Teaching Note-Evaluation of an Avoiding Plagiarism Workshop for Social Work Students

A 1-hour workshop on how to avoid plagiarizing when writing academic papers was developed and delivered at an orientation session for BSW and MSW students at a university in the northeast United States. Six social work instructors led the workshops at the university's main campus and two extension centers. Before and after the workshop, students read an original passage from a social work text and were asked if the material were paraphrased in four different ways would it constitute plagiarism. Pre- and posttest results indicated that the workshop increased the percentage of students who could correctly identify examples of plagiarism versus ethical writing. Implications for social work education are discussed.