Train students to cite the sources they refer to. Also use Turnitin software to check students plagiarism and this will deter students from plagiarising.

regards

Thanks Malini.

Well, I mean students in their early learning to write. I've explained paragraph writing, aimed at teaching them to rewrite the material (short text) they learned in their own words following the paragraph writing technique. 

Most of them copy- paste from online sites instead of taking the burden to write by themselves. 

One strategy is to give them assignments that they cannot answer from Internet sources, such as about their own experiences.

Thanks dr.Michael but it's English of Marine Science that we are about. 

Thanks dr. Jasna for the informative contribution. 

Well, when I corrected the first assignment, I left comments like "Thanks Wikipedia!", and "Thanks NOAA". They understand what I meant and went laughing. 

In the day of the exam, after reading the writing question, they were like "Where are you Wikipedia" lol

Dear Dr. Zainab,

Thank you for sharing your educational experiences. I think you may try something totally new for them which could not be easily find on the web. I am certain that this will not be difficult for you.

Best regards

SM Najim

Dear Dr. Zainab,

It would depend much on how you would like to assess them. It will not be limited to only accuracy, creativity, fluency, and  other rules. I usually build up the rubrics for writing essays so that students will be familiar.

My rubrics will consist of different scales for each criterion that I want to assess in my students' papers. These rubrics need to be introduced to students at the beginning of my courses. Students can also apply these rubrics to self-evaluate for their own work before submitting to me.

I think rubrics are good for qualitative assessment for writing papers and speaking performances.

Hope it is helpful!

Khang

I find a few things helpful when assessing writing assignments:

1. Using a grading rubric promotes objectivity. When individual components of a writing assignment are assigned specific point value, it helps to eliminate bias in grading, and the expectations are very clear to students.

2. A plagiarism checker, such as Turn-It-In is essential.  Students can review their assignments before they hand them in and if a certain percentage of their work is shown to be not their own, they can rewrite as needed. There should be a cut-off percentage that is allowed, with the remainder being original work.

3. Finally, all students should be encouraged to take a writing course. In addition to helpful websites that are accessible online, a course that teaches specifically how to write research papers and other types of professional writing is very helpful. Such a course is required of all students in our department - early in their course of study.

I've puzzled over this very question for several years. I've found that if I can convince students to think about what they know already and more importantly what they think about it - then the research and 'essay flow' follow. I have a six stage process that I use to talk to students about essay writing (based on my own experiences and then using S. Cottrell). This I find helps - clarify what you have to do, research, plan, sit and think about the writing - work out your own point of view/ the links between the research, write, proof read/ sort out references. Many tutors break down essay titles in to 6 key questions that need answering - this can be very supportive for some students, however for others - these become the paragraph headings and they answer each key question - so there is not a linking idea. To improve their writing - what do they think about the subject/ what is their opinion/ do they have a thesis statement?

They can't get rid of the Internet, So the next time let them "writing assignment" through 2 steps:

1- copies from Internet.

2- writing without copying according to your teaching.

# then goal becomes more distinctive.

Written assignments are becoming useless. Students just copy from some sources and submit before the deadline. very difficult to find their innovative ideas in assignments. SO better to test them by presentations, in class tests and small viva voce. But, we can assess their assignments based on some self-prepared model answers.  

Perhaps, having read the other answers the question is - what is the purpose of the writing assignment: to show comprehension of a body of knowledge, to apply concepts in a new area, to show analysis of a subject. Hmm - a possible to solution - to give students the research they need (either photocopies/ e copies etc). Let them read it through in their own time and then have a controlled assessment for the writing - they can use all the information they have been given, but write under supervision for 2 hours? (or even one paragraph - but weight the markings on that paragraph?). A thought?

Firstly, it is important that the students are giving information on what is plagiarism and how to avoid it, what information is acceptable e.g. the need to avoid using information from wikipedia  and the reasons for same. This should be done right at the onset and the possible penalties that could be incurred as a result to prevent problems occuring.  The use of Turnin, which is a software for detecting copied work may also be a deterrent.   Also essential is the need to give information on how to paraphrase any information they wish to use and how to reference same. 

Thank you very much colleagues for your valuable contributions. 

