SafeAssign

Plagiarism Education and Prevention Service

While some plagiarism may be deliberate, often it is unintentional and occurs for many reasons, including forgetting to keep track of sources; not understanding the distinction between quoting, paraphrasing and expressing original ideas; lack of clarity about how to cite sources; or differences between generations about what constitutes plagiarism. Cultural diversity may also factor into views on plagiarism. See a George Mason study on how culture influences writing entitled "Valuing Written Accents: International Voices in the U.S. Academy."

Pinpointing where papers might require citations provides useful feedback. Plagiarism education and prevention services, designed to do this automatically, support a multi-faceted approach to teaching and learning about plagiarism. SafeAssign, currently available for use by faculty, students and staff at Mason, provides this service. SafeAssign is a newly available tool that is currently integrated with the university's existing Blackboard subscription. For students to use SafeAssign, instructors must set it up in a Blackboard course folder.

For more information, contact Learning Support Services at (703) 993-3141 or email courses@gmu.edu.

SafeAssign Support Documentation and Resources

Faculty

• SafeAssign Overview for Faculty
  
• Setting Browsers to Work with SafeAssign (Do this first!)
• Adding SafeAssign as a SafeAssignment Content Link in your Course
• Creating a SafeAssignment
• Reviewing Student Originality Reports through SafeAssignment
• Adding Direct Submit as a Tool in your Course
• Using Direct Submit to Submit Student Papers
• Creating a .ZIP file of Student Papers for Direct Submit
• Reviewing Student Originality Reports through Direct Submit

Print All Documents Shown Above for Faculty

Students

• SafeAssign Overview for Students
  
• Setting Browsers to Work with SafeAssign (Do this first!)
• Submitting Papers for a SafeAssignment
• Reviewing SafeAssignment Originality Reports

Print All Documents Shown Above for Students