Assignment Design Strategies for Deterring Plagiarism

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Create a Classroom Culture Where Learning Is Valued

Explicitly state your learning goals and objectives for each assignment. Make the case for why engaging in the process of each writing assignment is worthwhile. The Council of Writing Program Administrators, in their statement on Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism argues, “faculty need to design contexts and assignments for learning that encourage students not simply to recycle information but to investigate and analyze its sources." When students understand why they are writing something for your course, they are more likely to be motivated to do the work. As one student in a small, informal study put it, “You don’t learn anything when you plagiarize" (Stoner, 2003).

Get a Sense of How Your Students Write

Have students write a short essay during class early in the quarter and keep copies of this essay to compare to writing they produce out of class later in the quarter. While not a foolproof strategy at all—as some students will authentically produce much different prose in a timed, in-class essay versus a paper for which they have more time to draft and revise their writing—having an early sense of how students write can serve as a useful indicator of when to investigate phrases, sentences, and paragraphs that you suspect were not written by the student.

Have Students Write About Recent, Current, or Specific Topics

In many courses, you can have students engage with, apply, or use ideas, skills, theories, methods, or frameworks central to your course learning goals by having them write about a topic that's current and thus requires them to write something about which relatively little (copyable) writing exists.

Stage Paper Assignments Throughout the Quarter

Stage longer paper assignments by having students turn in components of a longer paper throughout the quarter. The Council of Writing Program Administrators, in their statement on Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism explains that “collecting interim materials (such as annotated photocopies) helps break the research assignment down into elements of the research process while providing instructors with evidence of students’ original work.”

Grade Process and Product

Reward students for engaging in and producing tangible evidence of each stage of drafting and revising a paper. For each assignment, have students write and hand in a cover letter or "meta-essay" that explains their process in beginning, drafting, and revising their paper.

Further Resources

Stoner, Mark. (2003). "Why students should avoid plagiarism: What students say."