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Plagiarism and cheating are a problem in writing courses, and teachers
need to be aware of the potential for problems as students complete
their writing assignments. This section contains information about our
policies on plagiarism, scenarios for understanding plagiarism and copyright
issues, and useful general resources on plagiarism and related issues.
Plagiarism Defined
In the policy on academic integrity, the University defines plagiarism
as:
"the representation of the words or ideas of another as one's
own in any academic exercise. To avoid plagiarism, every direct quotation
must be identified by quotation marks or by appropriate indentation
and must be promptly cited in the text or in a footnote. Acknowledgment
is required when material from another source stored in print, electronic,
or other medium is paraphrased or summarized in whole or in part in
one's own words. To acknowledge a paraphrase properly, one might state:
"to paraphrase Plato's comment . . ." and conclude with
a footnote identifying the exact reference. A footnote [or endnote]
acknowledging only a directly quoted statement does not suffice to
notify the reader of any preceding or succeeding paraphrased material.
Information which is common knowledge, such as names of leaders of
prominent nations, basic scientific laws, etc. need not be footnoted;
however, all facts or information obtained in reading or research
that are not common knowledge among students in the course must be
acknowledged. In addition to materials specifically cited in the text,
only materials that contribute to one's general understanding of the
subject may be acknowledged in the bibliography.
Plagiarism can, in some cases, be a subtle issue. Any questions about
what constitutes plagiarism should be discussed with the faculty member
(4)."
The Writing
Program's plagiarism policy should answer many of the questions
that you might have about plagiarism. On this page, the Writing Program
explains how students often unintentionally plagiarize by getting too
much help, either from other students in the class, tutors, or friends.
These same standards apply to the Business and Technical Writing classes.
But because most Business and Technical Writing classes require extensive
technology use and in-depth research projects, we would like to add
a few scenarios that should help clarify what counts as plagiarism in
one of these classes.
We encourage you to go over these scenarios with your students in class.
The following scenarios should help you understand what plagiarism is
and is not for Business and Technical Writing classes. Have your students
take a look at these and try to determine whether or not each scenario
represents plagiarism.
Scenario 1:
The assignment for Web Authoring is to compile research into a informative
website for a specific audience. A student is particularly interested
in goldfish and notices that no single website compiles all of the information
about goldfish into one location. The student happens to be a member
of The National Goldfish Society and has identified an audience need
for the project. Much of his research is already online so the student
simply cuts and pastes language from multiple websites and reorganizes
this information into a format that meets his target audiences needs.
Scenario 2:
The student from Scenario 1 thinks it over, and the night before he
submits his final project, he cites where he took the information from
at the bottom of each webpage.
Scenario 3:
A student is surfing the web and finds the perfect photograph for
her website. She clicks on the images, saves it into her website's folder,
and inserts the image onto her website's homepage. She includes a citation
of the photograph on her bibliography page and links to the specific
website from which she took the photograph.
Scenario 4:
A student is having trouble writing his final project proposal. One
journal article is particularly close to the study on Ergonomics that
she is undertaking at her workplace. The student decides to implement
the language and organization from a journal article she has found during
her research. She cites her other sources in her final paper, but omits
this one journal article from her bibliography.
Scenario 5:
A student is assigned a case study for Business Writing Essentials.
She notices that a student from a previous class forgot to delete their
completed case study from the desktop. She opens the file and uses it
as a boilerplate--cutting, rewriting, and reorganizing the document
before handing it in.
Scenario 6:
One page on a student's website lists names and contact numbers
for The
Writing Program. The student cuts and pastes this information directly
from the Writing Program's site onto his own website.
Scenario 7:
A student takes the final paper that she wrote for Business and
Professional Writing and reworks it into her design project for Information
Design. She does not tell the teacher that the content of her project
has already been submitted for another class.
Scenario 8:
A student is creating a webpage and particularly likes the design of
Salon.com. He writes all of his own content for the
site and then plugs the information into Salon.com's code.
Scenario 9:
A student is giving an oral presentation on Interviewing for his Business
Writing Essentials class. Much of this information is online at numerous
Universities' Career Services pages. The student cuts and pastes this
information together into an outline and presents the information to
the class.
Answer to Scenario 1:
Yes, this is plagiarism. Just because the student has free access
to information on the web does not mean that it is there for the taking.
If a student cut and pasted several articles and book chapters together
into an essay, it would count as plagiarism. The same goes for creating
a website.
Answer to Scenario 2:
This is still plagiarism under the standards of the Business and Technical
Writing department. By citing the source, the student simply has admitted
that he plagiarized. Authoring a website means compiling and adding
to existing information in a new and useful way. It does not mean
only linking together information from several existing websites.
Answer to Scenario 3:
If the teacher gives the class permission, the student is covered
for using the photograph under "Fair Use" for educational
purposes. However, the student should not use the photograph for a commercial
website. If the manager of the website asks the student to take the
photograph down, the student should comply immediately.
Answer to Scenario 4:
Yes, the student has plagiarized by copying both the author's language
and organization. And she has purposefully tried to cover it up by omitting
the journal article from her bibliography.
Answer to Scenario 5:
Yes, this is plagiarism. Writing a response to a case study
means analyzing and critically evaluating the information presented
in the case and then composing a logical, organized, workable response.
By taking part of another student's language and organization, she has
not adequately performed these requirements.
Answer to Scenario 6:
No, this does not count as plagiarism. Facts, such as names, dates,
and phone numbers, are common knowledge. No one can claim ownership
of them.
Answer to Scenario 7:
No, this is not plagiarism. But it is cheating. And the student will
still fail the design project and possibly the class as well.
Answer to Scenario 8:
Yes, this is plagiarism under the standards of the Business and
Technical Writing department. Taking someone else's code means taking
their ideas for content organization and, in some ways, argument.
Answer to Scenario 9:
Yes, this is plagiarism. If a student is simply putting together
other people's ideas, the work is not the student's own. The students
needs to add his own ideas to the existing information in order for
the work to be his own.
Copyright Information
The internet in general has brought new issues and concerns, most of
which have not yet been clarified by legislation or litigation. The
following sites can offer some guidance on copyright issues.
In some instances, student projects might be legal (see Scenario 2).
However, these projects may not fulfill the requirements of a given
class. Our goal in these classes is to teach students how to analyze
information, to read and critically evaluate multiple sources, and to
write. If a student is not implementing these skills, we should consider
whether the project is plagiarized.
Copyright Management
Center
<http://www.iupui.edu/~copyinfo/home.html>
A site maintained by Indiana University and Purdue University Indianapolis,
offers useful information focused on distance learning and other faculty
concerns.
Copyright
Resources on the World Wide Web
<http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/special/kay/copyrightissues.html>
A list of useful links maintained by Kay Vandergrift of SCILS. Scroll
down the page to the links.
Rutgers
Libraries Copyright Information
<http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/rr_gateway/research_guides/copyright/copyright.shtml>
Links to information on copyright issues from Rutgers University.
United States Copyright Office,
the Library of Congress
<http://www.loc.gov/copyright/>
Although we recognize that it may be difficult to determine a student's
intent when they have not properly used another person's ideas, we hope
that this information will offer you some guidelines in making that
distinction.
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