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last.updated 11.28.09

Authorship & Plagiarism

Purpose

Plagiarism and methods of avoiding it are another set of the issues composition instructors teach (and experience) that have often been oversimplified: if there is any evidence of another writer's text that is presented in a paper without citation the student plagiarized and should be severely punished. But as the readings for today have illustrated, the concept of authorship and intertextuality are complex and often culturally and contextually specific. Although institutions often have straightforward policies about plagiarism, today's lesson will help you to think about how you will respond to these policies and teach students how to negotiate intertextuality in their own writing for the academy and beyond it.

Before Class

• Read WPA-L Discussion on SIUE President [BB]
• Read Howard, "Sexuality, Textuality..." NBCS [1205-1222]
• Read Bouman, "Raising Questions about Plagiarism" [BB]

Evaluation Simulation

During the first sixty minutes of class, you will do the Evaluation Simulation assignment.

FreeWrite

Answer the following questions in "Week 14" thread of the Blackboard Discussion Board. You have the first ten minutes of class.

ODU's Definition of Plagiarism

“A student will have committed plagiarism if he or she reproduces someone else’s work without acknowledging its source; or if a source is cited which the student has not cited or used. Examples of plagiarism include: submitting a research paper obtained from a commercial research service, the Internet, or from another student as if it were original work; making simple changes to borrowed materials while leaving the organization, content, or phraseology intact; or copying material from a source, supplying proper documentation, but leaving out quotation marks. Plagiarism also occurs in a group project if one or more of the members of the group does none of the group’s work and participates in none of the group’s activities, but attempts to take credit for the work of the group.”

Based upon the readings for today, what is your opinion this definition? How will you as a composition instructor help students avoid being subject to ODU's plagiarism policy?

Discussion: You Can Quote Me On That

The discussion today will address the following questions:

• What questions or comments do you have about these articles?
• As a way to talk about the readings, we will, as a class, map the terms about authorship on the board. The y-axis will be criminal/noncriminal; the x-axis will be rhetorical/arhetorical. You will pull terms about authorship from the readings, and we will discuss them and position them on the map.
• After we have finished the map, we will examine each quadrant and discuss what we will do as writing instructors to promote or discourage specific writing practices.