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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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• 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
continued on pag
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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!