ｾ PlagiarismandAcademicIntegrity

2.1. Definition ofPlagiarism

2.2. ConsequencesofPlagiarism

2.3. InformationSharingToday

2.4. UnintentionalPlagiarism

2.5. FormsofPlagiarism

2.6. WhenDocumentationIs Not Needed

2.7. RelatedIssues2.7.1. Reusinga ResearchPaper2.7.2. CollaborativeWork2.7.3. Researchon HumanSubjects2.7.4. CopyrightInfringement

2.8. SummingPP

PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

You haveprobablyread orheardaboutcharges ofplagiarismin dis-putesin the publishingandrecordingindustries.You may alsohavehadclassroomdiscussionsaboutstudentplagiarismin particularandacademicdishonesty in general.Many schoolshavedevelopedguide-linesorproceduresregardingplagiarism.Honorcodesandothermeanstopromoteacademicintegrityare alsocommon.This sectiondescribesethicalconsiderationsin researchwriting andcanhelpyou avoidpla-giarismand otherunethicalacts.

2.1.DEFINITION OF PLAGIARISM

Derivedfromthe Latinword plagiatius ("kidnapper"), to plagiarizemeans"tocommitliterarytheft" andto "presentasnewandoriginalanideaor product derived from anexistingsource"(Merriam-Webster'sCollegiateDictionary[Ll.th ed.;2003;print]). Plagiarisminvolvestwokindsofwrongs.Usinganotherperson'sideas,information,or expres-sionswithout acknowledgingthatperson'swork constitutesintellec-tual theft. Passing offanotherperson'sideas,information,or expres-sionsas your own to get abettergrade or gainsomeotheradvantageconstitutesfraud.Plagiarismis sometimesamoralandethicaloffenserather than a legal one since someinstancesof plagiarismfall outsidethe scopeof copyrightinfringement,a legal offense (see2.7.4).

2.2. CONSEQUENCESOF PLAGIARISM

A complexsociety thatdependson well-informedcitizensstrivestomaintainhigh standards ofquality andreliability for documentsthatare publicly circulated andusedin government,business,industry,theprofessions,higher education,andthe media. Becauseresearchhasthe powerto affectopinionsandactions,responsiblewriterscom-pose their work with great care. Theyspecifywhenthey refer to an-other author's ideas, facts, andwords, whetherthey want to agreewith, objectto, or analyze the source.Thiskind of documentationnotonly recognizesthe work writers do; it also tendsto discouragethecirculation of error, byinviting readersto determinefor themselveswhether a reference toanothertext presentsa reasonableaccountofwhat that text says.Plagiaristsunderminetheseimportantpublic val-

52

CONSEQUENCESOF PLAGIARISM 2.2

ues. Oncedetected,plagiarismin aworkprovokesskepticismandevenoutrageamongreaders,whosetrust in the authorhasbeenbroken.

The chargeof plagiarismis a seriousone for all writers. Plagiaristsare oftenseenasincompetent-incapableof developingandexpress-ing theirownthoughts-or,worse,dishonest,willing to deceiveothersfor personalgain.Whenprofessionalwriters, suchas journalists,areexposedasplagiarists,they are likely to losetheir jobs, andthey arecertainto suffer public embarrassmentand loss ofprestige.Almostalways, the courseof a writer's careeris permanentlyaffectedby asingleact of plagiarism.The seriousconsequencesof plagiarismre-flect thevaluethepublic placeson trustworthyinformation.

