Plagiarism and the future

I don't really say the word "plagiarism" with my students these days; I find that the label obscures the issue. In their minds plagiarism equates to really wicked transgressions like kicking puppies, and no one wants to be labeled a puppy-kicker. Even if, you know, the puppy just happened to wander past as you were practicing some of your best Zumba moves and WHOOPS suddenly it's an inadvertent exercise in puppy ballistics. I call it something else when I address it, which I do frequently.

In the 80s when I was in junior high and high school, it took a perverse act of will to plagiarize directly. You had to copy your material word for word out of the Encyclopedia Britannica, a hassle in itself. One reason why plagiarism is so widespread is that it's so very easy these days: Google sends you skipping out across the web, where CTRL-C CTRL-V captures an astonishing quantity of information on any subject you'd care to name, and Bob's your uncle. Topic researched! 

I suspect we're also seeing more plagiarism because we're relying more on underpaid adjunct faculty. The most painful, time-sucking aspect of my job? Plagiarism. I find that plagiarized writing is generally conspicuous, but tracking down its source and extent is v-e-r-y s-l-o-w -- we don't have software like Turnitin and the administration doesn't plan to change that. I love almost all of my job. I do not love grading, but I know that providing students with feedback is important. Dealing with plagiarism, though, I despise. I'd rather have a root canal and a colposcopy at the same time. (Full disclosure: have never had either and am not a patient patient. Perhaps a smidgin of exaggeration there.) If I were still being paid adjunct wages it would be sobering to think about the cost per hour of dealing with plagiarism vs. just giving the student the benefit of the doubt.

(I just tried to picture myself sliding on past one of those sudden dramatic voice shifts that tells me there's been some CTRL-C CTRL-V action and had a total failure of imagination. I'm like the phosphorescent-muzzled Hound of the Baskervilles, only I'm tracking down the spots where the student Half-Assed-Her-Skills.) (I am trying and failing to make that pun work better. Who's got a cleaner Baskervilles pun for me?)

It's not just about higher education, of course; primary and secondary schools that are required to emphasize standardized testing are necessarily schools that de-emphasize writing. There are only so many hours in a day. And the work of nailing your own words to the frame of someone else's ideas requires practice and informed feedback and rewriting, not just finger-wagging and unstructured "peer review" tasks.

Still another factor is grade inflation. I could, technically, have failed a lot of students for plagiarism. I could have given a lot of zeroes. But it's hard to explain to people who have been out of college for a while just how much the culture has changed. Students are not accustomed to getting Fs. If I start handing out Fs every time I see some CTRL-C CTRL-V footprints, the students are not going to say, "Don't you appreciate how Dr. Gladly upholds high standards?" What they're going to do instead is flip their lids. GPAs driven by grade inflation set the expectations for our program, which is why I ran my new sterner policy for final projects past my chair and the clinic director before I announced it in class. I don't want to create administrative hassles for them if student GPAs fall because of those final projects. And also? I announced it in class after my students had completed their course evals for the semester. Cowardice? prudence? -- you tell me.

I used to get really wrathful about plagiarism, but I went to a helpful workshop in the spring. Plagiarism is not so much a symptom of the Decline Of Western Civilization And Kids Needing To Get Off My Lawn Already; it's a behavior often seen in students who don't yet understand what they're writing about. Students are generally on board with the idea that they shouldn't use someone else's exact words, but they'll often change a word or two and call it good. [E.g., "students are typically in agreement with the concept that they shouldn't use someone else's precise words, but they'll often modify a phrase and call it satisfactory."]  This is called "patchwriting," and it reflects preliminary understanding. Part of the hassle is figuring out where that line falls and how to grade students who veer too near it. Part of the task is teaching students that the goal is not just to cross the assignment off the to-do list; the goal is to learn the material.

I am curious about what this will mean for academics ten years from now. I think the situation is likely to get worse rather than better. Does it become acceptable at some point? Some of my students think it already is.

Once I told my students that encountering plagiarism is like being handed a smoothie that didn't spend enough time in the blender. You take a big swig and UGH-- there's a slug-like hunk of half-frozen banana sitting on your tongue. You didn't want a slug salad; you wanted a smoothie, with everything all blended together. I told them that I didn't want to spot anyone else's words or ideas or essay structure sitting on my desk, waving its horns at me in loathsome slug-like fashion. I wanted them to blend it all up together into something new, made to their own recipe.

But I'm teaching some students who need a better blender.

Comments

[Marcie]

I love your smoothie/blender analogy. I hadn't really appreciated how this is not a black and white issue. Hang in there. You're expecting much from your students - as a professor should. We earn our college degrees.

[Melanie]

Yes. All of this. When I taught composition my students were so woefully unprepared for college writing and I felt like getting them to where they needed to be was such an overwhelming task. Two semesters of composition were not enough to remediate for the lack of strong writing classes in high school and junior high. They didn't know how to write or how to do research.