Background
for Teachers
This plagiarism module introduces students to the concept of words and ideas as intellectual property, and to plagiarism and how to avoid it. Why can some authors “get away” with it, while others are discredited? Is the law the same as what is right? What are the ethics of borrowing somebody else’s words or ideas? Often, a student will question why and how, if every word has been spoken or written before, a certain configuration of words becomes someone’s intellectual property? The module will enable students to understand the answers to that question, and to introduce and debate such ethical issues as:
- What are the cultural and ethical considerations in using someone else’s work, and when should we acknowledge that we do so?
- What “rules” say that in Western academia, words and ideas belong to the original author, yet in other cultures words and ideas belong to everyone?
- Can we decide on a universal ethic for using other people’s words, or must we depend upon our cultural values to decide what is appropriate?
- Is the law necessarily a guide to what is right?
A recent (May 2006) high-profile case—one
which many students may already have heard of, since it revolves
around teenage “chick-lit”—involves the Harvard
sophomore, Kaavya Viswanathan. Viswanathan received a $500,000
advance for a novel, Opal Mehta,which had to be subsequently
withdrawn after accusations of plagiarism. These accusations were
initially made by the Harvard Crimson, the student newspaper,
in an article entitled: “Sophomore’s New Book
Contains Passages Strikingly Similar to 2001 Novel” (http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512968)
When the accusations first came to light, the
publisher, Little Brown, said it would reprint the book, omitting
the suspect passages. Later, Little Brown decided to pull the
book completely. The accusations subsequently lead Viswanthan’s
previous journalistic endeavors to be examined (“Copy Claim
Author Loses Book Deal”). (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4967864.stm)
Specifically, the case study of the withdrawal of Viswanathan’s novel for plagiarism highlights these questions and provides ample opportunity for students to debate the ethical questions raised.
In the Opal Mehta plagiarism case, several passages were found to be very similar to an earlier novel by Megan McCafferty. Additionally, other passages were cited as similar to other authors’ works.
Most teachers will already be familiar with accurate
and appropriate rules of citation; however, the links below also
give good specific examples of plagiarism that both students and
teachers can use. Useful information comes particularly
in the sites such as John Edlund’s What is Plagiarism and
Why Do People Do It?” at http://www.calstatela.edu/centers/write_cn/plagiarism.htm,
which helps give a general grounding of the concept of plagiarism
and pre-empts often-asked student questions.
Teachers would find it helpful to familiarize themselves with this site and others above.
Exercises on writing to avoid plagiarism can be
found at: Understanding plagiarism, Indiana University.
Includes tutorials, case studies, immediate feedback on test cases,
and an online test etc., at: http://education.indiana.edu/~frick/plagiarism/
Examples of plagiarism and how to fix them are
available at: http://www.depts.drew.edu/composition/Avoiding_Plagiarism.htm
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