I have several notes in response:

1. Scoring Rubric: first of all, when the level of students is elementary, it is hard for them to do the rubric "reliably". I tried a speaking rubric once with them, and guess what!, all group leaders had sympathy with their group members and gave highest ranking!

2. Plagiarism progs: in case of students with no direct specialization with writing (English language students, for instance), it's a great mission for them to write a mere short paragraph. The students who rely on the internet have problem in making efforts to even try to write instead of searching a ready written text.

3. Writing assignment is useless now: Writing cannot be substituted with presentations. College students need to learn academic language and how to compose it, no matter what are their specializations. In future, they might be researchers with "disabilities" to write by hand!

just my views.. 

Thanks for sharing your experiences. 

What is the commitment of the students? They have the tendency to drop in the reductionism and in the simplicity. In this moment, it is necessary to call the attention about the error of this method. They disemminates the errors and transforms the moment of assignment in a process to fraud. Wikipedia, for example, it is not reliable. It is important to contrast and to verify, this is the method. Some professors use the method critic burlesque, without piety. Shake and move to the students.

You decide.

Good luck

How to assess writing assignment?

Think each assignment will have its own learning objective, requirement (instructions / questions) & marking schemes / assessment criteria.  The teacher can communicate these 3 items to his / her students so that expectations are level set.  E.g. based on the above 3 items, students can evaluate & provide straight forward answers, subjective answers with justifications, answers based on Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) etc.

Normally writing assignments are given in common to a group of students.Hence the learning objectives requirement scheme and assesent strategy is common and easy to replicate which is commonly done.Individializing these writing assignments is time consuming.So some newer thoughts need to be implemented.

Well said Reena

I am not sure what you mean by "according to my teaching." I have found that the greatest way to prevent students from plagiarism and simply copying things from the internet is to make such practices difficult for them. Design assignments and questions thoughtfully and with intention. Do not ask "what is" questions but formulate thought-provoking questions that are analytical or synthetic in purpose. Another tip that has worked very well for me is to avoid repeating same questions in successive offerings of a course. More work for the teacher I know.. but rewarding and also important in keeping yourself engaged and sharp.

I feel after looking at some of the other answers I need to make a point in protest. Writing assignments are NOT useless and anyone who says so is thinking dangerously and  shirking responsibility as teachers. Presentations are not a substitute.. they are important in their own way, but do not get at the same skills, especially those of argumentation and discipline and rigour.

Zero!  With a passing mark for revised write ups (using the teaching points that you want them to use).

Ask them to prepare assignments without plagiarism, brief them the harm of plagiarism. 

Use software like Turn IT IN to check plagiarism in assignment.

Your own search about the given topic is required to asses the students, so search and read the references they entered randomly to check the plagiarism by yourself.

i hope these will help.

Thanks all colleagues for your valuable contributions.

Well, the students are juniors and the assignments are mere paragraph writing. 

@Neeraja Sankaran, I meant by "according to my teaching", the organized way of writing a paragraph (topic sentence, supportive sentences, and concluding sentence).

They understood the procedure, but some of them still have a problem in "trying" to apply it. 

Zainab,

I would say that all these things you mention about paragraphs and topic sentences etc are best approached with asking them good questions and getting them to write the answers. Formulating answers to such questions will force them to grapple with the issues themselves. A session of group grading of these answers, i.e. projecting the best and worst answers (without revealing the student's names unless they agree) is also helpful I find... pointing out what works and what doesn't.

Hope this helps

I can't agree with you more, dear Jasna. That's what makes me trying to find more effective ways of improvement. 

Sounds inspiring! Thanks for the message

According Asimov, Urey underestimated him saying him: study science is for intelligent people. For Asimov that comment was stimulant. He wrote 500 books about science, many articles in Double Day, gave innumerable conferences, received many prizes and was PHD in some Universities.To the students there are to demand them, but with respect, between others things, showing them naturality and honesty

I think we have to teach our students to be original and honest.  True, they have to search for materials from texts and the internet.  No one is an island but they should be taught how they could gather pieces of information and use them in the right way without plagiarising the author. We should encourage cooperative and brainstorming methods whereby the learners can learn from others and equally contribute their own quota.

Thanks for the informative responses dear colleagues. 

Really appreciate