Hashem WIC Newsletter Spring 2016

8/17/2019 Hashem WIC Newsletter Spring 2016

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6 | WIC Program Newsletter | Spring 2016

terms of morality. The understanding of plagiarism

as “borrowing” or “stealing” people’s work has

given way to troubling identity markers that

position students as cheaters or thieves and

teachers as justice-promoting police or “plagiarism

busters.”4 Rebecca Moore Howard, a writing

studies professor at Syracuse University, argues,

“by thinking of plagiarism as a unitary act … we

risk categorizing all of our students as criminals.”5

Identifying students as criminals is not only

demoralizing and harmful, it is also inaccurate. In

The Elements of Teaching Writing , Keith Hjortshoj

and Katherine Gottshalk, both retired professors

from Cornell University, claim plagiarism does

not always “correspond with integrity among

the students” from their teaching experiences,

they recount many instances in which ethical and

motivated students plagiarize in their writing.6

Their experiences suggest shortcomings in

framing inaccurate source use as an issue centered

solely around ethics.

It’s not that simple! Courtesy of Creative Commons

In efforts to provide a more complexunderstanding of plagiarism, Howard, in

“Plagiarisms, Authorship, and the Academic Death

Penalty,” points us back to notions of authorship

that existed prior to the modern era, during which

the concept of “an individual creator of original

work” did not exist.7 According to dominant

beliefs prior to the modern era, knowledge is

accumulated and writing is collaborative; idea-

generation, invention and writing are all informed

by and build on the work of others. Over time,this understanding of authorship shifted and

changed in various contexts. In the 18th century,

the invention of the printing press established

writing as a profession and financially motivated

4Gillian Silverman, “It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Plagiarism Buster!” Newsweek 140, no. 3 (2002): 12.5 Rebecca Moore Howard, “Forget About Policing Plagiarism. Just Teach,” The Chronicle of Higher Education , November 16, 2001,www.chronicle.com/article/Forget-About-Policing/2792.6Keith Hjortshoj and Katherine Gottshalk, The Elements of Teaching Writing (MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004), 118.7Rebecca Moore Howard, “Plagiarisms, Authorship, and the Academic Death Penalty,” College English 57 , no. 7 (1995): 789-90.8Hjortshoj and Gottshalk, 118.

endeavor. With that, copyright laws were birthed

and using others’ work without attribution was

considered plagiarism—a criminal act. The

academy has historically embraced this notion

of source use, attribution, and plagiarism amidst

divergent conceptualizations of plagiarism in othe

cultures and countries, and on the Internet (which

has drastically disrupted traditional notions of the

“individual” author).

Taking into account the complexity of plagiarism

and its history, researchers, educators, and

organizations have taken on the task of developin

a more nuanced and flexible definition of

plagiarism for the academy. Plagiarism can be

understood more meaningfully as a diverse array

of types of source misuse, varying with regard to

student’s intent, comprehension abilities, citation

knowledge, and ethical choices. Hjortshoj and

Gottschalk reflect on the varieties of plagiarism

observed in their own teaching experiences statin

“the offenses most colleges include in the loose

category of ‘plagiarism’ vary from deliberate thef

and fraud to minor cases of close paraphrase and

faulty reference.”8 By considering various reason

as to why students plagiarize, plagiarism can be

constructed as a more complex and multifaceted

obstacle to education than it has been in the past

In embracing a more nuanced understanding of

plagiarism, it is important to consider the various

factors that may prompt students to plagiarize.

Below I have identified several reasons, although

acknowledge that this list is not comprehensive:


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Spring 2016 | WIC Program Newsletter |

• A General Lack of Ability: For a motivated

student who wants to succeed in an

assignment, but who does not have the skills

to do so, it may be easy to either intentionally

or unintentionally rely too heavily or incorrectly

on outside sources. Underdeveloped, or

developing, skills in reading, summarizing,

establishing voice, and understanding

citation practices can all contribute to studentplagiarism.9

• Cultural or Language Difference: American

school systems and U.S. academics have a very

specific understanding of what is appropriate

and necessary for source attribution. This

understanding is not objective and is not shared

around the globe.10

• Time Constraints: In the competitive and hectic

atmosphere in which the modern student

operates, the Council of Writing Program

Administrators points out that students may

make time-management or planning errors and

“believe they have no choice but to plagiarize”

in order to meet important deadlines.11

While I acknowledge that blatant, intentional

plagiarism does indeed occur and demands

response, I believe it is important to acknowledge

student writers whom authentically struggle with

the ethics and complexities of citing sources in a

digital, globalized world.

