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Plagiarism, believe it or not, comes from a Latin verb that means,
“to kidnap.” If you plagiarize you’re kidnapping
and stealing others’ hard work and intellectual property.
It is academic and public dishonesty. You wouldn’t want someone
stealing your hard work, intentionally or even unintentionally,
would you? Of course not.
Still, writers sometimes purposely steal others’ work, and
other times writers unintentionally plagiarize because they get
confused, have poor notes, are lazy or intellectually unprepared,
run out of time, or simply don’t know how to correctly reference
sources. There’s a difference between plagiarism, of course,
and misuse of sources. (See Defining
and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices.
Reprinted by permission of the Council of Writing Program Administrators.)
Because there is so much information accessible through the Internet,
the temptation to plagiarize increases and what needs referencing
becomes increasingly unclear. The Internet tends to make who owns
what a little unclear. Just ask those in the music business. In
any case, plagiarism is unacceptable. You don’t want people
stealing your work, after all. It is outrageous, actually. We’re
here to better ourselves and to better our communities. You can’t
do that by stealing. To avoid plagiarism:
1. Do not use someone’s words without referencing the source
or including the information in quotation marks or a block quote;
and
2. Do not use someone’s ideas without referencing the source.
There is often information that you want to include in your paper
and you don’t know whether it came from someone in particular
or not. For instance, you may find a great Web site or a picture
online but you can’t find out who wrote or created it. You
still need to reference the source. Seems cut-and-dried, right?
When you use words or even just ideas or images, you should always
provide an in-text citation and an entry in the Works Cited or list
of References. Well, when you look at it that way, it is cut-and-dried.
But not everyone sees it that way.
Western cultures value knowledge and information as something
that can be owned. It’s called intellectual property. If someone
has created some particular ordering of language or an idea, in
the least, that person deserves recognition. It’s okay to
use appeals to authority in your writing. You can still come up
with your own ideas while presenting the ideas that inspired you.
Some cultures believe that because everyone shares language no individual
can own an idea. Even in the West, historically, mimesis, or copying
others’ writing and presenting it as if it is your own, has
been valued differently. While plagiarism cannot be universally
defined, copyright laws today in our culture are clear: give credit
for both words and ideas where credit is due.
You always do this, right? You always give credit where credit
is due? Some people don’t. And it’s important to learn
why so that you don’t fall into the plagiarism trap. Consider
what you would do to avoid the traps in the following five scenarios.
Student and teacher perspectives are presented. Teachers are really
far more concerned about promoting academic integrity and learning
than they are catching and punishing plagiarists.
1. “Shoot—I wish I had taken better notes.”
Student perspective
Instructor perspective
Student: I am so awesome. Here I
am, working on my research paper, and it’s not due for another
3 days! I have never been so far ahead. I usually crank it out the
night before. Sweet. This paper’s gonna rock. Okay, so I’ve
outlined it. Paper’s about why parking services here suck,
and why parking should be much cheaper, why we should have more
spaces, and why those spaces should be closer to where students
need to go, like the buildings with classrooms. I have a ton of
great sources, too, so my paper won’t seem like just me yelling
about parking, even though I have $80 in fines right now. Let’s
see. I remember my teacher saying that all sources have to use MLA,
both in the paper and in a bibliography. I can do that. Easy. It’s
all here. All I have to do is arrange everything in some order that
looks good. Okay, I’m cruising now. I have my introduction.
In the second paragraph I want to point out the cost, and then the
number of spaces per student, and then the number of students who
commute, etc. I remember this great article from that big school
in the Midwest that has a ton of commuters. Ah, here it is in my
notes. Article is called “The Role of Parking on College Campuses.”
I didn’t write any direct quotes in my notes. Oh well. I did
write, basically, what a few people said in it though. Dang—I
forgot to write the page numbers. Oh well, I’ll just make
some numbers up. Was it 2 spots for every student, or 1 spot for
every student? Shoot. I bet my teacher will know. I’ll get
busted if I don’t have this stuff right. Well, I guess I can
go back to the library. Or I could finish this tonight and go out
this weekend instead. Ah, she won’t know. I’ll make
something up. How’s this . . . According to Dr. Richard Libby
on a major campus in the Midwest, “We have 1 spot for every
2 students and it’s just not enough” (16). That’s
my favorite number. I’ll use it for the page reference. I’ll
take better notes next time.
Instructor: I know this article.
Four students have used it on papers I’ve graded so far, and
many used it last semester. I know the quotation did not come from
this article. Dr. Libby doesn’t use words like “spot.”
It sounds like a student said that, not the Provost. I’ll
put it on my list of things to double-check in the library. I wish
the student took better notes. I went over the importance of good
note taking. That’s perhaps the most important thing I’m
trying to get across in this assignment: good research begins with
a good question, which is something this guy has, but then you have
to take good notes. I can tell he spent some time in the library.