Studentsexposedas plagiaristsmay sufferseverepenalties,rang-ing from failure in the assignmentor in the courseto expulsionfromschool.This is becausestudentplagiarismdoes considerableharm.For onething, it damagesteachers'relationshipswith students,turn-ing teachersinto detectivesinsteadof mentorsandfosteringsuspicioninsteadof trust. By undermininginstitutionalstandardsfor assigninggradesandawardingdegrees,studentplagiarismalsobecomesa mat-ter"of significanceto the public. Whengraduates'skills andknowl-edge fail tomatchtheirgrades,an institution'sreputationis damaged.For example,no onewould chooseto betreatedby a physicianwhoobtaineda medicaldegreeby fraud. Finally, studentswho plagiarizeharmthemselves.They lose an importantopportunityto learnhowto write a researchpaper.Knowing how to collectandanalyzeinfor-mationandreshapeit in essayform is essentialto academicsuccess.This knowledgeis also requiredin a wide range ofcareersin law,journalism, engineering,public policy, teaching,business,govern-ment,andnot-for-profit organizations.

Plagiarismbetraysthepersonalelementin writing as well.Discuss-ing thehistoryof copyright,Mark Rose notes the tiebetweenourwrit-ing andour senseof self-atie that, he believes,influencedthe ideathat a pieceof writing couldbelongto the personwho wrote it. Rosesays that our senseof ownershipof the words we write "is deeplyrootedin our conceptionof ourselvesas individuals with at leastamodestgradeof singularity,somedegree ofpersonality"(AuthorsandOwners: TheInventionof Copyright [Cambridge:HarvardUP, 1993;print; 142]). Gainingskill as awriter opensthe doorto learningmoreaboutyourselfand to developinga personalvoice andapproachinyour writing. It is essentialfor all studentwriters to understandhowto avoidcommittingplagiarism.

53

PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

2.3. INFORMATION SHARING TODAY

Innumerabledocumentson ahostof subjectsare postedon the Webapparentlyfor thepurposeofbeingshared.Theavailabilityofresearchmaterialsand the ease oftransmitting,modifying, and using themhaveinfluencedthe culture of the Internet,wherethe free exchangeof informationis an ideal. In this sea ofmaterials,somestudentsmayquestiontheneedto acknowledgetheauthorshipof individual docu-ments.Professionalwriters, however,haveno doubt aboutthe mat-ter. They recognizethe importanceof documentationwhethertheybasetheir researchon print or electronicpublications.And so theycontinueto cite their sourcesandto markthe passagestheyquote.

In the culture of the academy,too, the free exchangeof informa-tion is a long-standingideal. Undercertaincircumstances,this idealis describedas academicfreedom.But nothingaboutacademicfree-dom orthefree exchangeof informationimplies ignoringauthorship.Academicstandardsrequireall writers to acknowledgethe authorswhosework theyusewhenpreparingpapersandotherkinds of stud-ies andreports.

New technologieshave madeinformationeasierto locateand ob-tain, but researchprojectsonly beginwith identifying andcollectingsourcematerial.The essentialintellectualtasksof a researchprojecthave not changed.Thesetaskscall for a studentto understandthepublishedfacts, ideas,and insightsabouta subjectand to integratethemwith the student'sown viewson the topic. To achievethis goal,studentwriters mustrigorously distinguishbetweenwhat they bor-row andwhattheycreate.

As information sharinghas becomeeasier,so has plagiarism.Forinstance,on the Internet it is possibleto buy and downloadcom-pletedresearchpapers.Somestudentsaremisinformedaboutbuyingresearchpapers,on the Internetor on campus.They believethat ifthey buy a paper,it belongsto them,andthereforethey canusetheideas,facts,sentences,"andparagraphsin it, free from anyworry aboutplagiarism.Buying a paper,however,is the sameas buying a bookor a magazine.You own the physicalcopy of the book or magazine,which you may keep inyour bookcase,give to afriend, or sell. Andyou may usewhateveryou learnfrom readingit in your ownwriting.But you are neverfree from the obligation to let your readersknowthe sourceof the ideas,facts,words,or sentencesyou borrow. Publi-cationsare aspecialkind of property.You canown themphysically,

54

UNINTENTIONAL PLAGIARISM

but the publisheror authorretainsrights to the content.You shouldalso know thatpurchasedpapersare readily recognizable,andteach-erscanoften tracedownloadedmaterialsthroughan Internetsearch.

