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Plagiarism serious matter to be dealt with in academia
By: Lawrence Souder
Issue date: 4/16/04 Section: Ed-Op
Originally published: 4/15/04 at 9:37 PM EST
Last update: 4/18/04 at 9:33 PM EST
Originally published: 4/15/04 at 9:37 PM EST
Last update: 4/18/04 at 9:33 PM EST
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Ultimately, it's not the harm that plagiarists bring on themselves or our society that troubles me about their acts. These effects seem too uncertain and for that reason probably do not deter students from misappropriating the words of others. Rather it's the effects of plagiarism on me the teacher that I find predictable, painful and lasting. I regard writing, even business and technical writing, as another form of communication. The content and form are specific to the discipline, but the creative process of assembling one's thoughts and putting them in a tangible form is general. Technical writers must grapple with a creative process that confronts them with the same senses of vulnerability, frustration and pride that challenge poets or novelists. For this reason the teaching of writing requires a safe environment - one that offers students patience, encouragement and trust. The trust that I try to create in the classroom is mutual between students and teacher. I want them to feel they can make mistakes in grammar and construct awkward locutions without the fear of ridicule. At the same time, I want to trust that the locutions they show me are their own. Their acts of plagiarism are a violation of my trust. When I counsel students who have plagiarized, I see in their faces resentment, anger and fear that they've been caught. I hope in my face they can see sadness that I have caught them. The unfortunate consequence for both of us is as Hazlitt has said, "If an author is once detected in borrowing, he will be suspected of plagiarism ever after" (1820 Lect. Dram. Lit. 257 as quoted in the Oxford English Dictionary Online). Once I've discovered students who've plagiarized an assignment, I will struggle to ignore this question about all of their subsequent papers: "Have you written these words, or did you kidnap them?"
Lawrence Souder is a professor of communications.
Lawrence Souder is a professor of communications.
