An investiagtion into the state of plagiarism in writing assignments among third year students majored in english in one of vietnamese university and some preventive teaching strategies

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  HOÀNG THỊ HỒNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE STATE OF PLAGIARISM IN WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AMONG THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS MAJORED IN ENGLISH IN ONE OF VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITIES AND SOME PREVENTIVE TEACHING STRATERGIES (ĐIỀU TRA VỀ TÌNH TRẠNG ĐẠO VĂN TRONG VIẾT TIỂU LUẬN CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CỦA VIỆT NAM VÀ GỢI Ý MỘT SỐ CHIẾN LƯỢC GIẢNG DẠY) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Hanoi, 2014 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  HOÀNG THỊ HỒNG AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE STATE OF PLAGIARISM IN WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AMONG THIRD-YEAR STUDENTS MAJORED IN ENGLISH IN ONE OF VIETNAMESE UNIVERSITIES AND SOME PREVENTIVE TEACHING STRATERGIES (ĐIỀU TRA VỀ TÌNH TRẠNG ĐẠO VĂN TRONG VIẾT TIỂU LUẬN CỦA SINH VIÊN CHUYÊN NGÀNH TIẾNG ANH TẠI MỘT TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC CỦA VIỆT NAM VÀ GỢI Ý MỘT SỐ CHIẾN LƯỢC GIẢNG DẠY) M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS Field: English Teaching Methodology Code: 60140111 Supervisor: Dr Phạm Thị Thanh Thuỳ Hanoi, 2014 DECLARATION I, hereby, certify the thesis entitled “An investigation into the state of plagiarism in writing assignments among third-year students majored in English in one of Vietnamese Universities and some preventive teaching strategies” is the result of my own research for the Minor Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Language and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, and this thesis has not, wholly or partially, been submitted for any degree at any other universities or institutions Hanoi, 2014 HOANG THI HONG i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge my deep gratitude to all those who have supported me in doing this independent study Firstly, I would like to express my greatest appreciation to my supervisor, Dr Pham Thi Thanh Thuy, for her valuable time and useful guidance towards the completion of this study Secondly, I am extremely grateful to the staff members of the Faculty of Post - graduate studies for their helpful lectures My special thanks are also sent to my lecturers, my friends, my classmates, as well as my colleagues for their invaluable comments and criticism and also for their continued interest and encouragements Thirdly, I appreciate the assistance and cooperation given to me by lecturers and students at National Economics University Without their sincere participation, this paper would not have been possible Last but not least, I want to express my deepest gratitude to my beloved people, my parents, my husband and my children for their love, care, tolerance and encouragement ii ABSTRACT This article explores the issue of plagiarism from the perspective of students studying in Vietnamese Universities The study was designed to investigate students’ awareness regarding plagiarism The writer also attempted to measure the state of plagiarism among university students in terms of the forms and the seriousness of plagiarism She then wanted to identify some preventive teaching strategies to improve academic practice (including academic writing and referencing skills) based on the results gained To some extents, findings from the study indicate that the students had inadequate understanding about plagiarism definition and its notion, plagiarism policies, and penalty for acts of plagiarism Therefore, they had committed most of common forms of plagiarism: using paraphrased, summarized, quoted texts without showing the original sources, inventing biblography or data, and submitting online papers and handing as their owns Level of seriosness of plagiarism acts was varying from copying some key words, sentences to entire of their assignments The most serious case was that some students submitted an online work and handed in as their own The number of this case is not high; still it is also an alarm to educators However, most of students were unintentional plagiarists due to objective causes like their unawareness of plagiarism, lack of proof reading, poor writing academic skills and carelessness when taking an assignment Some others committed plagiarism intentionally because of some subjective causes like their laziness, bad time management, desire of higher grades, pressure from family and friends Nevertheless, the problem of plagiarism should not fall on the shoulders of the students alone The instructor should take responsibility for neither checking for plagiarism nor teaching about ethics, which is one course rarely offered in universities The solution would be resolved from the top, teachers should be a good model of plagiarism fighters In this minor thesis, the researcher would like to offer some