In addition to thinking about the possible reasons

why students plagiarize, educators need to

consider how their pedagogy can proactively

combat plagiarism. The following is a list of some

ideas and strategies educators can use to prevent

student plagiarism.

• Facilitating a writing process that occurs ove

time. Instructors can incorporate pre-writing

activities, multiple drafts, and opportunities

for feedback and revision into an assignment.

Such scaffolding prevents students from

writing papers at the last minute. It also

provides student with an opportunity to work

more closely and for a longer period of time

with sources and their source-based writing,minimizing the possibility of plagiarism.12

• Teaching critical reading and writing practice

Paraphrase and summary activities can help

students more meaningfully interact with text

Students who have strong comprehension

abilities are less likely to work with sources on

the sentence level, which has been strongly

linked to plagiarism.13

• Designing unique, non-generic assignments.

Assignments that are commonly used or

formulaic may “invite stock or plagiarized

responses.”14

• Teaching appropriate source use. Activities

that ask students to identify different kinds of

plagiarism is helpful to equip them with an

understanding of what plagiarism is and looks

like.

These strategies are intended to help educators

teach rather than police. However, in order

for these ideas to be effective, they have to

be implemented within a disciplinary context.

Different disciplines have their own expectations

for source use and understandings of paraphrase

quotations, summary, and citations. It is up

to educators to instruct their students on the

complexities of source use within their discipline

9WPA, “Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices,” The Council of Writing Program Administrators , January 20http://wpacouncil.org/positions/WPAplagiarism.pdf.10Hjortshoj and Gottshalk, 119.11WPA.12Ibid.13Rebecca Moore Howard, Tanya K. Rodrigue, and Tricia C. Serviss, “Writing from Sources, Writing from Sentences,” Writing and Pedagogy 2,2 (2010): 177-192.14WPA

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8 | WIC Program Newsletter | Spring 2016

as well as remain sensitive to the variety of reasons

why students plagiarize. By tackling the problem

of plagiarism directly, but with respect and open-

mindedness, we can begin to address one of the

major struggles in the teaching and learning of

writing.

Bibliography

Hjortshoj, Keith and Katherine Gottshalk. TheElements of Teaching Writing . MA: Bedford/St.

Martin’s, 2004.

Howard, Rebecca Moore. “Forget About Policing

Plagiarism. Just Teach.” The Chronicle of Higher

Education . November 16, 2001. www.chronicle.

com/article/Forget-About-Policing/2792.

Howard, Rebecca Moore. “Plagiarisms, Authorship,

and the Academic Death Penalty.” College English

57, no. 7 (1995): 788-806.

Howard, Rebecca Moore, Tanya K. Rodrigue, and

Tricia C. Serviss. “Writing from Sources, Writing

from Sentences.” Writing and Pedagogy 2, no. 2

(2010): 177-192.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary. “plagiarism.”

Merriam-Webster English Dictionary . www.

merriam-webster.com/dictionary/plagiarism.

Metcalf, Allan. “A Plague of Plagiarism.” The

Chronicle of Higher Education . February 16, 2016

www.chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2016/02/

the-plague-of-plagiarism.

Schuetze, Christopher F. “Germany’s Plague of

Plagiarism.” New York Times . March 12, 2013.

www.rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com//2013/03/12

germanys-plague-of-plagiarism.

Silverman, Gillian. “It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s

Plagiarism Buster!” Newsweek 140, no. 3 (2002):

12.

WPA. “Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The

WPA Statement on Best Practices.” The Council

of Writing Program Administrators . January 2003

http://wpacouncil.org/positions/WPAplagiarism.

pdf.

Twelve Faculty Complete the WIC SeminarProgram and Participate in Salem State’s ThirdAnnual Writing Pedagogy Conference, WritingVerticallyThe third cohort completed the WIC Seminar program this year. The program is designed to support

instructors teaching the W-II and W-III courses in the new general education curriculum. All WIC

participants participated in seven seminars on writing-related topics and presented at the thirdannual writing pedagogy conference, Writing Vertically , in April. Participants include: Cami Condie

(childhood ed and care department), Peg Dillon(communications), Hannah Fraley (nursing), Jason

Gillis (SMS), Mohammad Jahanbakht (business), Anne Noonan (psychology), Kristin Pangallo

(chemistry and physics), Forrest Rodgers (criminal justice), Dennis Rosemartin (education), Amy

Smith (theatre and speech communication), Jane Theriault (psychology), and Keja Valens (English).

Congratulations!

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Hashem WIC Newsletter Spring 2016