The following is a sampling of strategies that can be used to discourage plagiarism when designing assignments. If you have assignments that have effectively discouraged plagiarism in your courses, we invite you to send them to the Centre for the Support of Teaching to add to its collection of sample assignments that promote academic integrity.

• In general, make assignments specific and unique so that students are not easily tempted to find and submit something already written
• Explicitly link course work and exams so that they crosscheck and reinforce each other (Carroll & Appleton, 2001 )
• Use assignment topics that are unusual or have a narrow twist (Harris,2001)
• Re–write or modify assignments topics and tasks from term to term
• Provide clearly defined topics and objectives
• Require work to be submitted first in draft form
• Have students prepare an annotated bibliography
• Have students prepare their papers for an audience other than yourself classmates, a decision–making body, etc.
• Require the use of specific sources for your assignments, i.e. a certain number of recent sources, websites, journal articles, surveys, interviews, etc.(Harris,2001)
• Ask students to include material learned from the lectures in their assignments
• Have students ask their classmates to read their paper for feedback (Harris,2001)
• On the assignment due date, have students write an in–class, meta–learning essay about what they learned from the assignment (Harris,2001)
• Assess the process, how the student worked through the assignment, as well as the product (Carroll & Appleton, 2001 )
• Have students sign a statement declaring that they are the true author of their paper (Harris,2001)
• Use plagiarism detection software, such as turnitin.com (York University)
• Use in–class micro–essays, problem sets, summary reports, etc. so that student can demonstrate their understanding of the material (York University)
• Design assignments that draw on the specific local conditions of the course (York University)
• Provide a progressive context for students to develop their assignments, such as completing worksheets essay proposals, shorter papers, specific portions of the paper in advance, oral reports, etc. (Ehrlich, 2000)
• Design assignments that involve modes of writing other than argument and exposition, such as explanations, problem–solving, choices and decision–making (McKenzie, 1998)
• Ask students to study a topic and present information leading to a decision or recommendation (McKenzie, 1998)
• Ask students to explain why something didn't happen, rather than why something did (McKenzie, 1998)
• Require that a class discussion be integrated into the assignment
• Design assignments that ask students to make an inquiry or investigation (Millikin University)
• Design assignments that involve creativity, analysis, evaluation and synthesis ( Carroll & Appleton, 2001)
• Ask students to assess or compare more than one idea, outcome or application (Carroll & Appleton, 2001)
• Design assignments that ask students to integrate more than one specific idea (i.e. explain how a certain local situation or current event relates to a theory studied in the course) (Carroll & Appleton, 2001)
• Work with your class to develop an honour code
• Encourage the submission of good quality papers by providing students with resources and guidelines on essay writing, citation practices for referencing electronic and text source, and bibliographic formatting
• Include statements in your course outline and in course kits that explain the policy procedures on academic dishonesty and plagiarism
• Help students understand what plagiarism is and what are acceptable citation practices in your courses