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What is plagiarism?
Dr Perry ShareInstitute of Technology SligoNFETLHE 25 April 2014
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
2+Overview of presentation
What is plagiarism?
The cultural context
Plagiarism and writing practices
Institutional responses and assessment
Discussion
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
3+Plagiarism is . . .
What do you think?
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
4+Plagiarism is . . .
passing off someone else’s work, whether intentionally or unintentionally, as your own for your own benefit (Carroll 2002, p. 9)
an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward (Turnitin)
(www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism)
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
5+Plagiarism is . . .
Cheating (a very serious issue)
A crime (linguistic origins ‘kidnap’, ‘plunder’; ‘fraud’; ‘theft’)
An infringement of Intellectual Property Rights [IPR] (C16)
A moral outrage (‘dirty’, ‘lazy’, ‘corruption’, ‘betrayal’)
Universal? (Donald MacCabe)
Not new
A global issue (international education)
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
6+Plagiarism is . . .
Part of popular culture (Share 2005; 2010)
Instrumental in many contexts (ditto)
Indicative of ‘dumbing down’, decline of ‘standards’ (numerous)
A question of ethics (Briggs 2003)
A linguistic approach to text production (Pecorari 2010)
A ‘fuzzy concept’ (Pecorari 2010, p. 35)
A problem? For whom? (and also an opportunity!)
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
7+Plagiarism is . . .
According to lecturers:
copying of one student’s work by another
copying web-based material
absent or inadequate referencing of sources
resubmitting work presented elsewhere, either by the student or another
learning material from another source by heart, and then presenting it in an exam
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
8+Plagiarism is . . .
unauthorised input from third parties in student work
reproducing large amounts (‘chunks’) of material from textbooks
unauthorised student collaboration (‘collusion’)
unauthorised use of respondent’s work by colleagues/other academics
use of existing templates or formats
(IoT lecturers reported in Share 2005, pp. 27-28)
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
9+The cultural context
The ‘culture of the copy’ (Schwarz 1996) – culture is (largely) (re-)constituted through the repeat of representations
Contemporary (digital) culture: ‘The realignment of [existing] elements in transformative recombination’ (Livingstone-Webber 1999, p. 265)
Fashion, media and music industries
Institutional and professional communication: The re-use and repurposing of documents
The Internet, social media, hyperlinking, filesharing
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
10+Intertextuality and student writing
Pecorari (2010) – unusual in that it focuses in detail on students’ (re-)use of academic sources
17 students – 9 MA and 8 PhD (NNSEs) (link with language skills)
All exhibited degrees of ‘plagiarism’ (unattributed attribution) of sources (7-95%)
Pecorari compared text/sources; interviewed students (MA) and supervisors (MA)
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
11+A linguistic phenomenon
‘Plagiarism is … fundamentally a specific kind of language in use, a linguistic phenomenon’
Also an issue of power
Textual plagiarism: Prototypical plagiarism Patchwriting
challenges issues of cultural (institutional) difference (MLK)
‘plagiarism’ is always contextual
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
12+How writers learn to write
The purpose of the text
(Major) disciplinary differences
Reporting verbs: suggest, note, assert . . .
The subtlety of metatextual conventions (‘chunking’)
Transparency and occlusion of the relationship between the source material and the student material
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13+Key issues for novice writers
Identity of the source: does the reader understand which sources materially influenced the new text?
Content: does the reader receive an accurate impression of what the source text said?
Language: does the reader understand whether the language comes from the source (eg quotations or paraphrase)
(Pecorari 2008, p. 59)
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
14+Addressing the challenges
Lack of an ‘apprentice’ model for academic writing
Transparency versus occlusion (notes, points out, asserts) (…)
The discipline-specific traditions are not overtly passed on in the relevant learning community
Purpose of writing – a key narrative element: A clear sense of purpose for a new text motivates fundamental
textual changes. In the absence of that motivation, there is no reason why language which was good enough once should not be good enough a second time (Pecorari 2010, p. 95)
Lack of resources (time, content vs process)
The stakes are high!
