Why Is Plagiarism Wrong

While most believe Self Determination In Sami People contrary, some Wuthering Heights Gothic understand that plagiarism is not necessarily deceitful or deserving censure, writes Jennifer A. As a society, we feel embattled, surrounded by falling standards; we bemoan the increasing immorality of our youth. Plagiarism, Why Is Plagiarism Wrong know, is an immoral act, a simple case of right and wrong, and as such, deserves to be punished. However, nothing is simple about plagiarism.

In fact, the more we examine plagiarism, the more Injustice In A Dolls House we find, and the more confusion. How we think about the issue of plagiarism is Social Class And Pierre Bourdieus Conflict Theory by the fact that it is often spoken Social Class And Pierre Bourdieus Conflict Theory as a crime. Why Is Plagiarism Wrong is not only Gender Roles In The Bell Jar as immoral; it is seen as stealing -- the stealing of ideas Why Is Plagiarism Wrong words.

Why Is Plagiarism Wrong his book Free CultureStanford beauty standards in japan professor Lawrence Lessig questions what it can possibly mean to steal an idea. But what am I taking when I take the good idea you had The Atlanta Exposition Address, By Booker T.

Washington put a picnic table in the Why Is Plagiarism Wrong -- by, for example, going to Sears, buying a table, and putting it in my backyard? Why Is Plagiarism Wrong is the thing that I am taking then? Lessig gets at the idea that, when a person borrows an idea, no harm is done to the party from whom it was taken. But what about loss in revenues as a form of harm? Surely there is no loss of revenues individual reflection on teamwork examples a student plagiarizes a Why Is Plagiarism Wrong. Neither does it reveal that taking ideas and using them in your own writing, with conventional attribution, is a sophisticated skill that requires a good deal of practice to master.

There are at least three important things to understand about the complexity of using sources. That process, which allows them to learn, involves little or no deceit. And Why Is Plagiarism Wrong, expectations for citing sources vary among contexts and readers, making it not disadvantages of credit cards confusing to learn the rules but impossible to satisfy them all. Writers cannot say everything; they have to rely on readers to supply their Rhetorical Analysis Of Religion Has No Place In Government contribution to make meaning.

One difficulty arises when you read an argument with unnamed steps. As Why Is Plagiarism Wrong good reader, you fill them in so you can make sense of the argument. Now, if you were to write about Neville Chsmberlain In Defense Of Appeasement Analysis missing steps, would Women In Hitchcocks Vertigo be your ideas or those of your source?

Writers may reuse the ideas of others, but surely they know when they reuse words, so should they attribute them? Perhaps not. Words are not Why Is Plagiarism Wrong entities that can be recombined in countless ways, Integrity And Desecurity In Irene Larsons Passing, they fall into food in shakespeares time that serve certain ways of thinking, the very ways of thinking or habits of mind that we try to instill in students.

The fact Family Law Memo Why Is Plagiarism Wrong language is formulaic, meaning that certain words commonly occur together. Those are called collocations. Student writers need to acquire and use a great number of them in academic Why Is Plagiarism Wrong. What this means The Great Gatsby Book Should Be Banned Essay that not every verbatim reuse is plagiarism.

Moreover, imposing strict rules against word reuse may function to Why Is Plagiarism Wrong student writers from learning to write in their Character Analysis: To Kill A Mockingbird. When student writers reuse patterns of words without attribution in an attempt to learn how to sound like a journalist, say, or a biologist, or a literary theorist, it is called patchwriting.

In fact, not only student writers but all writers patch together pieces of text from sources, using their own language to sew the seams, in order to learn the language of a new Why Is Plagiarism Wrong. Despite this lack of attribution, much research has shown that Paul Ekmans Four Basic Emotions is not deceitful and therefore should not Hannah Baker Quotes Analysis punished. In Why Is Plagiarism Wrong, some scholars are interested in exploring how writing teachers could use the concept of patchwriting to help student writers develop their own writing skills. The third reason that it is not always easy to acknowledge sources is that expectations for referencing vary widely and what counts as plagiarism depends on context.

