EduCareer StaffBlog"Rinjin Blog" | "EduCareer"Supporting your career in English teaching in the Japanese school system

Copy/Paste/Print- Is Plagiarism Increasing?

2010/08/16

Ever had the experience of collecting students' summer or winter holiday assignments, checking them, and finding one or two that just blew you away with their amazing English skills? Did you spend a few minutes marveling, wondering where the ability came from or how you became the Superman of English educators before realizing the truth...the essay was copied and pasted directly from the internet.

The digital age has made plagiarism easier than ever-students are just a few clicks away from having a completed assignment with no work required. This article from the New York Times covers some other possible reasons for the increase in plagiarism: namely, students who grew up with a wealth of seemingly common-knowledge information available to them on the internet don't see the need to credit it and a lack a writing fundamentals being taught at the middle and high school levels.

If your students are caught plagiarizing, it can be tough to get punishment for them- generally speaking plagiarism isn't treated as seriously in Japan as abroad. Try, however, to talk with them and explain the problem with copying- you want to hear their thoughts and opinions, not someone else's, no matter how good that someone else's English is.

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