preventive teaching strategies against plagiarism iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS EFL: English as Foreign Language FLF: Foreign Language Faculty NEU: National Economics University Ss: Students Ts: Teachers iv LIST OF FIGURES Number Name Page Figure 1: Frequency of having students writing 19 assignment Figure 2: Difficulties students encounter when they write an 20 assignment Figure 3: Students’ awareness of plagiarism policy 21 Figure 4: Students’ awareness of plagiarism penalty 22 Figure 5: Teachers and students’ attitude towards plagiarism 23 at the university Figure 6: Teachers’ and students’ experience of plagiarism 24 incidences Figure 7: Common forms of plagiarism that students often 25 commit Figure 8: Seriousness of student plagiarism at the university 29 Figure 9: Reasons of student plagiarism 30 10 Figure 10: What the students should to avoid plagiarism 31 11 Figure 11: What the teachers should to reduce plagiarism 32 12 Figure 12: What the university should to limit plagiarism 33 v TABLE OF CONTENT DECLARATION I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS II ABSTRACT III LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .IV LIST OF FIGURES V TABLE OF CONTENT VI PART A: INTRODUCTION 1 Rationale Purpose of the study: Research questions Scope of the study Significance of the study: Design of the study PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 1.1 Theoretical background 1.1.1 What is plagiarism? 1.1.2 Text plagiarism 1.1.3 Forms of plagiarism 1.1.4 Why students tend to plagiarize? 1.1.5 Penalty for student plagiarism 10 1.2 Review previous studies 11 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 14 2.1 Research questions: 14 2.2 Research methodology 14 2.2.1 Questionnaires 15 2.2.2 Discourse analysis: analysis of students’ essays 16 2.3 Data collection procedure 16 vi 2.3.1 The setting of the study 16 2.3.2 Participants’ background information 17 2.3.3 Procedure 17 2.4 Data analytical units 18 CHAPTER 3: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSIONS 19 3.1 The difficulties students encounter when taking a writing assignment 19 3.1.1 Difficulties in doing a writing assignment 19 3.1.2 Students’ awareness of plagiarism 21 3.1.3 Forms of plagiarism committed by students 24 3.1.4 Seriousness of student plagiarism 28 3.1.5 Reasons for student plagiarism 29 3.1.6 Ways to reduce student plagiarism 30 3.2 Summary 33 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 35 4.1 Students’ awareness of the notion of plagiarism and its penalty 35 4.2 Main forms of plagiarism caused by students 35 4.3 Reasons for student plagiarism 36 4.5 Recommendations 37 4.6.1 To students 37 4.6.2 To the teachers 38 4.6.3 To university policy maker 41 PART C: CONCLUSION 43 Recapitulation 43 Pedagogical implication 44 Limitations 45 Suggestions for further research 45 REFERENCES 46 APPENDICES I APPENDIX 1a: SURVEY ON PLAGIARISM IN WRITING I vii APPENDIX 1b: SURVEY ON PLAGIARISM IN WRITING IV APPENDIX – LIST OF TABLES VII viii conversation with the student and issuing a warning, 2) requiring the lecturer to pay no attention to the plagiarized material and assess the remaining coursework, 3) asking the student to correct and re-submit the assignment for a stated percentage reduction and 4) assigning a zero for an assignment or the module (Carroll & Appleton, 2009) To sum up, university should establish a severe penalty to deter students from plagiarism First, this penalty needs to be discussed among academic staffs Though severe, the penalty should not be outrageous for an EFL context Secondly, once the penalty is established, the universities rigorously forbid students from other distance areas, using sound judgment If plagiarism arises in an early draft, I strongly recommend students be given a chance to correct the plagiarized portion Dismissing students from school or the EFL classroom will not help improve their language skills, or make them better writers 4.6.3.2 Using electronic detection system By investing in plagiarism detection software, copied text can be detected quickly and easily The following are the detection software that can be used: - Turnitin.com (http://turnitin.com/static/aboutus.html) is a company that also maintains a website called plagiarism.com For a fee academic institutions can submit papers to Turnitin.com which would search its databases for duplicates - Essay Verification Engine (EVE2) (http://www.canexus.com/eve/abouteve.shtml) is an inexpensive online programme whereby lecturers can trace cases of plagiarism However, researches show that they only detect copies of documents It can only identify plagiarism where there is an exact copy made of a string of characters It will therefore not detect those that copy structure, arguments or ideas but express these in ‘their own words” 42 PART C: CONCLUSION In this part, conclusions and limitations of the study as well as the suggestions for further research will be presented Recapitulation The main focus of this study was on understanding the state of plagiarism in writing assignments among third-year