Help Students
Become Scholars
Writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Barbara Fister (2002) observes that, “students sent into the library to work on a paper or presentation must invent themselves as scholars—but we often neglect to explain what that really means, other than giving them a Byzantine set of rules on how to cite sources and dire warnings of plagiarism.”
Too often, students do not see that the work they are doing is authentic; that they are not doing real scholarship. (Moore, 2001; Saunders, 1993) As a result, they become product oriented and forget about the process. (Coffey and Casey, 2001; Lathrop and Foss, 2000)
We can help students learn to be scholars by
 Developing assignments that have real world connections
Making sure that students understand why the assignment is not just busy work
Stressing process over final product
References and Resources
Coffey, Monica A. and Kathleen E. Casey. The Cyberspace Detective: Uncovering Online Plagiarism. Philadelphia, PA: Xlibris Corporation, 2001.
Fister, Barbara. “Fear of Reference.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 48.40 (2002): B20.
Lathrop, Ann and Kathleen Foss. Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, 2000.
Moore, Rebecca Howard. “Forget About Policing Plagiarism. Just Teach The Chronicle of Higher Education 48.12 (2001): B24.
Saunders, Edward J. “Confronting Academic Dishonesty.” Journal of Social Work Education 29.2 (1993): 224-31.
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