Classroom Debate about PLAGIARISM

The Oxford English Dictionary defines plagiarism as “the wrongful appropriation or purloining, and publication as one’s own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas...of another”.

The word plagiarism is derived from Latin and means “one who abducts the child or slave of another”. Plagiarism is a wrong act. It involves both stealing someone else’s ideas and neglecting to include references for sources in our paper.

In my classroom, we have used examples of plagiarism that helped us understand what plagiarism is really about.

If a student copy sentences from textbooks or journal articles without putting the passage in quotes, he or she will be accused of plagiarism. Students must enclose their words inside quotation marks or they can put their words in a block of indented, single-spaced text.

In January 1982, Gabrielle Napolitano, a senior student at Princeton University, plagiarized the majority of her 12-page term paper in a Spanish class from a book in the library. She did not include the quotations for many verbatim quotations and she did not include citations in the text for some paraphrased material. The Princeton University Committee on Discipline in February 1982 recognized the plagiarism and the recommended punishment was to delay her bachelor’s degree for one year. (Napolitano v. Princeton University)

Students must acknowledge any sentence or phrase which is not their original work. And any material which is paraphrased or summarized must also be acknowledged in a footnote or in the text.

The College Judiciary Committee considered a case of academic dishonesty in a course taken last year. A student was found guilty of plagiarism in a final paper for a seminar. The paper contained verbatim passages not put in quotations marks and improper citations of paraphrases. The committee recommended that the student receive no credit for the seminar.

Students should read the material several times to make sure that they understand it. Then, they close the author’s work and they should try to explain the passage with their own words. After they have finished paraphrasing the passage, they should make sure to cite the original.

Students who buy a paper from a research service or a term paper mill will be accused of fraud. These papers form a research service are too good and it is easy for the teacher to compare the student’s writing and the paper which has been bought or downloaded. The mill sites will make their paper available on the web and it is easy for any student to copy it. Teachers should visit some of the sites (Termpapers.com or “Internet Paper Mills” at http://www.coastal.edu./library/mills2.htm and show the students that these sites are known by all the educational staff.

The license of a physician to practice medicine in Massachusetts was revoked. When this physician was a student in 1978, two years before earning his M.D. degree, he submitted four plagiarized articles for publication. The Board of Registration in Medicine found in 1998 that this plagiarism showed a “lack of good moral character which is required to practice medicine”. The Supreme Court of Massachusetts affirmed this revocation. (Alsabti v. Board of Registration in Medicine) Plagiarism is defined as presenting someone else’s work as your own. Works means any intellectual output, and typically includes text, data, images, sound or performance. (Office of Academic Appeals & Regulation 2005).

Therefore, students must learn how to avoid plagiarism. They have to present their own work and use their own words. They have to allow themselves enough time to research the assignment. They should keep careful track of their sources, quote accurately, paraphrase carefully, and do not buy paper-mill papers. To follow these suggestions will keep the student out of trouble. A successful student who wants to graduate from college with all the honors should be aware of the rules and the laws in order not to “fail a class for cheating or plagiarizing by mistake.”