2.4. UNINTENTIONAL PLAGIARISM

The purposeof aresearchpaperis to synthesizepreviousresearchandscholarshipwith your ideason thesubject.Therefore,you shouldfeelfree touseotherpersons'words,facts, andthoughtsin your researchpaper,but thematerialyou borrowmustnotbe presentedasif it wereyour own creation.Whenyou write your researchpaper,rememberthatyoumustdocumenteverythingthatyou borrow-notonly directquotationsandparaphrasesbut also informationandideas.

Often plagiarismin studentwriting is unintentional,as when anelementaryschoolpupil, assignedto do areport on a certaintopic,copiesdown,word for word, everythingon thesubjectin an encyclo-pedia. Unfortunately,some studentscontinueto take this approachin high school and evenin college,not realizing that it constitutesplagiarism.To guardagainstthe possibility of unintentionalplagia-rism during researchandwriting, keepcarefulnotesthatalwaysdis-tinguishamongthreetypes of material:your ideas,your summariesand paraphrasesof others' ideasand facts, and exactwording youcopyfrom sources.Plagiarismsometimeshappensbecauseresearch-ers donot keeppreciserecordsof their reading,andby thetime theyreturn to their notes,they have forgotten whethertheir summariesandparaphrasescontainquotedmaterialthatis poorlymarkedor un-marked.Presentingan author'sexactwording without marking it asa quotationis plagiarism,evenif you cite the source.For this reason,recordingonly quotationsis the mostreliablemethodof note-takingin substantialresearchprojects,especiallyfor beginningstudents.Itis the surestway, whenyou work with notes,to avoid unintentionalplagiarism.Similar problemscan occur in noteskept electronically.Whenyoucopyandpastepassages,makesurethatyou addquotationmarksaroundthem. (See1.7 for moreon note-taking.)

Anotherkind of unintentionalplagiarismhappenswhenstudentswrite researchpapersin asecondlanguage.In an effort toavoidgram-maticalerrors,theymay copy the structureof an author'ssentences.Whenreplicatinggrammaticalpatterns,theysometimesinadvertentlyplagiarizethe author'sideas,information,words,andexpressions.

55

2.5 PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

If you realizeafter handinga paperin that you accidentallypla-giarized anauthor'swork, you shouldreportthe problemto your in-structor assoonaspossible.In this way you eliminatethe elementoffraud. You mayreceivea lowergradethanyouhadhopedfor, butget-ting a lowergradeis betterthanfailing a courseor beingexpelled.

2.5. FORMS OFPLAGIARISM

The mostblatantform of plagiarismis to obtainandsubmit as yourown apaperwrittenby someoneelse (see2.3). Other, lessconspicuousformsofplagiarismincludethe failure to giveappropriateacknowledg-mentwhenrepeatingor paraphrasinganother'swording,whentakinga particularlyapt phrase,andwhenparaphrasinganother'sargumentor presentinganother'sline of thinking.

Repeating orParaphrasingWording

Suppose, forexample,thatyouwantto usethematerialin thefollow-ing passage,which appearson page625 of an essayby WendyMartinin the bookColumbia Literary Historyofthe United States.

ORIGINAL SOURCE

Some of Dickinson's most powerful poems express her firmlyheldconvictionthat life cannot be fullycomprehendedwithoutanunder-standing of death.

Ifyou write thefollowing sentencewithout documentation,youhaveplagiarized becauseyou borrowed another'swording without ac-knowledgment,eventhoughyou changedits form:

PLAGIARISM

EmilyDickinson firmly believed that we cannot fully comprehend life unless

we also understand death.

But you maypresentthematerialif you cite your source:

As Wendy Martin has suggested, Emily Dickinson firmly believed that we

cannot fully comprehend life unless we also understand death (625).

The source isindicated,in accordancewith MLA style,by thenameof the author("WendyMartin") andby a pagereferencein parenthe-

56

FORMS OFPLAGIARISM 2.5

ses,preferablyat the endof the sentence.Thenamerefersthe readerto the correspondingentry in the works-citedlist, which appearsattheendof thepaper.

