Although no one expects an elementary school student to write a research paper, even primary students should be learning that copying something from a book or online isn’t the best idea. The “copying is okay” mindset causes problems with their writing in middle school and beyond. As Carolyn Jabs tells us in Preventing Plagiarism, “Ironically, teachers often introduce this bad habit” as they encourage the use of Internet content and cutting and pasting, which causes “many kids to quickly jump to the conclusion that the best way to complete a report is to assemble a collection of quotes from other sources.”
Suggestions for helping young students begin to understand about research writing are: teaching the difference between fact and fiction, giving assignments that encourage students to use their own ideas, insisting that students explain where they found the information for their reports, asking students to describe the content in their own words, helping students locate reliable information, and helping them to understand how they can take and organize simple notes and source information by using their computers.
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