Demystifying Plagiarism: Helping Teens Understand What Counts as Cheating*

*ChatGPT generated this title!

I have to admit: I love ChatGPT. But I struggle to imagine a world in which AI is well-integrated in the classroom. The issue is not the technology itself but rather the difficulties in defining what is acceptable and unacceptable use of it, and teenagers are notoriously bad at navigating ambiguity. So, despite ChatGPT’s ability to simplify many of my own tasks, I commend high school teachers who define any use of ChatGPT whatsoever as cheating; it’s a clear and simple rule, and it’s totally up to the students whether to follow it.

That said, plagiarism obviously isn’t new. High schoolers have been relying on outside support to write papers well before ChatGPT ever came into the world, oftentimes with questionable integrity. (If anything, I think ChatGPT has just democratized the process!) And though many kids seem to be very aware—and comfortable—that they are cheating (a topic for another day!), others don’t. So I want to think about the gray areas—things that some teachers define as academic dishonesty but others don’t, and students either seem genuinely confused or see a boundary ripe for pushing.

Personally, I think the easiest way to ensure academic integrity in writing is to have writing assessments take place in school without access to the Internet—basically just make them all in-class essays. But, sometimes, there is value in letting kids work on their writing at home, integrating outside resources over an extended period of time.

In those cases, students should always have their papers edited by somebody else before they hand them in. Would any responsible employee send an important email to a client without having someone else look it over for typos? Of course not. Editing is a core part of the writing process.

One might argue that students should just edit their own writing for typos, but lots of research in cognitive psychology supports that it’s much easier to catch mistakes in someone else’s writing than in one’s own, so we should all enlist copy editors. Lots of teachers think the solution is to set aside time for peer editing, but this, too, is imperfect: all of these kids are themselves just learning how to write, so they can’t possibly be relied upon to improve the work of their classmates.

I think the best possible solution is to have kids draft essays on their own and then workshop them individually in meetings with teachers. Or, like in many colleges, schools should have writing centers where kids can get as much professional support as needed. No outside input should be permitted, period. The support that kids receive in school should be ample and sufficient, and rules prohibiting out-of-school editors should be unambiguous.

Also, lots of schools rely on software like Turnitin.com to detect plagiarism. I think these programs are great, but, despite schools’ best efforts to teach kids about academic integrity, students sometimes seem confused about what “counts” as plagiarism and what doesn’t, and they are blind sighted when Turnitin says they are cheating. You have no idea how many discussions I have had with intelligent, high-achieving high schoolers about the need to cite paraphrased information. Just because you put someone else’s ideas into your own words doesn’t mean it’s somehow your original thought! Most kids seem genuinely confused. So I propose first letting kids run their papers “unofficially” though Turnitin.com to see what’s flagged, edit their citations accordingly, and then “officially” submit them for grades.

Most students want to do well and follow the rules. So schools should implement rules that are clear, are easy to follow, and promote skill development. That way, kids will have the greatest opportunities for success.

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One of my favorite things to do pre-Covid was to see Jason Robert Brown perform each month in his residency at Subculture, a club downtown. It made me feel like such a New Yorker, enjoying my favorite composer singing my favorite songs among a hundred or so fellow superfans. Subculture, unfortunately, shut down during the pandemic, and I still miss it! In 2019, a few months before my daughter was born, my friend Kyle and I got to see a show in which Natalie Weiss was one of the guest performers. She performed the most beautiful rendition of “Someone To Fall Back On,” and you can enjoy it here!