After reading some of the things that Dr. John Strange writes in his essay "Is it Plagiarism Yet?", I have concluded that some of my English professors definitely did not apply Richard Posner's ideas that plagiarism has to include three things; intentional deceit, knowing attempt to defraud and harm to someone else. I may not always cite things properly, but I feel that I always give credit where credit is due. Have my professors always agreed? NO! I often had to re-write my papers because I didn't "properly cite" my sources. If my professors had applied Posner's ideas on plagiarism - I would have made higher scores on my papers!
However - plagiarism is a huge problem. My issue (and Dr. Strange's issue) is that professors believe that students come to them with some inherent knowledge of what plagiarism is. I find this is very untrue. I had no idea that I plagiarized. I was never taught what plagiarism was --EXACTLY. This is why I believe that regardless of who you are teaching or what grade level you are teaching - plagiarism should be covered if you are expecting a student to write. This way if you have someone that has obviously plagiarized then you can honestly state that you taught this lesson. It never hurts to go over an idea more than once. Often for students it takes multiple attempts at teaching before they actually understand the concept (myself included!).
The issue is not the way in which the citation is written but whether, when exact words are use, quotation marks AND proper citation is provided.
ReplyDeleteYes, you are correct. I am convinced that a large proportion of students who are juniors have no idea what plagiarism really is. It seems that a majority do not understand that they must put the quoted material in quotation marks!
How do you think we can address this issue?
Hey Gina,
ReplyDeleteMy name is Mary Alice and I'm also a student in Dr. Strange's EDM510 class. I had really similar feelings on my impression of plagiarism. I felt like it was more an issue of the student's not knowing that they were plagiarizing, rather than doing it on purpose. Thus, there is a need to cover what is/is not plagiarism early in the semester. Dr. Strange's data collections showed that confusion is across the board for students. It is hard to be held accountable for something when you think you are doing it well and are unaware that you aren't. The being 'unaware' is the big issue to me.
My suggestions were to either teach explicitly each semester (early in the semester) what plagiarism is/is not, and all the ways it could look versus how it should look before signing the plagiarism form. Or, have the students do a project where they teach or create something defining and giving examples of plagiarism. Etc. That way, if plagiarism occurs, it is more than likely due to willful intent versus ignorance.
What do you think? How should teachers go about ensuring that students understand what plagiarism is/is not so that it clears this muddy water up?
Thanks for your thoughts,
Mary Alice Pouliot
P.S.
If you are interested in checking out my own personal blog for the class, feel free. You might be assigned to look at it later in the semester though. So, perhaps I'll see you then. :)
Mary Alice,
ReplyDeleteI love, love, love your idea of having the students do a project where they teach or create examples of plagiarism. You know, we learn most from doing. Having the students "do" would be the greatest learning tool.
Thanks so much!