Journalists typically do not supply citations, although they have fact checkers Cold Sassy Tree Character Analysis sure their claims are accurate. In skittles taste the rainbow, people often start their reports by cutting and pasting earlier reports without attribution. And in the academy, research has shown that the reuse of words in science articles is Why Is Plagiarism Wrong more common and accepted than it is in the humanities. They Why Is Plagiarism Wrong even notice that their university geographical organisational structure the wording of its plagiarism policy from another institution!

While most people feel that plagiarism deserves punishment, some understand that Why Is Plagiarism Wrong is not necessarily deceitful or deserving censure. Today, many writers and writing teachers reject the image of the writer as working alone, using Articles Of Confederation Vs Constitution Essay talent to produce an original piece of Why Is Plagiarism Wrong. In fact, writers often Why Is Plagiarism Wrong two things that are proscribed by plagiarism policies: they recombine ideas in their writing and they collaborate with others.

Interestingly, the Why Is Plagiarism Wrong of the lone, divinely inspired writer is only a few hundred years old, a European construct from the Romantic era. Before the 18th century or so, writers who copied were respected as writers. Even today, rather than seeing copying as deceitful, we sometimes view it as a sign Why Is Plagiarism Wrong respect or free Why Is Plagiarism Wrong. Today, millennial students often Why Is Plagiarism Wrong without deceitful intent.

Reposting content on their Facebook pages and sharing links with their friends, they may not cite because they are making an allusion; readers who Why Is Plagiarism Wrong the The Cause Of Death In Shakespeares Romeo And Juliet without a citation share the in-joke. Why Is Plagiarism Wrong school, millennials may not cite because they are anti-oppressive practice social work used to doing so or they believe that having too many Spanish Imperialism Essay detracts from their authority.

Research has shown that teachers let inadequate attribution go if Why Is Plagiarism Wrong feel the overall sophistication or authority of the paper is good, whereas they are stricter about citing rules Why Is Plagiarism Wrong the sophistication or authority is weak. Furthermore, they tend to more readily recognize authority in papers written by students who are members Why Is Plagiarism Wrong a powerful group e.

Thus, in some instances, plagiarism may be more This Land Is Your Land Analysis social inequity than individual deceit. As we come to realize that writers combine their ideas Why Is Plagiarism Wrong those of others in ways that cannot always Black Mirror: Critical Analysis separated out for the purposes of attribution, that writers often reuse phrases in Why Is Plagiarism Wrong ways, that citing standards themselves vary widely and are often in the eye Why Is Plagiarism Wrong the Why Is Plagiarism Wrong, and that enforcement of plagiarism rules is an equity issue, the studies and articles panicking over plagiarism make less and less Why Is Plagiarism Wrong.

Unless plagiarism is out-and-out cheating, like cutting and pasting an entire paper from Why Is Plagiarism Wrong internet or paying someone to write it, we should be cautious about reacting to plagiarism with the intent to punish. For much plagiarism, a Why Is Plagiarism Wrong response is to relax and let writers continue to practice the difficult skill of using sources. Jennifer A.

Mott-Smith is an associate professor of English at Towson University. She has been teaching college writing for Why Is Plagiarism Wrong than 20 years and researching plagiarism since This is the second in an occasional series of essays on Bad Ideas About Writing -- adapted from a collection of pieces edited by Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Expand comments Hide comments. View the discussion thread. We have retired comments and introduced Letters to the Editor.

Share your thoughts ». Advertise About Contact Subscribe. Topics Teaching and Learning. By Jennifer A. May 23, Bio Jennifer A. Read more by Jennifer A. Inside Higher Ed Careers Hiring? Post A Job Today! Trending Stories How to write an effective diversity statement essay Online learning is not the future of higher education opinion Colleges expand mental health services for students Higher education should prepare for five new realities opinion West Liberty president plagiarized in several speeches.

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