Eleven strategies to detect copy-and-paste and essay-for-hire plagiarism were discussed at a webinar Tuesday.

Faculty and employees of Eastern from various departments were in attendance to participate in a semi-interactive session teaching not only detection, but also prevention.

How to approach students who plagiarize in the classroom was also discussed.

Errol Craig Sull, an online composition instructor for over 10 years, was the presenter at the webinar.

Sull said when students plagiarize, it is on accident because of improper citation.

“Help them learn a skill they’ll need beyond this course,” Sull told the audience. “It may be in the (text) book but don’t just tell them to go to page xxx to page yyy. There are students who don’t even put quotes in their work, and even when there are quotes, if it is not properly cited, I know professors that will call that plagiarism.”

Sull encouraged all of the attendees as well as students to use a Purdue Owl website when unsure of what types of citations are needed for certain scenarios.

The Purdue Owl website at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/585/02, has a list showing what type of citation is appropriate for sources.

During the hour-long session, Sull provided the attendees with activities to exercise their plagiarism detection skills.

Two identical passages were shown where one had been plagiarized and the group needed to figure out which one was the plagiarized piece and why.

One faculty member remarked that there were not even any citations in one of the pieces and that showed unoriginal work.

Eastern was not the only school tuned in to the webinar. Several other universities and community colleges were also included in the live chat.

Washington University, Arizona State University and Glen Oaks Community College were some of the other schools in attendance.

There was also an audience participation portion. Attendees from the different schools were asked to give their methods for detecting plagiarism so that Sull could compose a master list to distribute to the webinar participants after the session.

Julie Lockett, an instructional technology specialist from the Center for Academic Technology Support, was the hostess of the webinar.

“We had a lot of requests from faculty to put on a plagiarism seminar,” Lockett said. “A faculty member from Lakeview College of Nursing directed us to this particular webinar.”

Ashley Hoogstraten can be reached at 581-7942 or anhoogstraten@eiu.edu.