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Psst! It's no secret: copying is plagiarism

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By JENNY DERRINGER

derringer@crescent-news.com

In the academic world, students would benefit greatly by learning the definition of one word, plagiarism, the act of "taking ideas, writings, etc. from another and passing them off as one's own," as expressed by Webster's New World College Dictionary.

One of the most recent stories to hit the headlines about plagiarism concerned Tim Goeglein, one of President George W. Bush's aides since 2001. Goeglein, who wrote numerous guest columns for The News Sentinel in Fort Wayne, resigned his White House position in February after it was discovered that he had plagiarized other writers in many of his columns.

Some sections of his supposed "original" work had been lifted from columns that appeared in The New York Sun, The Washington Post and The Dartmouth Review.

When The News Sentinel staff began to investigate further, they found at least 19 of his articles contained plagiarized material. Had Goeglein appropriately cited his sources and gave credit where credit was due, it wouldn't have been an issue.

With the ease and availability of the Internet, how tempting is it for high school and college students to "cut and paste" information without citing the source for their term papers and homework assignments?

"It is extremely easy for students to make the mistake of cutting and pasting from the Internet," said Catharine O'Connell, vice president for academic affairs and academic dean at Defiance College. "In the old days, when one had to type in text from a source, there wasn't as much temptation, and it would have been very difficult to use large sections of a source without realizing it. Now, it is so easy to cut and paste that students can end up using large sections of someone else's work almost before they know it."

In the freshmen courses, first-year seminar and global civilization, academic honesty and plagiarism are addressed.

"Many faculty members revisit the topic in other classes, but we believe it is important to have the conversation about plagiarism right at the beginning of a student's career at DC," stated O'Connell.

She noted that the college's plagiarism policy is clearly spelled out for students in the college catalog and online.

DC's written policy is as follows: "Plagiarism occurs whenever someone else's work is submitted or presented for a grade as if it were one's own. This occurs most often when original sources are not acknowledged or cited according to the style format appropriate to the discipline or designated by the instructor. Plagiarism undermines the essential trust between students and instructors, deprives the student of a sense of intellectual ownership and undermines the basic learning process.

"Another person's work can take many forms," the policy continues, "including papers, essays and articles, book chapters, statistical data, oral or multimedia presentations, musical compositions, drawings and artwork, and computer programs in either electronic or printed form. Whenever such material that was originally created by another is presented or submitted by a DC student, that original source must be acknowledged using the appropriate citation style."

According to O'Connell, a few cases of plagiarism are reported every semester. Teachers handle the incidents according to policy by imposing sanctions and reporting the infraction to the office of the academic dean.

"In most cases, I also meet with the student to ensure that he or she understands that plagiarism is a serious academic offense," said O'Connell.

In addition, students need to realize that not everything on the Internet is factual.

"When we teach students about using sources, we are not only concerned with correct citation," she added, "but also with helping them differentiate between reliable and unreliable sources. Many students come to college not skeptical enough about what is out there on the Internet. An important component of information literacy education is teaching students how to identify reliable sources. When people of my generation went to college, we used print library resources for all research papers, and before something made it into print, the information was vetted by experts in the field. With the Internet, anyone can post anything, whether or not it is accurate."

Carol Schwartz, coordinator of distance learning at Northwest State Community College (NSCC), also noted that there is a way to check on the authenticity of student work in order to circumvent plagiarism.

"Many instructors work with students using a web-based service (Turn-it-in.com) that checks students' work for instances of work that might be improperly cited or may appear in another source," said Schwartz. "Students submit their papers and get a report back regarding the originality of their work. Some instructors require students to submit this report with the written assignment."

Cindy Krueger, interim vice president for academics at NSCC, reported that there have been incidents of plagiarism already during the 2007-08 school year.

"The penalties are listed in the academic dishonesty policy," explained Krueger. "First offense -- a grade of "F" may be issued for the assignment. Second offense, not necessarily in the same course, a grade of "F" will be issued for the course in which academic dishonesty has occurred. Third offense, not necessarily in the same course, a grade of "F" will be issued for the course in which academic dishonesty has occurred and dismissed from the college immediately for one semester. Upon readmission, any future offense will cause the student to be dismissed immediately with no right to readmission."

The NSCC policy can be found in the academic catalog, student handbook and is referenced in course syllabi, added Krueger.