DETECTING CONTRACT CHEATING IN NARRATIVE ASSIGNMENTS

Contract Cheating occurs when a student arranges for another student to complete (in part or total)

their assignment or exam on their behalf.

Evidence

Why This Can Be Considered

Evidence

Limitations of this Evidence

Suggested Types of Questions

Making Sense of the

Answer

Strange paper properties such

as no or few minutes of

editing time, no author name

or an author name different

from the student’s or even a

different author name on

each assessment

If the properties are blank,

this means that they could

have been purposefully

stripped from the document.

It is highly unusual for the

author information to change

if one person wrote all of the

assessments.

If the student wrote their

paper in Google Docs and

then downloaded it to Word

to submit, there will be no

properties indicated. If the

student doesn’t own their

own computer and has to

borrow others’ computers,

the author information might

change.

In what platform did you write

this paper?

Whose computer did you use?

If they answer Word or

their own computer, it

may suggest that they

didn’t write the paper

themselves. If they

answer Google Docs, ask

them to show you their

Google Doc including all

of the versions as they

worked on the paper.

The assessment is “too good

to be true” because it is

written at a higher level than

expected (for that individual

student or for students in that

class).

While students can improve

their writing over the course

of a quarter, big jumps in

improvement from one

assessment to another (e.g.,

whole letter grades) or large

gaps in understanding from

one assessment (out-of-class)

to another (in-class) is

uncommon

The student could have:

a) worked really hard on one

paper, making it better than

their other papers;

b) had legitimate help on the

paper from the Writing Hub;

or,

c) had a stellar secondary

education which puts them

heads above the rest.

Your use of language and your

writing ability are surprising for

someone at your level, I’d like

to hear more about your

process of writing this

assessment…

a) and why it differs so

much from your other

assessments?

b) Including if you

received help from

anyone on this

assessment

c) and how you learned to

write this well!

If the student cannot

describe their process or

explain the differences, it

may suggest that they

didn’t write the paper

themselves.

If they said that they

received “help” from

someone, you will need

to probe more about that

“help”. Who helped

them? What kind of

things did they do to help

(e.g., translate your

paper, rewrite sentences,

add material, correct

grammar)?

DETECTING CONTRACT CHEATING IN NARRATIVE ASSIGNMENTS

Contract Cheating occurs when a student arranges for another student to complete (in part or total)

their assignment or exam on their behalf.

Evidence

Why This Can Be Considered

Evidence

Limitations of this Evidence

Suggested Types of Questions

Making Sense of the

Answer

The language, ideas and/or

readings used in the

assessment were not covered

in class

It is not uncommon for

Contract Cheating providers

to use materials that they

know, rather than the

materials the student was

supposed to use in writing the

assignment

The student could have

studied this topic in another

class or on their own

It’s a very interesting

topic/theme/angle you chose

to explore, how did you go

about choosing it?

I find it odd that you didn’t use

any of the readings assigned to

you in this class, choosing

instead to only use other

sources. Please tell us your

process for choosing your

sources, including your

rationale.

If the student cannot

explain the sources or

how they chose them, it

may suggest that they

didn’t write the paper

themselves.

The specific word choices

used in the assessment are

unusual or particularly

sophisticated

When a Contract Cheating

provider writes another

person’s paper, they often

use words that are not

common for the class

(because they didn’t attend

the class) or are more

sophisticated because the

student asked for a high grade

on the paper.

If there is only one

assessment as evidence, this

could just be indicative of the

student’s style.

In the assessment, you used X

word and it was just a unique

choice. Can you tell me more

about your use of that word

and how you decided to use it?

If the student cannot

define or describe their

word choices, or use

them again in a sentence,

it may suggest that they

didn’t write the paper

themselves.

The assessment doesn’t

address the prompt

If a student buys a pre-written

essay (cheaper than a custom

essay), the paper may not

fully address the prompt.

Even if it was a custom essay,

often times Contract Cheating

providers will not fully attend

to the assignment prompt.

Students who are

academically struggling with

the course content could

write a paper that does not

address the prompt.

Professor – you mention that

the paper doesn’t address the

prompt accurately – can you

tell us more about how you

came to that assessment?

If the student cannot

adequately explain to

your satisfaction why they

wrote a paper that

doesn’t address the

prompt, it may suggest

that they didn’t write the

paper themselves.

DETECTING CONTRACT CHEATING IN NARRATIVE ASSIGNMENTS

Contract Cheating occurs when a student arranges for another student to complete (in part or total)

their assignment or exam on their behalf.

Evidence

Why This Can Be Considered

Evidence

Limitations of this Evidence