Plagiarism--Identify Theft of the Mind

As it gets toward the end of the academic term, it seems like a good opportunity to look over one of the thorniest academic and ethical problems -- plagiarism. With the advent of the internet, plagiarism assumed a whole new aspect in academia as the ease of the "copy" and "paste" functions made it so much simpler to manipulate blocks of text, not to mention artwork and other media. This development led to the rise and (because this is America) adjudication of plagiarism detectors such as Turnitin.com, currently used by DACC. The result is an arms race of intellectual technology.

On its surface, plagiarism seems like a relatively easy to understand concept. Here's the definition from the Student Rights and Responsibilities section in the DACC Student Handbook: "Plagiarism: Representing the words or ideas of another as one’s own in any academic exercise.  It is the student’s responsibility to properly summarize and/or paraphrase content derived from information sources and to give proper credit to each original source (according to the course documentation of citation standard), when the student has used thoughts, words, or any content from other sources in the completion of assignments."

Cultural Misunderstandings

But the problems of plagiarism often arise from communication failure. Often students simply aren't clear on exactly what constitutes plagiarism. For example, what is viewed as plagiarism, or perhaps more accurately, serious academic plagiarism, can vary culturally. Washington State University offers a good general overview of this situation, while Concordia University summarizes a study by Andrew Ryder that demonstrates that what is plagiarism in the United States is good academic practice in other locations.  Al Jamiat, a site dedicated to helping Middle-Eastern students be more successful in U.S. colleges and universities, makes it even clearer by means of a concrete example.

What to Cite

Another tricky aspect of the plagiarism problem for students arises from the issue of what constitutes Common Knowledge, that cloudy area of information that does not require citation because of its intimate familiarity. Yale Univeristy demonstrates just how murky these waters can get in an excellent site addressing the topic. Adams State College offers some additional help on making decisions about common knowledge, while Springfield Township High School's Virtual Library makes one distinction particularly nicely on its page -- the importance of citing an author's interpretation of the significance of a particular piece of common knowledge. Both the Yale and the Adams State sites emphasize the importance of students clarifying with instructors (and by inference, instructors clarifying with students) the types of things viewed as common knowledge within their own field.

When to Cite

Even when citation is needed is not quite as simple as it first looks. The answer can vary from one discipline to the next and even from one situation to another. Yale University again offers some helpful demonstrations of the problems as well as some guidelines, including situations, such as lab work and computer programs, that move beyond the simple "research paper" context that are the only introduction many students may ever get to the topic. Unfortunately, depending on their program or point in their program where they are at, many students may never get or have gotten that by the time they encounter a particular assignment. Plagiarism.org provides a useful list of many reasons that students unintentionally plagiarize information through a variety of misunderstandings.

Two important skills students need to learn, and that instructors can encourage students to continue to develop in place of extensive quotation, are how to paraphrase and summarize works properly. Here are sites that offer help on these invaluable skills: Plagiarism.org, the Online Writing Lab at Purdue, and Yale. DACC's own Writer's Room can also offer assistance in this area (as well as citation) and students should be encouraged to visit it for assistance.

Plagiarism Education

Given the various factors complicating students' understanding of plagiarism, the key to reducing plagiarism is assignment design and communication. Washington State University offers strategies to help reduce the problem. Part of that education is to provide students with a grounded understanding of why citation is important, something that most conceive of in only the vaguest terms. Some students may even believe that citing their work makes it look as though they only copied others' ideas, and it is important to clarify this misconception. For instructors who want to help their students improve their knowledge of plagiarism, here's a nifty online tutorial and quiz students can take to help them (and you!) improve their general understanding. Discipline specifics, however, will still depend on the instructor-student relationship.