Promoting Integrity in Assignments:
Specify Types of Documentation Required
I require students to do broad reading on a topic using a variety of sources before I allow them to narrow down the topics for their research projects. Because I request that they consult academic journals, Google books, quality websites, and other appropriate resources, it would be difficult to find something to plagiarize that has all of these elements. Furthermore, because I break projects into parts, it is not possible for them to find a final paper and all of the required steps.
Sometimes, I will even limit the types of resources they can use. For example, I once had students to a project on native Americans only using sources published before 1800. After showing them how to use Google translate, I have even designed assignments where students needed to cite resources from a variety of languages.