I can tell that. But if this quotation is incorrectly attributed,
it’s plagiarized. Taking two seconds to write good notes is
all it takes. Simply unacceptable.
2. “I’m out of time.”
Student perspective
Instructor perspective
Student: My teacher will never know.
I have a good introduction and a good conclusion. This stuff here
online looks like it makes good sense. Here we go. Copy/paste. I’ll
change a few words around. There. Oh, “instantiation,”
that’s a good word. I’ll use it, too, in my conclusion,
so it looks more like my writing. Done. Just in time. Class is in
10 minutes across campus. File > Print > OK. Done.
Instructor: Great! I’ve
been looking forward to reading the final draft of this paper. The
previous draft had a great introduction. It just needed some more
support from sources. Yes, there’s the topic. There’s
the claim. Now he needs . . . hmm. His essay sort of starts over
here. Much different style. Writing is different. Shoot. Next paragraph
jumps in a completely different way, too. And this sentence is clearly
not the same author as the person who wrote the introduction. Let
me do a quick Internet search. Yep, plagiarized. Man. He was doing
so well. Students had over a week between drafts and this is what
I get. I even required an annotated bib. Well, now I have to set
up a time to meet with him and the Composition Director. He’ll
have to spend time writing now, that’s for sure. Unbelievable.
3. “What’s in an idea?”
Student perspective
Instructor perspective
Student: Yes! This Web site is right
on! In the first section it lists out four different points about
my topic, the drinking age, and then goes on to identify other countries
that have a lower drinking age, and then points out all the things
you can do at age 18 like vote besides pick your own beverage. There
it is. I love the Internet. I can just use the structure of this
essay and some of the ideas, and then pull quotes from my interviews
and from some articles in the library.
Instructor: We
went over this. I’ll have to point out in class again that
ideas and organization and structure require references. This student
has clearly organized her warrants based on the site she mentions
in her introduction, but then she doesn’t reference that site
later on. I just don’t get why students can’t come up
with their own ideas. Or if they want to use other people’s
ideas to springboard to their own, then they need to point that
out. It’s okay to use other people’s ideas if you reference
them! I can’t believe this.
4. Lack of referencing
Student perspective
Instructor perspective
Student: Okay, the teacher said I
should have a mix of paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting. I have
the quotes. I’ll put in what these different articles say,
basically, in my next paragraph. Okay, that works. Let’s see,
what’s the difference between paraphrasing and summarizing?
Oh, same thing, just that paraphrasing gets the reference and you
don’t have to reference when you’re just summarizing.
That makes sense.
Instructor: There’s no way
he could have known this without reading it somewhere. He’s
summarizing, that’s clear. But I was also clear in class that
other people’s ideas must be documented, regardless of whether
writers paraphrase them, summarize them, or even directly quote
them. Why isn’t this obvious to students? If the idea is not
your own, it means you read it somewhere and must tell where. Doesn’t
matter if you’re quoting, if you’re paraphrasing, or
if you’re summarizing. Writing a research paper is not like
writing a report and just listing information. I can’t see
why students don’t think this is important! It’s stealing!
I always tell them my rule of thumb, too, about quoting: if you
use three or more words from any sentence anywhere, put it in quotes
and reference it. I think it was Karl Kraus in Half Truths and
One-and-a-Half Truths who wrote, “A Plagiarist should
be made to copy the author a hundred times.” I agree. And
that’s copying by hand and not by ctrl-c/ctrl-v.
5. Plagiarizing yourself
Student perspective
Instructor perspective
Student: I really like this course
on ethics in technical communication. Good stuff. I know I’ll
be able to use this in my career. It’s similar to philosophy,
and it has a lot of logic and psychology and sociology in it. Anyway,
I’m sure my teachers won’t mind if I double-dip a little.
The topic of the paper I just wrote for my philosophy class is pretty
close to what I have to write for tomorrow’s technical communication
class. I’ll change the introduction to refocus a little, copy/paste
these few pages, put in another paragraph, and then voila. Done.
Same stuff, really, anyway.
Instructor: She really is a great
student. I’ve been reviewing her work in other classes and
speaking with her other teachers about putting her up for a university
award. Unfortunately, I came across something that really surprised
me. She wrote a paper earlier in the semester that she used again
for my class last week. I asked her other instructor about it and
he was shocked, too. Our courses are similar but not that similar.
She basically plagiarized herself. She should have asked our permission
and we could have showed her the differences between the two topics
on a more theoretical level. I wanted new information and new thinking
and new work. The purpose of writing isn’t only a product;
the purpose includes the process of creating the product. I can’t
put her up for the award, clearly. She will get a zero on this paper,
too. When in doubt about anything to do with plagiarism, she should
know that she should ask her teachers. I really hate having to confront
students about plagiarism cases, intentional or not. There’s
nothing more disheartening. |