We’ll begin with a rather bold proposal. If an assignment can be downloaded from the Internet, perhaps it should be. In other words, if students are faced with a question so mundane, so obvious, and answered so many times before, they have little motivation to work and might, instead, choose the shortest path to an answer—using OPW (other people’s words).
However, if an assignment is well crafted, it will not only discourage plagiarism, it will make it nearly impossible. Even more, it will engage the student in original thinking and innovative writing.
These examples of good writing assignments from different disciplines allow students to reflect and to apply their own thinking in novel ways:
Personal observation: Choose a building on campus or in your neighborhood and analyze its use and effectiveness as an architectural structure. Interview inhabitants or users of the building as to its design features. (Architecture)
Narrative form: Interpret an historical event or era from the point of view of someone who lived it. For example, narrate a story from the point of view of an American slave, or a slave-owner. Be sure the details are historically accurate, and use footnotes to cite the sources of those details. (History; Anthropology)
Fresh syntheses: Using the nine tools of scientific skepticism (pages 210-211 of Carl Sagan’s book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark), explain why the claims described in the Los Angeles Times article on cold fusion should not be accepted without question. (Chemistry; Physics)
“What if . . .?” questions: What if Archduke Ferdinand had not been assassinated? What would the effect have been on European history at the beginning of the century? (History; Political Science)
Dialogues: Put two authors you’ve read together in the same café, perhaps May Sarton and F. Scott Fitzgerald. What will they discuss? How will they present themselves and challenge each other? Write a dialogue that shows an understanding not only of each writer’s point of view, but how he or she would react to a different outlook. (English; Comparative Literature)
In all assignments, focus on the process of writing. By requiring interim products, you help students to avoid plagiarism. More important you play a key role in the development of the thought and writing. This, in combination with a creatively designed assignment, will help students avoid the mouse and use their heads instead.
References
McKenzie, Jamie, “The New Plagiarism: Seven Antidotes to Prevent Highway Robbery in an Electronic Age.” From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal 7, no. 8 (May 1998). Accessed 8 August 2000: http://www.fno.org/may98/cov98may.html.
Maggie Sokolik (College Writing Programs)
Originally Published: Volume 1 – Number 2 (Fall 2000)