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Handout: Plagiarsim Attitude Scale

Summary:

These resources provide lesson plans and handouts for teachers interested in teaching students how to understand plagiarism. The lesson plans in this section include activities that help students define plagiarism, assess their attitude toward plagiarism, and create a class plagiarism policy. The resources with titles that include "Handout" provide handouts that are free to print for your students by using the print option in your web browser. The "Handout" resources correspond with the resource listed above it.

Contributors:Cristyn Elder, Ehren Pflugfelder, Elizabeth Angeli
Last Edited: 2012-10-29 10:45:17

Directions

This is an attitude scale, which measures how you feel about plagiarism. It is not a test with right and wrong answers. Please consider your honest opinions regarding the items and record your responses. Do not place your name on this scale. Your instructor may give you further instructions.

1. Sometimes I feel tempted to plagiarize because so many other students are doing it.

2. I believe I know accurately what constitutes plagiarism and what does not.          

3. Plagiarism is as bad as stealing the final exam ahead of time and memorizing the answers.

4. If my roommate gives me permission to use his or her paper for one of my classes, I don’t think there is anything wrong with doing that.

5. Plagiarism is justified if the professor assigns too much work in the course.

6. The punishment for plagiarism in college should be light because we are young people just learning the ropes.

7. If a student buys or downloads free a whole research paper and turns it in unchanged with his or her name as the author, the student should be expelled from the university.

8. Plagiarism is against my ethical values.

9. Because plagiarism involves taking another person’s words and not his or her materials goods, plagiarism is no big deal.

10. It’s okay to use something you have written in the past to fulfill a new assignment because you can’t plagiarize yourself.

11. If I lend a paper to another student to look at, and then that student turns it in as his or her own and is caught, I should not be punished also.

12. If students caught plagiarizing received a special grade for cheating (such as XF) on their permanent transcript, that policy would deter many from plagiarizing.

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