students majored in English at NEU in term of students’ awareness of plagiarism, the common forms of plagiarism, levels of plagiarism seriousness and factors causing student plagiarism Based on findings, some preventive teaching strategies were explored to limit plagiarism among university students The findings from the study show that most students at FLF in NEU have poor awareness of plagiarism in terms of its definition For them, committing plagiarism is only when they repeat exactly words from others’ work without acknowledging the sources or submit a complete work from the internet then hand in as their own Surprisingly, for many students, using un-cited copied, paraphrased, and summarized text no longer is considered as act of plagiarism That’s why these forms of plagiarism occur in most students’ assignments The study also comes up a conclusion that students commit almost forms of plagiarism with different levels of seriousness However, they may commit some certain forms more often than others Outstandingly, students tend to reuse copied, paraphrased, or summarized texts without indication the sources A significant point is that most students copy different paragraphs in different sources and rearrange in their writings with no fear of committing plagiarism Leaving in-text citation and inventing list of reference also happens quite often among students’ assignments Dangerously, many students think that information on the internet is free, and they not have to cite when they use it The result is that mostly they use internet as main tool to aid their assignments They copy different sources on the internet to enrich their writing The cases may vary from copying some words or phrases, uncontinuous sentences to entire of their assignments 43 Fortunately, what gained from the survey also indicates that most of students plagiarize accidentally This unintentional plagiarism happened because the students had limited awareness of plagiarism, lack of emphasis on proper citation in Vietnamese essays or reports It was also caused by students’ poor writing academic skills like paraphrasing, summarizing or quoting inappropriately Besides these unintentional plagiarists, some students plagiarized on purpose The reasons for this were blamed for students’ laziness, desire of high grade, pressure from their family and friends or bad time management Pedagogical implication As mentioned above, most of students misunderstand about plagiarism in terms of definition and its notions So, raising student awareness on plagiarism needs to be stressed on first They need to be educated about it to ensure that they understand why it is not acceptable, what is allowed or not allowed to A clear policy on plagiarism in terms of its definition, its forms, as well as what students are allowed or not allowed to do, penalty and so on should be presented through both online and printed sources Moreover, teaching students writing academically, equipping them with manipulating supporting information skills also provides a great help In addition, the recycling of assignments every time the course is given is a sign of teacher´s lack of involvement in the education as well as a temptation for students to commit plagiarism by for example getting a copy of the solution from previous course students So, teachers should put more enforce on design the courses or assignments that is difficult to find on the internet The teachers should not just rely on detection tools but guide the student during the whole learning and more important always give feedback on students’ work Finally, it is also better that there should be training on plagiarism and referencing at high school, because the way plagiarism is handled in high school might affect students seriously at higher education institutions The students need to be engaged in understanding what plagiarism is, and why they should be penalized for it If students are taught to 44 understand the function and purpose of writing and the unreliability of especially internet information, they will become thoughtful, careful and critical writers Limitations Although the study has offered some insightful findings; like many other studies, there are still some limitations The first limitation originates in the sample size of the study which was restricted to only 12 teachers and 60 junior students who are majoring in English in one university Because the number of participants and the area of the study were limited, the data collected could just be considered as an indication Secondly, because of the limitation of time, the researcher could collect and analyzing only 10 of students’ essays, so the findings were not really drawing a full picture of the problem Moreover, the tool used in data analysis was simple Therefore, the results collected were not really convincible Finally, regarding of time, the thesis was carried out within weeks which was not enough to have an incentive overview of the real problem To conduct this study and apply the expected findings to the whole school population demands much greater time and efforts