Martin, Wendy. "Emily Dickinson." Columbia Literary Historyof the United

States.Emory Elliott, gen. ed. New York: Columbia Up, 1988. 609-26.

Print.

Taking a ParticularlyApt Phrase

ORIGINAL SOURCE

Everyone uses the wordlanguageand 'everybody these days talksaboutculture. . . . "Languaculture"is areminder,I hope, of thenec-essaryconnectionbetweenits two parts.... (Michael Agar,Lan-guageShock:Understandingthe CultureofConversation[New York:Morrow, 1994;print; 60])

Ifyou write thefollowing sentencewithout documentation,youhavecommittedplagiarismbecauseyou borrowedwithout acknowledg-menta term ("languaculture")inventedby anotherwriter:

PLAGIARISM

At the intersection of language and culture lies a concept that we might call

"Ianguaculture."

But you maypresentthematerialif you cite your source:

At the intersection of language and culture lies a concept that Michael

Agar has called "Ianguaculture" (60).

In this revision,theauthor'snamerefersthereaderto thefull descrip-tion of thework in theworks-citedlist at theendof thepaper,andtheparentheticaldocumentationidentifies the location of the borrowedmaterialin thework.

Agar, Michael. Language Shock:Understandingthe Cultureof

Conversation.New York: Morrow, 1994. Print.

ParaphrasinganArgumentor Presentinga Line of Thinking

ORIGINAL SOURCE

Humanity faces aquantumleap forward..It faces thedeepestso-cial upheavalandcreativerestructuringof all time. Without clearly

57

PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

recognizingit, we are engaged inbuilding a remarkablecivilizationfrom thegroundup. This is themeaningof the Third Wave.

Until now the humanrace hasundergonetwo great waves ofchange,eachone largelyobliteratingearlierculturesor civilizationsandreplacingthemwith the ways of lifeinconceivableto thosewhocamebefore.TheFirst Wave ofchange-theagriculturalrevolution-took thousandsofyears to playitselfout. TheSecondWave-theriseof industrialcivilization-tooka merehundredyears. Todayhistoryis even more accelerative, and it is likelythat the Third Wavewillsweepacrosshistory andcompleteitself in afew decades.(AlvinToffler, The Third Wave[1980; New York: Bantam,1981;print; 10))

If you write the following sentencewithout documentation,you havecommittedplagiarismbecauseyou borrowedanotherwriter's line ofthinking withoutacknowledgment:

PLAGIARISM

There have been two revolutionary periods of change in history: the

agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution. The agricultural

revolution determined the course of history for thousands of years; the

industrial civilization lasted about a century. We are now on the threshold

of a new period of revolutionary change, but this one may last for only a

few decades.

Butyou maypresentthe materialif you cite your source:

According to Alvin Toffler, there have been two revolutionary periods of

change in history: the agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution.

Theagricultural revolution determined the course of history for thousands

of years;the industrial civilization lasted about a century. We are now on

the threshold of a new period of revolutionary change, but this one may

last for only a few decades (l O),

In this revision, theauthor'snamerefersthereaderto thefull descrip-tionofthe work in theworks-citedlist at theendof thepaper,andtheparentheticaldocumentationidentifies the location of the borrowedmaterialin the work.

Toffler, Alvin. The Third Wave.1980. New York: Bantam, 1981. Print.

58

RELATED ISSUES

2.6. WHEN DOCUMENTATION IS NOT NEEDED

In addition to documentingdirect quotationsand paraphrases,youshould considerthe statusof the information and ideas you gleanfrom sourcesin relation to your audienceand to the scholarlycon-sensuson your topic. In general,information and ideasyou deembroadly known by your readersand widely acceptedby scholars,suchas the basicbiographyof an authoror the datesof a historicalevent, can be usedwithout documentation.But where readersarelikely to seekmoreguidanceor wherethe facts are insignificantdis-pute.amongscholars,documentationis needed;you couldattributeadisputedfact to the sourcewith which you agree orcould documentthe entire controversy.While direct quotationsand paraphrasesarealways documented,scholarsseldomdocumentproverbs,sayings,andcliches.If youhaveanydoubtaboutwhetheryou arecommittingplagiarism,cite your sourceor sources.

