Plagiarism

With all of the recent discussion of plagiarism in politics, online media, and mass publication, we thought it might be useful to remind everyone of what, exactly, plagiarism is:

The Oxford English Dictionary Online defines plagiarism as, "The action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft."

This means that when you write, you must give credit if you borrow ideas or language from someone else. What counts in this? Anything that isn't original to you, or anything that isn't common knowledge. For instance, when we give grammar rules on the side bar, you'll notice we don't cite a source. That is because these rules are (or should be!) common knowledge. However, when we relate a funny story from the news, we always offer the link to the original and the source (website, author as available), because the ideas and the language are not our own.

Notice that plagiarism includes both ideas and exact language. You can't just change the words around and call it your own; you must still give credit to the original author.

What does that mean for the current scandals? Are borrowed speech lines plagiarism? What about using sections of another's work in a publication? And how do the rules vary when we move from the printed media to the internet?

The answer is, it's murky. Any time one borrows, one should give credit to the original author. The current practices in world of blogging and online writing have certainly loosened that rule, however. I know I can at least speak for me and probably for my sister when I say that that doesn't matter, and writing is writing, no matter what the medium. Plagiarism in any form is stealing. (Amen, sister, says Daniele!)

Unfortunately, we see plagiarism all around us. In student papers, it often comes in the form of facts and information lifted from websites. On college campuses, we have witnessed plagiarism scandals involving professors and even college presidents. And in the wider world, every once in a while we see a story about a book that has plagiarized passages, or this week, a White House adviser who plagiarized in newspaper columns.

It is sad. And it is hard, as a teacher, to make students understand the right thing to do, especially when the adults around them are cheating too.

(Here's a link to a PowerPoint presentation Daniele did on plagiarism for faculty at Durham Technical Community College in 2003. As citation rules change frequently, some of the specific details may have changed, but the bulk remains consistent: http://courses.durhamtech.edu/eng041/internetplagiarism_files/frame.htm)

Anyone have any thoughts on this one?