The Freshman English courses necessitate a great deal of contact with others' words and others' ideas. Indeed, the courses might be said to be centered around this back-and-forth with other writers.  Consequently, it is very important that instructors clearly and thoroughly explain the difference between acceptable, productive engagement with texts and plagiarism.

Perhaps the best way to address plagiarism is to dedicate some class time to the conventions of citation and attribution before students have written their essays. With that in mind, we here provide the Freshman English Program's Statement on Plagiarism and a very useful Plagiarism Awareness Contract students can read over and sign to indicate their acceptance of these rules and conventions.

FE Statement on Plagiarism [pdf]

Plagiarism Awareness Contract [pdf]

Both documents provided courtesy of the Storrs Freshman English Program.