of both teachers and students Suggestions for further research There should be further research on plagiarism in general and strategies in limiting plagiarism in particular A similar study can be done in different universities with different students’ levels to find out more about the situation of plagiarism in Vietnamese academic settings Besides, an interesting idea for analyzing further this subject would be to make an experiment with first-year students and third-year students to see if the assumption, regarding plagiarism occurrence level being high in the first-year students than in other students, is correct In addition, a comparison among two courses where one of them divide the assessment into stages, for instance, the production of each part of a scientific report is based on drafts in combination with close teacher and student interaction and the other course’s assessment is not divided into stages 45 REFERENCES Carroll, J (2007) A handbook for Detecting Plagiarism in Higher Education 2nd Oxford Brookes University Dornyei, Z (2001) Teaching and researching motivation Harlow, England: Longman Dujsik Darunee (2002) Limiting Plagiarism in EFL Writing Classrooms” THAITESOL BULLETIN, 15/2, August Eastment, D (2005) Plagiarism ELT Journal, 59(2): 183-185 Gibaldi ,J (2003) MLA handbook for writers of research papers (6th ed ) New York: MLA Ha, P L (2006) Plagiarism and overseas students: Stereotypes again? ELT Journal, 60, 76–78 Hansen, B 2003 Combating Plagiarism CQ Researcher 13 (32) 773-796 Harris, R.A (2001) The plagiarism Handbook: Strategies for Preventing, Detecting & Dealing with Plagiarism USA: Pyrczak Publishing Indiana University Bloomington (2005) Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct Retrieved on 17th July, 2013 from https://www.indiana.edu/~istd/definition.html 10 Jan Bamford and Katerina Sergiou (2005 International Students and Plagiarism: an analysis of the reasons for plagiarism among international foundation students Investigations in university teaching and learning, (2), 17 - 22 11 Kraus, J (2002) Rethinking: What our students are telling us when they cheat Issues in writing, 13 (1), 80-95 12 Learning Support Network Curtin University of Technology (2005) Academic integrity at Curtin Student Guidelines for Avoiding Plagiarism Retrieved on 17th July, 2013 from http://academicintegrity.curtin.edu.au/local/docs/StudentPlagiarismGuide.pdf 13 Liu, D (2005) Plagiarism i n ESOL students: Is cultural conditioning truly the major culprit? ELT Journal, 59, 234–241 14 Loveleena Rajeev (2012) Different types of plagiarism Retrieved on July 07th, 2013 from: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/differenttypes-of-plagiarism.html 15 Marsh, R L., & Bower, G H (1993) Eliciting cryptomnesia: Unconscious plagiarism in a puzzle task Journal of Experimental Psychology, Learning, Memory and Cognition, 19, 673–688 16 McCabe, D.L (2001) Cheating: why students it and how we can help them stop, American Educator, 25 (4), 38–43 46 17 McCabe (2004) Cheating in Academic Institution: A decade of research Ethics & Behavior, 11 (3), 222-223 18 McCabe (2005) It takes a village: Academic Dishonesty and educational opportunity Liberal Education, 91 (3), 26-31 19 Morse, Janice M (2003) Principles of Mixed Methods and Multimethod research Design In Abbas Tashakori and Charles Teddlie (eds) Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavior research Thousand Oaks, CA: sage, 189 – 208 20 Ngo Tu Lap (2013) Nguồn gốc văn hóa đạo văn Retrieved on April 26th, 2013 from http://khcn.tvu.edu.vn/nguon-goc-cua-van-hoa-dao-van.html 21 Park, C (2003) In other’s (people) words: Plagiarism by university students: literature and lesson Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 28 (5), 471-488 22 Pecorari D (2008) Academic Writing and Plagiarism: A Linguistic Analysis Continuum Iternational Publisher Group 23 Qui S BA (2008) A Descriptive Study of Plagiarism in the Writing Assignment of First-Year Chinese Students in the American English Language Insititute at Stephen F Austin State University ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing 24 QT789 (2013) Đạo văn nghiên cứu khoa học sinh viên Retrieved on May 07th, 2014 from http://doc.edu.vn/tai-lieu/tieu-luan-dao-vantrong-nghien-cuu-khoa-hoc-cua-sinh-vien-23865/ 25 Scanlon, P (2003) Student online plagiarism: How we respond? College Teaching, 51, 161-165 26 Sentleng, Mapule Patricia (2010) Plagiarism among undergraduate students in the Faculty of Applied Science at a South Africa Higher Education Institution South African Journal of Libraries & Information Science;2012, Vol 78 Issue 1, p57 27 Sherman, J (1992) Your own thoughts in your own words ELT Jour-nal, 46 , 190– 198 28 SIB (2014) 6th Talkshow: “copy-paste” Retrieved on September 12th, 2014 from http://khampha.vn/giai-tri/nhin-thangvao-viec-dao-van-trong-sinh-vien-c6a224742.html 29 Wallace J M (1998) Action research for language teachers New York Cambridge University Press 30 Wendy S.S (2008) Plagiarism, the Internet, and Student Learning: Improving Academic Integrity New York: Routledge Print 31 Wilhoit S (2009) A Brief Guide to Writng from Readings (5th ed.) Longman Press 32 Yamada, K., 2003 What prevents ESL/EFL writers from avoiding plagiarism? Analyses of 10 North-American college websites System, 31 (2), 247-258 47 APPENDICES APPENDIX 1a: SURVEY ON PLAGIARISM IN WRITING Student Inquiry - Plagiarism Background: The present survey belongs to a research project called “Plagiarism” conducted at the department of foreign language, at one of the Universities in Vietnam In particular, the goal of this project is to investigate the issue of plagiarism from a developmental perspective so as to - Identify how plagiarism is perceived and understood by students - Provide teachers with guidelines for dealing with plagiarism from a learning point of view In a second step, the idea is to also identify other preventive measures of more technical and organizational nature About the survey: The survey is composed by mostly alternative questions The only person, who will handle the submitted surveys, is working on her M.A thesis and the results will be presented after they are compiled so that your individual survey information will not be identifiable Any question or comments on the survey should be addressed to Hoang Thi Hong at the email address: anhhong.htp@gmail.com Have you ever finished any writing assignments or research papers?  Never  Sometimes  Often  Very often Please mark the level of difficulties when you take a writing assignment Difficulties in Major Medium Low Not a writing difficulty Difficulty difficulty difficulty Content problem Task challenges Lack of ideas Lack of resources In your institute, plagiarism is  Very common  somewhat common  Not very common  Rare Do you know any of your classmates who you think might have plagiarized?  Yes, more than 10  Yes, - 10  Yes, -  No, none Have you ever read or warned about plagiarism officially from your University?  Yes, a written policy  Yes, an oral policy  No  Do not know At your University, what are the penalties for the incidents of plagiarism  teachers usually ignore it  the student will be given a warning  the submitted work will be rejected  the submitted work will be marked zero  the student will fail the subject where plagiarism occurs  the student will be suspended from study in one year  the student will be expelled from university Please indicate which of following plagiarism act you committed when doing assignments Activities Always Frequently Sometimes Rarely Never Paraphrased without acknowledging the source Summarizing a text without acknowledgement Copy a text without acknowledgement I Using quotation marks without proper acknowledgement Invented references or bibliography Copy a work from the internet & submit as one's own How much did you copy from online or printed sources?  Completed copy  More than half of the assignment  One or some paragraphs and put them together  Just some words or phrases then put them together with some changes For what reasons, you think students tend to violate plagiarism? Reasons Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly disagree Poor writing skills Lack of referencing skills Laziness/bad time management Don’t understand assignments Pressure from family & friends To obtain better marks Poor understanding of plagiarism Everybody is doing it 10 Which of the options below you consider the best ways students should to avoid plagiarism? Students should Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly agree disagree Have better knowledge about academic writing, for example, by attending a course in academic writing Take notes carefully from the sources Practice more on writing academic skills Get better training in the type of assignments where plagiarism usually occurs to receive better selfesteem Receive proper instructions on writing assignments in time so that time pressure is avoided Plan the assignments carefully: time, content… Others (please specify) _ 11 Which of the options below you think the teachers should avoid plagiarism? Teachers should Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly agree disagree Create assignments that reduce the temptation to plagiarize Teach students the skills they need in order to complete assignments successfully Break large assignments down into a set of smaller assignments Have students write their drafts or portions of their drafts in class, bring drafts or notes to class for peer evaluation, or require that drafts be turned in with the II final paper Have students download a paper from a paper-mill site and evaluate its weaknesses Present properly and improperly paraphrased, quoted, and cited statements and have students evaluate whether and why the sources are properly acknowledged Openly discuss plagiarism with students Inform students that their work will be checked for plagiarism Others (please specify) _ 12 Which of the options below you think the University should to reduce students’ plagiarism? University should Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly agree disagree Include a statement about plagiarism Have students sign a statement, affirming that they have read and understand the College's policy and agree to abide by them The penalty for those who committed should be severe Electronic plagiarism detection tools should be used Information about plagiarism via the school's website or department Others (please specify) _ Please feel free to mention other ideas and views on plagiarism below: ……………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………….