Five years ago, Dr. Sadoff says, more than one or two freshman cases of purloined paragraphs or papers would have surprised her. To cope with computer-savvy students, Dr. Sadoff and colleagues on other campuses are spreading the word about Internet sites that can help identify plagiarism. Typical penalties at Tristate colleges range from an F on the paper to an F for the course. Because freshmen appear most likely to plagiarize, professors say, The Enquirer interviewed men and women who teach required composition courses to thousands of newcomers every year. To get the students' side of this issue, dozens of University of Cincinnati freshmen completed anonymous questionnaires about plagiarism.
Teachers say the wealth of Internet sources makes plagiarism tempting and easy.
Students need not even walk to the library. Of course, I got away with it like everyone else does. That anonymous response doesn't faze the student's teacher, adjunct instructor Melissa Sanders, who has more than 100 freshman comp students each quarter. She says students tell her that they're comfortable with cheating to survive tough schedules and boring courses. No one knows whether the Internet has increased plagiarism, but students who once sneakeda sentence or two into their papers from a library book now submit entire compositions downloaded from the Internet, professors say.