Previously, we spoke about helping children who have a tough time starting an essay. Now, let’s consider a different sort of problem, namely, plagiarism. A writer commits plagiarism when he or she fails to properly attribute an idea to the person who came up with it in the first place. In its simplest form, plagiarism often involves using a direct quote without identifying the speaker.

The problem of portraying another person’s ideas as if they were one’s own becomes more prevalent as children begin to write essays that involve more complex information. Many students first encounter plagiarism as they enter the middle school years, usually around sixth grade.

Two things tend to happen around this time. First, students begin to truly write across the curriculum. Science projects may now take on a writing component, for example, as students are asked to explain their findings and draw conclusions. Second, students’ own self-centered ideas begin to “bump” into the world of ideas that exists around them. Now, a literary exploration may ask students to move beyond what they “think” about a text, for example, and critique the text against the backdrop of social circumstances from which it originated.

Fortunately, few students plagiarize ideas deliberately — it is much more common that they simply don’t know how to properly refer to information they have found through research. They are so overwhelmed by their new writing tasks that they feel lucky to get the information down at all. The question, “Did you cite your sources?” draws a blank stare and the retort, “You mean I have to go back and cite all that information!”

Tip  

Here are a few ideas to help your child develop good research habits: 

• Lay down the law! Let your child know that, if one thing is true about writing, it is this: You can copy anything and everything you want and use it in your writing. In fact, the best writers do this all the time. All you have to do is show who it belongs to and where you found it. It’s that easy. That’s the rule.
• Get started early! Make the citation of sources part of the research process itself. Say a student is reading a historical text about Colonial America. Have the student list the source at the top of a pad of paper. As he or she reads each chapter, have the student summarize it and note the page numbers next to important facts. Then, when a fact is used in an essay, the appropriate citation can easily be included!
• Take the easy way out! There are several accepted styles one may use to create a “works cited” page at the end of an essay. Either the MLA or APA style should work just fine. You should also encourage students to cite within the essay itself. A common way to do this includes a reference to the idea, author, and source. Consider this example:

In assessing James Madison’s legacy, Richard Matthews observes that “his preeminence in the creation of the modern American state has not always been so widely acknowledged” in his landmark analysis, If Men Were Angels (1). I agree. It seems that the very notion of a “Founding Father” is becoming more difficult to define.  

 

By creating good research and citation habits, students will find that they can invest their time and energy in making interesting connections among ideas (both their own as well as those of others) instead of worrying about plagiarism.

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