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
15+The conundrum
It is difficult to identify how writers use their sources, … there is a lack of consensus in the academic community about what sorts of intertextuality are acceptable in practice and that … lack of consensus is masked by superficial agreement at a more general level (Pecorari 2010, p. 141)
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
16+Institutional responses
Pecorari (2010, pp. 148-150) suggests four key areas: Identifying textual plagiarism Distinguishing patchwriting from prototypical
plagiarism Providing options for responding
pedagogically to plagiarism Having sensible admissions policies
(supports)
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17+Institutional responses
Glendinning (2013) – part of IPPHEAE project (EU LLP)
Similar responses to those found in Share 2005: Knowledge of issue, and concern amongst all stakeholders Perception as a discipline issue, with minority seeing as a
pedagogical one Lack of institutional structures, consistency and support Lack of local research base to inform policy and practice
Little change in IT Sligo since 2005
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
18+An assessment response
Derived from Hunt (2002) and others
Assessment as communication: ‘having something to say is . . . absolutely indistinguishable from having someone to say it to, and an authentic reason for saying it’ (Hunt 2002, p. 1)
Authentic assessment: ‘aligned’ teaching and student empowerment
Participatory but driven by standards and PLOs
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
19+Research-based product
Collaborative
Student-driven
Relevant and ‘useful’
Rigorous
Recognises intertextuality and repurposing
Engages with context, genre and audience
Design-thinking
Public dissemination
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
20+Research-based products
SECURE U bullying & cyber-bullying programme
U CHANGE U guide to withdrawing money from an ATM
SCAN book for siblings of children on the autistic spectrum
NATURE’S CLASSROOM outdoor play consultancy service
Bereavement package for early childcare practitioners
Support network for people with missing limbs
Multicultural cookbook for ECCE settings
Guide to educational opportunities in Sligo
Video and teaching package on same-sex families
DIVERSITY DRAGONS cultural diversity curriculum package
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
21+Sources
Briggs, R. (2003) ‘Shameless! Reconceiving the problem of plagiarism’. Australian Universities Review 46(1) pp. 19-23.
Buranen, L. & A. Roy (eds) (1999) Perspectives on plagiarism and intellectual property in a postmodern world. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Carroll, J. (2002) A handbook for deterring plagiarism in higher education. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development, Oxford Brookes University.
Glendinning, I. (2013) Plagiarism policies for Ireland. Impact of Policies for Plagiarism in Higher Education Across Europe. http://ippheae.eu/images/results/2013_12_pdf/D2-3-14%20IE%20RT%20IPPHEAE%20CU%20Survey%20IrelandNarrative.pdf
Hunt, R. (2002) ‘Four reasons to be happy about Internet plagiarism’. Teaching Perspectives (St. Thomas University) 5. December. pp. 1-5. [http://www.stu.ca/~hunt/4reasons.htm.
Livingstone-Webber, J. (1999) ‘GenX occupies the cultural commons: ethical practices and perceptions of fair use’. In L. Buranen & A. Roy (eds) Perspectives on plagiarism and intellectual property in a postmodern world. Albany: State University of New York Press. pp. 263-272.
Pecorari, D. (2010) Academic writing and plagiarism: A linguistic analysis. London: Continuum.
Schwarz, H. (1996) The culture of the copy: Striking likenesses, unreasonable facsimiles. New York: Zone.
Share, P. (2005) Managing intertextuality: meaning, plagiarism and power. MA Thesis, Waterford IT. [www.itsligo.ie/staff/pshare/]
Share, P. (2010) Plagiarism, intertextuality and the ethical (re-)use of information [Webinar 8 Dec] Institute of Technology Learning Technology Webinar Serieshttp://connect.itsligo.ie/p57698843/
P Share What is plagiarism 25/4/14
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‘Of plagiarism, little new can be written’(Schwartz, The culture of the copy, p. 311)