Plagiarism Preventing Assignment Ideas

1. Require choice from a list of approved topics that changes every year (*may inspire a
lack of interest so instead think about creating parameters and allowing self-direction
with proposal and approval process may also provide a list of barred topics)
2. Design your assignment as a multimedia project, perhaps including an oral presentation
or a movie trailer advertising their paper.
3. Create a spin on the old compare and contrast (ex. Historical Figure and Current PopCulture Icon).
4. Require students to discuss something local or fairly recent (2-3) years.
5. Create an oral history project where the students primary source is an older relative /
acquaintance who has lived through a specific historical event of interest. Beyond
interviews, students will access sources from the time period to analyze/discuss how the
media was informing their main source.
6. Require students to cover an event as though they were writing a newspaper article,
editorial, blog (be careful to address expectations in terms of tone and style issues).
7. Require the discussion of a topic with mandatory inclusion of source work from various
media (journals, news, newspapers, magazines, blogs).
8. Focus on an event from history and require source work from the year of the event as
well as modern coverage, illustrating a shift in understanding, interpretation, and/or
growth of evidence.
9. Require students to write the paper in the persona of a famous historical figure, having
first researched the figure.
10. Have students compile research for a controversial issue. Require annotated
bibliographies and a class debate with formal presentations and rebuttals. Finally,
students write a research paper. (You might increase the stakes by having the entire class
read all of the papers with names concealed and conduct a secret ballot vote for best
supported argument.)
11. Have students analyze how a pivotal moment in history has been reflected across three
different modes of expression (ex. Art, Music, Theater, Film, Literature).
12. Have students create a documentary covering an important historical event or issue. The
documentary must be factually accurate and a separate annotated bibliography should be
required for all sources used. You might consider assigning this as a group project.
13. Require students to research a famous politician from history creating an annotated
bibliography; then have the students compose a speech in the persona of the politician
addressing a current controversial political issue. Students could also write a companion
justification citing their source work.
14. Have students create a fictional Facebook/Instagram account for a famous
author/historical figure. Then require students to write a companion paper
explaining/documenting their posts.
15. Have students identify a fairly recent event and view two different media reports (each
from the opposite political bias) focused on this event. Have students compare the
contents, source work, and tone. You may have students identify other sources to
question the comprehensiveness/accuracy of the original articles.