I have the lovely (I mistyped first and wrote "lonely," maybe that's
more correct!) role of being the administrator in charge of academic
integrity here at DePaul and have a couple of suggestions.  

- First, your school probably has an academic integrity policy which
will better define the parameters of both your inquiry and a violation
than I could.

- Second, I would suggest that you pull out a few key phrases that do
not sound as if they are in synch with this student's originally
evidenced abilities and put them in quotes in a google search.  Google
will then only pull up that exact sequence of words and you'll find the
source, if different that the student himself or herself.

- Third, you are correct in being cautious about the verification of a
student's paper simply because you wouldn't want to be verifying papers
of students in one particular group but not another, without cause.  For
instance, (and I only use this as an example!!) you wouldn't want to
find yourself verifying the papers of all the men in your class but not
the women.

- Fourth, your code or guidelines should discuss the burden of proof but
in many cases the situation is determined by a panel or hearing board.
In our situation at DePaul, we have a board comprised of students and
faculty for each sanction appeal.  That board evaluates the information
presented to it and determines whether it is more likely that the
student did in fact violate the code or not.  

Laura

Laura P. Hartman 
Assoc. Vice President, Academic Affairs 
Professor of Business Ethics 
DePaul University 
1 E. Jackson Blvd. 
Chicago, IL 60604 
Ph: 312/362-6569, Fax: 312/362-6822 
Mobile: 312/493-9929

>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Academy of Legal Studies in Business (ALSB) Talk
>>[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David Canarie
>>Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 8:57 AM
>>To: [log in to unmask]
>>Subject: Authenticity of student papers
>>
>>I have recently found myself in the position of questioning whether a
paper is actually the
>>work of the student who submitted it, and I am looking for guidance on
what to do.
>>
>>The student in question failed the mid-term essay exam by a wide
margin and, two weeks
>>later, turned in a paper that was slightly off-topic but showed an
outstanding degree
>>organization, command of the subject matter and writing style.  It was
one of the most
>>sophisticated treatments of a subject I have seen in a student paper.
Aside from my general
>>concern that the paper didn't seem to be even remotely consistent with
the student's previous
>>work, I had some specific concerns:
>>
>>--The 4 or 5 instances of quoted material in the paper were attributed
to two websites.  I
>>checked (but did not scour) the websites, and did not find the quotes.
I have asked the
>>student to show me the original material from which the quotes were
taken.
>>
>>--I found two phrases in the paper that were taken directly from our
textbook, without
>>attribution.
>>
>>--The material that does not appear in quotation marks--which is most
of the text in the
>>paper--does not seem at all consistent with the student's prior work
in this class.
>>
>>--The student says he had "editing help" from his girlfriend and
pointed out that I had
>>encouraged students to get editing assistance from the Writing Center.
>>
>>My questions:
>>
>>Are there any general guidelines for when a professor should attempt
to verify the
>>authenticity of a student paper?
>>
>>How can professors possibly verify that papers are actually the work
of a student who
>>submitted them?  After all, students who are inclined to cheat have
the entire internet at
>>their disposal!  (In this regard, here is a summary of a recent NYT
article re: a proposal to
>>verify suspiciously good college application essays by cross
referencing them to the
>>student's SAT essay:
>>http://www.globalethics.org/newsline/members/pastissue2.tmpl?issueid=1
1/7/2005#110705
>>2338576
>><http://www.globalethics.org/newsline/members/pastissue2.tmpl?issueid=
11/7/2005#11070
>>52338576> )
>>
>>Who has the burden of proof when it comes to the question of whether a
paper is the work
>>of the student who submitted it?
>>
>>Where is the line between getting aggressive editorial assistance on
the one hand, and
>>turning in a paper that is substantially someone else's work product
on the other?
>>
>>Thanks.
>>
>>Dave
>>
>>[log in to unmask]
>>www.sjcme.edu
>>