Here are some practical ways to lessen the risk of plagiarism in your classes while using writing as a way for students to explore ideas and learn ways of thinking. These suggestions state general principles and offer tips for applying them efficiently. They end with an annotated list of resources for students and instructors.

Make Assignments an Integral Part of Learning in the Course

Students need to know that the work done in course assignments will contribute to their learning, and they deserve to have their efforts rewarded. Here are some ways of designing assignments to demonstrate the connection of writing with thinking.

1. Vary topics from year to year so that a bank of old papers does not accumulate. You may need to save very general and "classic" topics for in-class writing or oral debates.
2. Make assignments specific to your course experience. Base them on material covered in classes and tutorials (including class discussions and student presentations), not solely on extra reading or out-of-class work. Also make clear that tests and exams will require mastery of work done for assignments.
3. Aim at asking real questions in your discipline. Encourage speculation (based on evidence and reasoning), not just synthesis of existing information or reaction to authoritative opinion. Sometimes ask for papers that start from specific and problematic details—a point of contention in class discussion, an outdated or flawed passage in a course reading, analysis of a local event.
4. Consider restricting the range of acceptable sources. Better, ask for written justification for sources chosen, including especially websites. Or ask for inclusion of a specific component—e.g., a table, a comparison of a course reading with another source, an annotated reference list. )
5. Consider asking for genres besides essays, reviews, and reports. Proposals, letters, interviews, and journalistic articles require students to demonstrate personal observations as well as to demonstrate precise clear reading of sources.
6. Investigate the types of assignments used in other courses, including some in other disciplines, to provide some variety with your material. The Resource list below describes relevant esources at U of T and other universities.

Demonstrate Your Expectations

Besides warning against plagiarism and explaining what it is, show good use of sources and demonstrate the nature of collaboration in your discipline.

1. Point out the ways scholars in your discipline build on others' work. Analyse the ways that course readings or in your own publications exemplify such operations as aggregation, synthesis, critical analysis, and disagreement. Focus on the thinking involved, not just the on the documentation format.
2. Use overheads in class or tutorial to show excerpts from past student pieces that use sources appropriately. Point out the range of ways in which they integrate references, and comment on how this increases their value as argument. Consider using the web-enabled courseware iWRITE developed at U of T to show samples in a pedagogically sound way.
3. Warn against taking textbooks and popular journalism as models of referencing practice.
4. Ask librarians to teach class sessions on specific research skills, including ways to use references resources and find relevant books and journal articles).  Mention other resources for self-instruction such as handbooks on research writing in your discipline and online handouts (e.g. on getting credit for your reading, reading critically, and ways to evaluate web sources). Encourage all your students to take advantage of the free individual instruction available at U of T Writing Centres. 
5. Be reasonable in your expectations of correct language use. Make clear that you expect care and progress, but don't demand perfection. (N.B. Although Writing Centres teach students to improve their editing skills, they don't edit or proofread.)
6. Maintain a reputation of being tough on cheating.
   • Keep copies of sample pages from incoming assignments, and let students know you do this.
   • Show students you are familiar with paper mills: e.g., comment on the quality of available papers for your specific assignment, perhaps showing an excerpt in class.
   • Ask for assignments to be handed in electronically, and mention that this makes searching the web for plagiarism very easy.
   • Consider using the plagiarism-checking software Turnitin, especially for large or multi-sectioned classes. CTSI administers the U of T use of Turnitin and provides advice on setting it up.   
   • Know the established procedures for confronting students whom you suspect of plagiarism. Expect and use administrative support. The Office of Student Academic Integrity in Arts and Science provides a good explanation in its Academic Integrity Handbook. 

Look at the Process as well as the Product

Students left on their own for large assignments tend to get into trouble, including plagiarism or cheating. Here are some alternatives.

1. Don't give just one written assignment per course. If possible, connect several smaller assignments as stages or components of a larger one. Students benefit from preliminary feedback, and you get to know their challenges. 
2. Give constructive feedback on students' written work early in the course. Re-teach general lessons if necessary, and reinforce your recommendation of writing centres and writing courses as resources for improvement. Let students know you expect progress.
3. Require plans and drafts for larger assignments, including some self-analysis: e.g. reading logs or journals, annotated lists of sources, accounts of problems recognized and solved, analysis of any group work. Ask for these to be handed in with each paper. When possible, ask for oral accounts as part of the process.
4. Also ask for some self-analysis to be written impromptu in class at various stages (e.g. statement of initial questions, commentary on one source, definition of key terms, a note on "what I learned by doing the assignment" the day it's handed in). Read these and use them for further instruction or class discussion; consider grading some as part of the assignment.
5. If students tend to collaborate, build group work or peer review into the assignments. Offer guidance on focussing group meetings; discuss pitfalls and outline the needed skills of communication and negotiation. Require logs and written notes from meetings, and ask for a summative analysis of other members' contributions.

SUMMARY OF RESOURCES

Advice for students:

• U of T online handouts on writing, reading, referencing, the process of research
• Plagiarism self-test from the Engineering Communication Centre at U of T
• York University's website on academic integrity, including an interactive online tutorial and instructive case examples

Instructional resources for students:

• Writing centres and writing courses at U of T
• Academic Success Centre: workshops, online handouts and support groups for general academic skills, including time management and dealing with stress
• Current notices about instructional events for students

Advice and Resources for U of T Faculty and Teaching Assistants:

• Advice on designing and grading assignments in the Faculty section of the "Writing at U of T" website
• Specialized liaison librarians who can create lists of relevant research material and present lessons on research skills tailored to your students' needs
• Consultation with writing instructors in your faculty or division (see the list of writing centres) 
• U of T's website on Academic Integrity, administered by the Centre for Teaching Support and Innovation (CTSI), which offers important information and resources for faculty, teaching assistants, and students
• The Academic Integrity Handbook from Arts and Science, prepared by the Office of Student Academic Integrity, which summarizes ways to deter plagiarism and other forms of cheating and sets out the steps for handling student cases. The rules may not be quite what you think!

Advice and Resources from Other Universities:

• Guide to Cyber-Plagiarism from the University of Alberta: an inclusive site with links to studies, sections on preventing and detecting, lists of paper mills, student advice
• Berkeley's Barbara Gross Davis offers excellent pedagogical advice (but pre-Internet?)
• Robert Harris, excellent advice on Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers
• A research librarian's insights; excellent examples of good assignments
• Nick Carbone's suggestions for alternatives to the policing role