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Dealing with student plagiarism is a nagging, seemingly endless problem for academics, judging from the number of articles, blog posts, and forum discussions on the topic. The solution should be favorable; this is, show students how to behave as responsible writers and scholars. It ought to help students avoid plagiarism rather than concentrate on our catching it.

The solution needs to objectively strengthen both students and educators. Before placing out a workable solution, let's review some approaches whose weaknesses contribute to the seemingly endless discussions of plagiarism. Syllabi and accompanying class discussions record everything that will befall the student, including possible expulsion.

Strength: If applied consistently, without respect for circumstances, this approach seems to work particularly well for educators that are equally imperious and admired with their own students. Approaching plagiarism this way is dispiriting-it never energizes teachers or students. A teacher who is concerned about plagiarism, and it has read about strategies may attempt to construct each assignment in a way that precludes plagiarism. It is important to train students to explore broadly. Strength: Some students might not understand what constitutes plagiarism or its consequences. Weakness: Merely talking with students about a critical topic, is a poor approach to ensure that they will behave correctly.

The first writing assignment that I give students in my writing classes entails plagiarism as a topic. I ask students to take notes on the readings, especially on how the two writers are not happy with standard approaches to preventing plagiarism and academic dishonesty. I advise them to pay special attention to Carbone's discussion of Dos and don'ts, a record he developed after deciding that his prior approaches to fighting plagiarism adopted an inappropriate tone, and also to Leland's comprehensive list of resources that instructors can use to deal with plagiarism. Then I ask students to find a Web site that provides essays for free download.

I offer an essential source, such as "Cheating 101: Internet Paper Mills," accessible at www. Each student has to download one paper and analyze its strengths and weaknesses. The concept is to read materials written by for teachers, rather than something written for students. Even when you, as a faculty member, are not particularly computer-savvy, students will assume from this assignment that you understand how to track down plagiarism. By analyzing these "Free essays" before the class, students learn firsthand that the newspapers accessible over the web tend to be far inferior to what they could produce on their own.

You need not direct the students choices of newspapers: Their own interests and majors will do so. Other than demand that they concentrate on a newspaper's strengths and weaknesses, you need not direct the analyses: Students of all writing amounts will demonstrate that they can pick apart someone else's work. You should give students credit for their Web-site notes and also for their review of the downloaded paper-both of that should be bodily copies. Students who took notes can be distinguished easily from people who did not, which allows you to teach the lesson that strong scholars or professionals take notes. This assignment builds: a direct sense of plagiarism and its responses; research abilities, since pupils follow and analyze Web resources; and presentation abilities, all without making a hostile or adversarial atmosphere.

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