic. There’s nothing more irritating than getting halfway through grading a large stack of papers only to realize some students cheated on the assignment. There’s not much point in teachers grading work that has a high likelihood of having been copied or otherwise unethically completed. What then can a teacher do? We need to be able to assess students. Why do students cheat on homework and how can we address it?

Students may plagiarize for many reasons, ranging from laziness to sloppiness to a lack of understanding about the reason for citations, but teachers can employ a series of strategies to prevent problems while also teaching students good scholarly practices.

Teachers can:

• Let students know the consequences of plagiarizing. Students are less likely to plagiarize deliberately if they perceive the cost of getting caught as too high. Make sure to have a clear statement in your syllabus, and let students know that you use Turn-It-In, Google, or some other method of checking their sources.

• Make it so hard to plagiarize that they might just as well write the paper. For example, you can require them to document their writing process by handing in a paper proposal, an outline, an annotated bibliography, multiple drafts, a copy of one or more of their sources, and/or a reflection piece on their writing. Requesting these things does not mean you necessarily have a whole lot more work to do. You can use a peer response exercise or in-class work for quick reviews of many of these items. If you ask for multiple drafts, only check for a few things on each draft (for example, just for the main idea and basic structure on the first draft or just for citation format on a second draft). Besides preventing plagiarism, collecting these documents can help you assess student learning and, when necessary, intervene before the bitter end.

• Make it hard to plagiarize by designing assignments around specific, focused questions or issues. Avoid general topics. There are so many papers on the internet on such topics that the temptation may be too great.

• Students are less likely to plagiarize if they feel connected to a school through bonding with fellow students and teachers, through small classes, and through fresh assignments that require original thought rather than the rehashing of old debates.

Reasons for students copying could be:

1. They panic.

Some students will deliberately plagiarize when they feel backed into a corner in a high-pressure situation with a low risk of being caught. Often, this behaviour is a result of poor time management and organization skills.

To avoid this teacher can:

• Help students learn how to pace themselves and organize their work, especially if the task you have given them is complex, and they are novices. This can be done by warning them of common process problems at the start, by assigning intermediate steps, by conducting an ongoing discussion of their process (online discussion groups are good for this and do not take class time), and by modelling your process.

• Explicitly discuss with students why the assignment is important in the context of the class and their learning. Tell them what transferable skills and knowledge they will gain from doing this assignment.

2. They lack confidence.

Students may not be familiar with the jargon that’s used in some academic areas that are new to them. They may feel awkward about trying to incorporate those words and phrases into their writing.

To avoid these teachers can:

• Help students see how they already have expertise in many areas, such as movie reviews, their favourite music, sports, or leisure activity, and equate learning academic jargon with the learning they have already done to master these other topics.

• Have students write down their ideas before, during, and after research. The student who has put down their guesses about what they will find and who has written a response immediately after reading a source will be less likely to act as a passive collector of information.

3. They think they’re supposed to reproduce what the experts have said.

To avoid this teacher can:

• Require students to generate a hypothesis before they begin researching. Situate research as an attempt to test and refine their hypothesis.

• Show students examples of student papers with uncited summaries and paraphrases and require them to identify and correct the problem.

• When a paper is handed in, give it a quick scan. If the student only cited direct quotes, he or she may be neglecting summaries and paraphrases. They have difficulty integrating source material into their exposition or argument.

4. They have difficulty integrating source material into their exposition or argument or they are sloppy.

To avoid this teacher should:

• Teach students strategies for organizing their notes.

• Insist that students include citations in all drafts. Students often will say they will put the citations in later, but then they forget where they go.

• Tell them they can work on formatting citations in later drafts, but all drafts must be cited.

5. They are still learning how to write

To make it perfect teachers can:

• Consider patch written papers as early drafts.

• Discuss with students the need to digest and analyse material in more sophisticated ways.

• Work with them on summarizing rather than paraphrasing.

6. The reason mostly students plagiarize is that they are used to a collaborative model of knowledge production

To avoid this teacher should:

• Discuss grey area cases with students.

• Discuss and ensure that students understand the reasons for citing sources.

• Foreground and discuss with students the context-specific nature of what does and does not count as plagiarism

With all the right pieces in place, you can inspire students to learn and enjoy the homework experience. Motivating students to do their homework regularly gives them confidence and a love of learning. Students usually want to succeed. Giving them the tools to do their best will affect them positively for years to come.