………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………………… Thank you for your cooperation III APPENDIX 1b: SURVEY ON PLAGIARISM IN WRITING Teacher Inquiry – Plagiarism Background: The present survey belongs to a research project called “Plagiarism” conducted at the department of foreign language in a university in Vietnam In particular, the goal of this project is to investigate the issue of plagiarism from a developmental perspective so as to: - Identify how plagiarism is perceived and understood by students - Provide teachers with guidelines for dealing with plagiarism from a learning point of view In a second step, the idea is to also identify other preventive measures of more technical and organizational nature About the survey: The survey is composed by mostly alternative questions The only person, who will handle the submitted surveys, is working on her M.A thesis and the results will be presented after they are compiled so that your individual survey information will not be identifiable Any question or comments on the survey should be addressed to Hoang Thi Hong at the email address: anhhong.htp@gmail.com How often you give assignment to your students?  Never  Sometimes  Often  Very often Please mark the level of difficulties when your students take a writing assignment Difficulties in writing Major difficulty Medium Low Not Difficulty difficulty difficulty Content problem Task challenges Lack of ideas Lack of resources Have you ever read or warn about plagiarism officially from your University?  Yes, a written policy  Yes, an oral policy  No  Do not know In your institute, plagiarism is  Very common  somewhat common  Not very common  Rare Have you, as a teacher, seen signs of plagiarism in a student’s work?  Yes, more than 10 times Yes, – 10 times  Yes, – times  No, never At your University, what are the penalties for the incidences of plagiarism  teachers usually ignore it  the student will be given a warning  the submitted work will be rejected  the submitted work will be marked zero  the student will fail the subject where plagiarism occurs  the student will be suspended from study in one year  the student will be expelled from university Please indicate which of following plagiarism act your students committed when doing assignments Activities Always Frequently Sometimes Rarely Never Paraphrased without acknowledging the source IV a Summarizing a text without acknowledgement Copy a text without acknowledgement Submitted someone’s work without their permission Using quotation marks without proper acknowledgement Invented references or bibliography Copy a work from the internet & submit as one's own How much did they plagiarize or copy from online or printed sources?  Completed copy  More than half of the assignment  One or some paragraphs and put them together  Just some words or phrases then put them together with some changes For what reasons, you think students tend to violate plagiarism? Reasons Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly agree disagree Poor writing skills Lack of referencing skills Teaching and learning methods Laziness/bad time management Don’t understand assignments Education costs Pressure from family & friends To obtain better marks Poor understanding of plagiarism Everybody is doing it 10 Which of the options below you consider the best ways students should to avoid plagiarism? Students should Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly agree disagree Have better knowledge about academic writing, for example, by attending a course in academic writing Take notes carefully from the sources Practice more on writing academic skills Get better training in the type of assignments where plagiarism usually occurs to receive better selfesteem Receive proper instructions on writing assignments in time so that time pressure is avoided Plan the assignments carefully: time, content… Others (please specify) _ 11 Which of the options below you think the teachers should avoid plagiarism? Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly Teachers should agree disagree V Create assignments that reduce the temptation to plagiarize Teach students the skills they need in order to complete assignments successfully Break large assignments down into a set of smaller assignments Have students write their drafts or portions of their drafts in class, bring drafts or notes to class for peer evaluation, or require that drafts be turned in with the final paper Have students download a paper from a paper-mill site and evaluate its weaknesses Present properly and improperly paraphrased, quoted, and cited statements and have students evaluate whether and why the sources are properly acknowledged Openly discuss plagiarism with students Inform students that their work will be checked for plagiarism Others (please specify) _ 12 Which of the options below you think the University should to reduce students’ plagiarism? University should Strongly Agree Disagree Strongly agree disagree Information about plagiarism via the school's website or department Have students sign the university’s statement related to plagiarism Establish a severe penalty for plagiarists Use electronic plagiarism detection tools Developing clear key policy documents containing answers to questions related to plagiarism Others (please specify) _ Please feel free to mention other ideas and views on plagiarism below: …………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………….………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………… Thank you for your cooperation! VI APPENDIX – LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Frequency of having students assignment never sometimes often Very often Teachers Students 16 27 17 Table 2: Difficulties students encounter when doing assignment Difficulties in Major Medium Low Not a difficulty Difficulty difficulty difficulty Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Content problem 12 14 19 15 Task challenges 13 23 17 Lack of ideas 18 15 11 16 Lack of resources 23 18 12 Table 3: Existence of a plagiarism policy Written policy Teachers Students Oral policy No Do not know 0 31 12 11 Table 4: Penalty for acts of plagiarism ignore warn mark zero students 19 fail grade 27 5 teachers Table 5: Attitude toward plagiarism Very Somewhat Not very rare common common common Teachers Students 30 17 Table 6: Experience of plagiarism incidences More – 10 – None than 10 times times times Teachers Students 28 22 Table 7: Seriousness of student plagiarism complete How much students copy copy from the source Students 0 Teachers Table 8: Forms of plagiarism 10 more than half one or more paraghraphs 31 VII suspend in one year just some words or phrases 26 expel from university 0 Activities Always Frequently Sometimes Rarely Ts Ss Ts 19 Paraphrased without acknowledging the source Summarizing a text without 12 acknowledgement Copy a text without acknowledgement Using quotation marks without proper acknowledgement Invented references or bibliography Copy a work from the internet & submit as one's own Table 9: Reasons for student plagiarism Reasons for student plagiarism Strongly agree Ts Ss Never Ss 21 Ts Ss 13 Ts Ss Ts Ss 19 13 17 13 13 20 12 30 13 23 10 11 38 Agree Disagree Ts Ss Ts Ss Strongly disagree Ts Ss Do not know Ts Ss Poor writing skills 19 31 Lack of referencing skills 22 18 Laziness/bad time management 31 10 2 Don’t understand assignments 14 23 Pressure from family & friends 14 17 17 To obtain better marks 25 13 12 Poor understanding of plagiarism 25 15 Everybody is doing it 23 15 Table 10: What students should to avoid plagiarism? Student should strongly agree agree disagree strongly disagree Better knowledge about academic writing Ts Ss Ts Ss 13 Ts Ss 21 Ts Ss 17 Take notes carefully from the sources 32 16 Practice more on writing academic skills 15 26 10 Get better training in the type of assignments where plagiarism occurs Receive proper instructions on writing assignments in time Plan the assignments carefully: time, content… 12 27 16 17 29 11 27 15 13 VIII Table 11: What teachers should to reduce plagiarism? strongly strongly agree agree disagree disagree Teachers should Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ask for student’s first draft with peer’s 26 17 10 evaluation and included with final paper Have students download a paper from a 17 21 16 paper-mill site and evaluate its weaknesses Equip students with quotation, paraphrase, 31 22 summary and citation skills 11 13 22 14 Openly discuss plagiarism with students Inform students that their work will be 14 27 10 checked for plagiarism Table 12 what university should to limit plagiarism strongly strongly agree agree disagree disagree University should Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Ts Ss Information about plagiarism via the 12 17 20 11 school's website or department Have students sign the university’s 14 25 14 statement related to plagiarism Establish a severe penalty for 16 30 10 plagiarists Use electronic plagiarism detection 32 10 10 tools Developing clear key policy documents 13 20 19 containing answers to questions related to plagiarism IX ... Thuỳ Hanoi, 2014 DECLARATION I, hereby, certify the thesis entitled ? ?An investigation into the state of plagiarism in writing assignments among third- year students majored in English in one of Vietnamese. .. environment, she managed to carry the minor research, entitled ? ?An investigation into the state of plagiarism in writing assignments among third- year students majored in English in one of Vietnamese. .. of plagiarism in writing assignments among third- year students majored in English in one of Vietnamese Universities and some preventive teaching strategies? ??, hoping that it can contribute some