According to an article posted on USA Today, professors and college admissions committees are increasingly using plagiarism detection software to detect copied academic papers and personal statements. Turnitin, the most popular of these software programs, was being used at over 9,000 American high schools and colleges as of June 2010. Jeff Young, author for the Chronicle of Higher Education, implies that better plagiarism detection might not be enough if students don't understand citation rules and the logic behind them in the first place. Threatening students with being caught won't do anything to stop those who aren't plagiarizing on purpose.
The website Inside Higher Ed suggests that universities that educate their students about plagiarism will run into fewer problems with inappropriate copying and paraphrasing. The website references a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, carried out by Thomas S. Dee, associate professor of economics at Swarthmore College, and Brian A. Jacob, the Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy at the University of Michigan. The study found that students educated about plagiarism and how to avoid it were less likely to turn in unoriginal essays. The effect of plagiarism education was most significant for students with lower SAT scores. Although some professors do take the time to teach their students about paraphrasing, quoting and proper referencing methods, Jacob notes that the incentive to teach students isn't great enough to make plagiarism education a priority in all schools.
Attitudes of college students who have grown up the in the age of digital collaboration also suggest that education might be an important strategy for reducing plagiarism cases. Young reports that one student at the University of Maryland caught for copying information directly from Wikipedia didn't see his offense as plagiarism, since Wikipedia articles are common knowledge. Helene Hegemann, a German teenager with a best-selling novel, didn't apologize when people noticed her book contained copied passages. Instead, she claimed that "there's no such thing as originality anyway." For students used to finding information in the shared and collaborative domain of the Internet, the concepts of ownership and originality might not be as obvious as educators think.
Of course, not all students who plagiarize do so accidentally. Many colleges take a tough approach to the offense, failing students on assignments and courses when they resort to submitting copied work. Repeat offenders may even be suspended or expelled. Loye Young, a former professor at Texas A&M International University, publicized student names on his blog after he caught them submitting plagiarized work. In Young's opinion, reported on the website Inside Higher Ed, punishments need to be significant and public to keep students from being dishonest. Young was let go from his job for violating student rights. Punishing students is important, but universities also guarantee that students accused of academic offenses have rights to privacy and to a trial process, measures important for protecting the falsely accused.