A n 9 1 n 0 9 iv th 2 er 3 sa -2 r 0 y 1 Res earc her 3 Published by CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. CQ www.cqresearcher.com Plagiarism and Cheating Are they becoming more acceptable in the Internet age? heating scandals among some of the nation’s best students at Harvard University and New York City’s Stuyvesant High School have highlighted a problem C experts say is widespread. In surveys, a majority of college and high school students admit to cheating on a test or written assignment. Some experts blame the cheating culture on cutthroat competition for college admissions and jobs. The simplicity of copying from the Internet or cribbing from smartphones makes plagiarism and cheating easier, teachers say. However, in the case When Harvard student Kaavya Viswanathan was accused of plagiarism in her novel How Opal Mehta of works of art and entertainment, some see a refreshing new Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life , she said the copying had been “unconscious.” But after passages ethic of sharing and “remixing” creative material in digital media. were found to have been copied from multiple authors, the publisher recalled the novel and Researchers find that cheating increases when educators “teach to canceled Viswanathan’s contract. the test” instead of emphasizing learning. But experts question I whether shifting to learning for learning’s sake is realistic when N THIS REPORT S public school funding now depends on standardized-test results THE ISSUES ........................3 I and families think their children’s future depends on high grades. BACKGROUND ..................12 D CHRONOLOGY ..................13 E CURRENT SITUATION ..........18 CQ Researcher • Jan. 4, 2013 • www.cqresearcher.com AT ISSUE ..........................19 Volume 23, Number 1 • Pages 1-28 OUTLOOK ........................21 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................25 EXCELLENCE N AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD THE NEXT STEP ................26 PLAGIARISM AND CHEATING CQ Re search er Jan. 4, 2013 THE ISSUES SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS Volume 23, Number 1 • Is plagiarism more ac - Fewer Students Admit to MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Billitteri 3 ceptable in the Internet age? 4 Cheating [email protected] • Is an over-emphasis on Some experts attribute the ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch grades and test results drop to tougher anti-cheating [email protected] policies. contributing to the rise in SENIOR CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: plagiarism and cheating? Thomas J. Colin Cheating Scandals Rock [email protected] • Are colleges and 5 Top Universities schools doing enough to Some of the biggest scandals ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost prevent plagiarism? occurred in the past decade. STAFF WRITER: Marcia Clemmitt BACKGROUND Term Paper Mills Skirt CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sarah Glazer, 6 Peter Katel , Barbara Mantel, Tom Price, Plagiarism Rules Jennifer Weeks Famous Plagiarists Shadowy websites fulfill de - 12 Many great writers plagia - mand for ready-made papers. SENIOR PROJECT EDITOR: Olu B. Davis rized. ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa 8 Many Students Crib from ‘Cult of Originality’ Term Paper Mills FACT CHECKER: Michelle Harris 12 About 20 percent of student The concept of originality copying comes from so-called emerged during the En - cheat sites. lightenment. Chronology Cheating Scandals 13 Key events since the first 15 West Point’s first scandal century A.D. An Imprint of SAGE Publications, Inc. erupted in 1951. VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, Can Art Justify Plagiarism? HIGHER EDUCATION GROUP: 14 “I felt my words had become Michele Sordi part of some grander cause.” CURRENT SITUATION DIRECTOR, ONLINE PUBLISHING: Todd Baldwin Cheating Trends Students Copy From 18 Wikipedia and “Cheat” Sites Copyright © 2013 CQ Press, an Imprint of SAGE Pub - 18 High school cheating has Wikipedia is the top source lications, Inc. SAGE reserves all copyright and other declined in recent years. for high school and college rights herein, unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. students’ copying. No part of this publication may be reproduced Intransigence and 20 electronically or otherwise, without prior written Scandal 19 At Issue: permission. Un au tho rized re pro duc tion or trans mis - Teacher cheating is driven Is a new definition of sion of SAGE copy right ed material is a violation of in part by the No Child plagiarism needed? federal law car ry ing civil fines of up to $100,000. Left Behind law. CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional Quarterly Inc. Student vs. Machine FOR FURTHER RESEARCH 21 CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- Students are outsmarting For More Information anti-plagiarism software. 