Defining Our Terms
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: 2010-11-18 02:25:17
Time Estimate
30 minutes
Objective
Engage students in a discussion on the terms that determine what can be defined as plagiarism
Materials
Chalkboard/whiteboad
Computer Lab Option Materials
Digital projector
Procedure
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Put the following terms on the board and ask students to work in pairs, thinking up short definitions for the terms:
- common knowledge
- originality
- own work
- author
- borrowing
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As pairs of students report on their work, begin writing down significant words and phrases for each term.
-
If the class does not reach a consensus on these terms, that’s OK. It’s more important that you bring the plurality of definitions to light and expose these relatively “simple” terms for what they really are: contextually sensitive elements of a definition of plagiarism.
Computer Lab Option
Compose the definition on the instructor’s digital projector, or if you have time, have students search online for definitions of these terms and include them in your brainstorming discussion.