2.7. RELATED ISSUES

Otherissuesrelatedto plagiarismandacademicintegrity includere-using a researchpaper,collaborativework, researchon humansub-jects,andcopyrightinfringement.

2:7.1. Reusinga ResearchPaper

If you must completea researchprojectto earna gradein a course,handingin a paperyou alreadyearnedcredit for in anothercourseisdeceitful.Moreover,you lose theopportunityto improveyourknowl-edgeandskills. If you want to rework a paperthatyou preparedforanothercourse,askyour currentinstructorfor permissionto do so.Ifyou wish to draw on or reuseportionsof your previouswriting in anewpaper,ask your instructorfor guidance.

2.7.2.CollaborativeWork

An exampleof collaborativework is agroupprojectyou carryoutwithotherstudents.Jointparticipationin researchandwriting is common

59

PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

and, infact, encouraged in manycoursesand in manyprofessions.It doesnot constituteplagiarismprovidedthat credit is given for allcontributions.One way to givecredit, if roles were clearly demar-catedorwereunequal, is to stateexactlywho did what.Anotherway,especiallyif roles andcontributionswere mergedand shared,is toacknowledgeall concerned equally.Ask your instructorfor adviceifyouarenot certain how toacknowledgecollaboration.

2.7.3.Research onHumanSubjects

Many academicinstitutions havepolicies governingresearchon hu-mansubjects.Examplesof researchinvolving humansubjectsincludeclinical trialsofa drug orpersonalinterviewsfor apsychologicalstudy.Institutionsusually requirethat researchersobtainthe informedcon-sentofhumansubjectsfor such projects.Althoughresearchfor apaperin highschoolor collegerarelyinvolveshumansubjects,askyour in-structoraboutyourinstitution'spolicy if yoursdoes.

2.7.4.CopyrightInfringement

Whereassummaries,paraphrases,andbriefquotationsin researchpa-persarenormallypermissiblewith appropriateacknowledgment,re-producingand distributing anentire copyrightedwork or significantportionsofit without obtainingpermissionto do so from thecopyrightholderis an infringement ofcopyright law and a legal offense,evenif theviolator acknowledges thesource.This is true for works in allmedia.Fora detaileddiscussionof copyrightandotherlegal issuesre-latedtopublishing,seechapter2 of the MLA StyleManual andGuidetoScholarlyPublishing[Srd ed.; NewYork: MLA, 2008; print).

2.8.SUMMING UP

You haveplagiarizedif

• youtooknotes that did notdistinguishsummaryandparaphrasefrom quotation andthenyou presentedwording from the notesasif it were all your own.

60

SUMMING UP

o while browsingtheWeb,you copiedtext andpastedit into yourpaperwithout quotationmarksor without citing the source.

e you repeatedor paraphrasedsomeone'swording without ac-knowledgment.

.. you took someone'sunique or particularly apt phrasewithoutacknowledgment.

G you paraphrasedsomeone'sargumentor presentedsomeone'sline of thoughtwithout acknowledgment.

.. you boughtor otherwiseacquireda researchpaperandhandedin partor all of it asyour own.

You canavoidplagiarismby

.. making a list of the writers and viewpoints you discoveredinyourresearchandusingthis list to double-checkthe presentationof materialin your paper.

o keeping the following three categoriesdistinct in your notes:your ideas,your summariesof others'material,andexactword-ing you copy.

e identifying the sourcesof all materialyou borrow-exactword-ing, paraphrases,ideas,arguments,andfacts.

.. checkingwith your instructorwhenyouareuncertainaboutyouruse ofsources.

61