24 free paper. Pub lished weekly, except: (March wk. 5) Organizations to contact. (May wk. 4) (July wk. 1) (Aug. wks. 3, 4) (Nov. wk. 4) and (Dec. wks. 3, 4). Published by SAGE Publica - Bibliography tions, Inc., 2455 Teller Rd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. OUTLOOK 25 Selected sources used. Annual full-service subscriptions start at $1,054. For Generational Divide The Next Step pricing, call 1-800-818-7243. To purchase a CQ Re - 21 Young teens believe they 26 Additional articles . searcher report in print or electronic format (PDF), must cheat to succeed. visit www.cqpress.com or call 866-427-7737. Single Citing CQ Researcher reports start at $15. Bulk purchase discounts and 27 Sample bibliography formats. electronic-rights licensing are also available. Periodicals postage paid at Thousand Oaks, California, and at additional mailing offices . POST MAST ER: Send ad dress chang es to CQ Re search er , 2300 N St., N.W., Suite 800, Wash ing ton, DC 20037. Cover: AP Photo/Chitose Suzuki 2 CQ Researcher Plagiarism and Cheating BY SARAH GLAZER cheating scandal erupted at THE ISSUES Stuyvesant High School, a pub - lic school for high achievers ast spring, a teaching and one of the most difficult assistant at Harvard Uni - schools to get into in New L versity noticed some - York City. More than 70 stu - thing strange while looking dents were caught sharing test over take-home final exams information by cell phone . 3 for an undergraduate course In fact, studies find that on Congress. cheating is prevalent among Several students had cited high-achieving students: Up the same obscure 1910 con - to 80 percent of top high gressional members’ revolt in school students have admit - answer to a question. On ted to cheating on a test. 4 further examination, around Denise Clark Pope, whose a dozen students had used 2003 book Doing School de - the same string of words on scribed cheating among some questions, exhibited the high-achieving students, says same misunderstanding of elite schools like Stuyvesant material and, most damningly, actually tend to have more repeated the same typo. The n cheating than average because e b teaching assistant alerted a the stakes are higher. M Matthew B. Platt, the assis - y For both low- and high- o r tant professor of government T achieving students, she says, / o who was teaching the course. t cheating is a response to ei - o h In a letter reporting the in - P ther a “disengaged state of P cident to the university’s aca - A learning,” excessive pres - demic integrity board, Platt Nick d’Ambrosia, 17, holds up his iPod on April 13, sure to get good grades and implicated 13 students. 1 2007, at Mountain View High School in Meridian, test scores — or both. After By Aug. 30, when Harvard Idaho, where officials banned iPods and other digital- the scandal at Stuyvesant media players in testing areas after some students were publicly revealed the cheating thought to be downloading formulas and crib sheets broke, for instance, many scandal, the university was in - onto the players. Many high schools have banned students there said they vestigating 125 students — al - such devices and cell phones from testing venues but would cheat, especially by most half the class — for pla - critics say the rules often are only laxly enforced. copying another student’s giarism and illicit collaboration. homework, if they thought The scandal has intensified an “We have a cheating epidemic in the teacher was giving them mean - ongoing national discussion about America, and the people in charge of ingless, rote tasks. 5 cheating and plagiarism and elicit - our schools are not doing anything “The high achievers are not really ed surprise at how many American about it. And nobody’s making them engaged — they’re doing it for the students admit to engaging in these do anything about it — including our grade, and there are very high ex - illicit practices. More than two-thirds state legislatures and policy makers, pectations from parents and schools of college students admit to cheat - who appropriate tens of millions of about getting into college that can lead ing on a test or on written assign - dollars for our schools,” says David to behavior you know is wrong,” says ments — including plagiarizing from Callahan, co-founder of Demos, a lib - Pope, a lecturer at the Stanford Uni - published materials or getting some - eral New York City-based think tank, versity School of Education. “At the other one else to write their term paper and author of the 2004 book The Cheat - end of the spectrum,” she says, where — according to the International Cen - ing Culture: Why More Americans Are students are performing poorly in school, ter for Academic Integrity, a coali - Doing Wrong to Get Ahead. students say they cheat “ ‘because the tion of colleges and K-12 schools Yet, why would smart Harvard stu - teachers don’t care about me’ or ‘it’s def - based at Clemson University in South dents need to cheat? Similar questions initely boring so it doesn’t matter if I Carolina.