Plagiarism workshop

This archived article was written by: Ryan Ware

Even though plagiarism is a hot topic on every college campus, on March 27, no one attended a workshop offered by College of Eastern Utah to increase awareness about plagiarism.
Anne Mackiewicz, education department chair, hosted the workshop. With nine years of experience at the College of Eastern Utah, she has first-hand knowledge about plagiarism. She said that in one class, five out of 15 students were caught plagiarizing. This was cause for alarm for her.
The workshop was intended to go over the types of plagiarism, terms of plagiarism, how to cite sources (to the American Psychological Association standard) and give students hands-on experience with citations.
According to Tunitine.com, the source of most of the information that was going to be used in the workshop, there are 11 types of plagiarism. The 11 types range in severity from “the Photocopy” to lesser more complex forms such as “The Labor of Laziness.” Some forms of plagiarism can arise from simply forgetting a footnote or a work-cited page.
With plagiarizing rates as high as one in three students, it is either becoming detected more easily or it is becoming more of a problem at the college. An increase in detection rates could be contributed to new software being used to help combat this problem. Although CEU has limited policies in regards to plagiarism, the professors can do what they feel is appropriate for the plagiarist(s). Actions include but are not limited to failing the student(s) in that class and making the student(s) repeat the assignment.