Resources
To help you pass a Certification Test
- How Certification Tests work: short video shows how to answer questions and use test hints
- Decision table: summarizes how to determine the kind of plagiarism, rules of thumb, test clues
- Decision support: step-by-step guide for classifying plagiarism and non-plagiarism
- What mistakes I am making on the test? describes more subtle and well-disguised plagiarism
- Hints: decision table, classification rules for how to recognize plagiarism
- Patterns of plagiarism: examples demonstrate 15 types of plagiarism and 3 types of non-plagiarism (similar to questions on Certification Tests)
- Document used in the demonstration videos with color coding of elements: word-for-word quotations, paraphrasing, citation elements, and parts of references
- Document used in the demonstration videos with no color coding: PDF illustrates proper citations for direct quotes and paraphrasing, and references in APA Style (American Psychological Association)--no color coding.
- Frequently asked questions: and their answers
- Simple diagram: how to avoid plagiarism
Links to external websites for further help
- Quiz: What Is Plagiarism at Indiana University? 10 questions with immediate feedback which progressively identify salient criteria for identifying plagiarism
- YouTube Video (18 min.): Professor Anthony Pym provides additional examples and tips for how to pass one of the difficult Certification Tests. Dr. Pym refers to inverted commas, which are the same as quotation marks to which we refer in our tutorials. The examples he provides were drawn from our legacy tutorial (2002-2014).
- Booth, W. C., Colomb, G. G., Williams, J. M., Bizup, J., & FitzGerald, W. T. (2016). The craft of research (4th. Ed.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
- Online Writing Lab: Purdue University (OWL)
- Plagiarism.org: understanding plagiarism, citing sources, ...
- Writing Tutorial Services: tutoring and writing guides at Indiana University Bloomington
- APA Style: American Psychological Association
Can I use AI to get help in passing a Certification Test?
Current AI chatbots are unlikely to help you pass one of the Certification Tests. What is more likely to help you is to actively engage with the instruction and practice with feedback. If you do so, you are about 5.3 times more likely to pass a test than are students who do not take advantage of these learning resources, and who do not utilize specific links to plagiarism patterns associated with types of mistakes made on a test not passed.
Certification Tests require judgment, which in turn requires good reading comprehension and critical thinking. They require applying concepts and principles. They require paying careful attention to details.
Current AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini lack common sense, do not deeply understand what they read, and they do not reason or think critically as do intelligent humans. For examples, see Marcus (2024), and Marcus and Davis (2020). These kinds of chatbots are highly unlikely to pass a Certification Test, even though they may perform other tasks very proficiently. The same is true for people who lack these skills. See this frequently asked question.
References
Marcus, G. (2024). Taming Silicon Valley: How we can ensure that AI works for us (Kindle). The MIT Press.
Marcus, G., & Davis, E. (2020). Rebooting AI: Building artificial intelligence we can trust (Kindle). Pantheon Books.