Campus Learning & Writing Centers
SafeAssign: Characteristics of Effective Assignments
As instructors, one of the best ways that we can help prevent plagiarism is by designing writing assignments that do not lend themselves to liberal borrowing, idea stealing, or other acts of desperation. These situations are often borne out of a sense of futility on the student’s part – no matter how hard she works, the student believes, she will be unable to meet the demands of the task. Good assignment design can help combat this sense of inadequacy. Because students are most successful with their writing when they feel confident in their ability to meet assignment goals, assignments should be designed to foster this sort of confidence. Writing assignments encourage confidence when students see them as immediately relevant to what they are learning in the course; indeed, rather than becoming “performances” or stumbling blocks, these assignments provide students with opportunities to showcase their learning. Such assignments include clear learning goals, specific contexts, and process-oriented writing tasks that challenge students in the right ways and at the appropriate level of skill. Though we do not need to address all of these things in every assignment, attending to some of the following attributes can help minimize opportunities for plagiarism.
- Closed: A closed or contained assignment is one in which the instructor pre-selects the focus and source material. An instructor might develop several research questions and supply students with a bibliography of selected sources for each question. Students would be asked to study the sources, reach a conclusion, and use the sources provided to support that conclusion.
- Specific: Instructors can limit the possibility for recycling papers or stealing ideas by narrowing the scope of the topic and, if possible, specifically incorporating course concepts or discussions into the assignment. For example, rather than asking students to research a topic of their choice, an instructor might specify a topic and ask students to use the theory or theories of their choice for analysis. Alternately, an instructor might specify a primary theory or critical perspective used in the course and ask students to apply it to a topic of their choice.
- Current: Assignments that deal with of-the-moment ideas, issues, events, or topics make it much more difficult for students to recycle a friend’s paper or grab a paper from the internet. In addition to preventing plagiarism, assignments that deal with current topics help students understand the ongoing nature of scholarly research and see the learning potential of their assignment.
- Contextualized: Assignments can be tailored to address particular problems and audiences to good effect. It is often helpful to invent problematic scenarios that students must use course concepts and additional research to effectively solve. If the student is writing to address a particular problem and context provided by the instructor, there is little chance that a generic paper will work to meet the assignment criteria.
- Process Oriented: It can be useful to assign multiple drafts and/or multiple steps in the drafting process. Building in several stages of a writing project offers a variety of learning opportunities for students. Further, this process approach offers students the opportunity to identify and resolve unintentional plagiarism before it becomes a problem. Because these stages can help students learn how to legitimately and effectively engage with sources, it has the potential to both discourage plagiarism for the particular assignment and teach them how to avoid it in the long-term.
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