Kelly Abbot
Stefano Valle
Portfolio 2 Audio Essay
Can you believe that recently a Colorado student plagiarized an entire essay and
got off with just a failed assignment grade? He purchased the entire text from an online
ghostwriting service. A failed grade is a slap on the wrist for this serious violation.
Ensuring academic integrity in this technology rich environment is a critical issue. In
simple words, plagiarism is the theft of intellectual property. Coming from the Latin
word “to kidnap”, plagiarism is defined as the deliberate use of any source without proper
acknowledgment. Academic institutions have their own manners of dealing with these
acts, and this is the problem, a total lack of uniformity. According to publication
Congressional Quarterly, punishments for the act “range from failing grades on
individual assignments to flunking the entire course -- or worse... Schools have revoked
degrees. Plagiarism can be grounds for suspension or expulsion.” (The CQ Researcher,
Combating Plagiarism). There needs to be universally adopted punishment standards to
squander this rampant student violation facilitated by the Internet.
One option is to treat students who steal intellectual property to the same
accountability level as those who steal physical property. Plagiarism has widely surfaced
in college institutions. A 2003 study conducted at Rutgers University reported that
approximately 38% of students had been involved “in one of more instances of Internetfacilitated copy-paste plagiarism” (Combating Plagiarism). Students are knowingly
claiming ownership over writing that is not their own, just like stealing physical property.
A basic goal of education is to prepare students who can create and evaluate ideas.
Copied work undermines these principles. A viable option is to adopt severe criminal
sanctions for plagiarists.
While plagiarism is a growing Internet-fueled issue, most colleges have called
student plagiarism an academic and moral offense, not a legal crime. The Lafayette
College Handbook states that, “to maintain the scholarly standards of the College and,
equally important, the personal ethical standards of our students, it is essential that
written assignments be a student’s own work.” In a recent case at the University of North
Carolina, Michael McAdoo, a football player, was found guilty of plagiarism. His
punishments were F’s on the assignment and in the course and a year suspension from the
football team. The Punishments were severe, but not criminal. The case was not taken to
a higher court, which I believe is fair in order to not tarnish his future. Students are not
monetarily gaining from plagiarism. Student plagiarism is not a copyright infringement
because it falls under fair use. The U.S. Copyright Office states that work is fair use if
“the purpose and character of the use is for nonprofit educational purposes.” Student’s
works could be considered fair use and not be violating copyright; therefore there
shouldn’t be legal actions.
Yes, but while I support the firm action that UNC took, plagiarism does constitute
a legal violation. The Nova Southeastern Library statement on plagiarism notes that
copyright “protects the reproduction of the work” (Plagiarism and Copyright), and
therefore copying violates the legal property of an author. Plagiarism is an act of
copyright infringement because laws in modern societies dictate, “that expression is
property of its author.” This is not only the case in U.S. doctrine, but 130 different
nations have adopted the 1886 Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and
Artistic Works. Glynn Lunney, a law professor at Tulane University, explains that
“because anything written is automatically protected by the Copyright Act of 1976,
copiers can always be liable for the harm suffered by a person whose work was copied”
(What is the Price of Plagiarism?). Some students can directly commercial profit from
the act. Plagiarism is an act of fraud, which is an indictable crime, defined as a deception
for the purpose of personal gain. The credit the student receives for the work, works
towards the acquisition of a diploma, resulting in a job with a salary. Harvard student
Kaavya Wiswanathan was awarded a $500,000 signing bonus for a text entitled “How
Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life” only for it to surface later that she had
copied multiple passages in her novel.
While I understand your point, I think it is a school’s job to deal with plagiarism
and the student. Joe Tolliver, Dean of Students at Haverford College says that punishing
ethics violations “is about helping [the student] see the mistake they made and be
reinstated into the community” (What is the Price of Plagiarism?). According to the
University of Alberta, some of the main reasons that students plagiarize are lack of
research skills, problems evaluating sources and confusion about the difference between
plagiarism and paraphrasing. Jane Kirtley, a Media Ethics and Law professor at
Minnesota says “a lot of students in their early education do not get a very good
grounding from their instructors about when it's acceptable to use somebody else’s
material." Since universities bear some of the responsibility to properly educate students
on research acknowledgement, it is not fair for them to bring legal actions. It is the
school’s responsibility to foster and develop the students’ minds but also their moral
compass. Individuals who commit and are prosecuted for legal crimes are permanently
marked on record, making it extremely difficult to get jobs. Professor Paretta, English
professor at Lafayette College, states, “Usually a swift response to cases of plagiarism
frequently alerts students to the severity of the offense and prevents them from
committing it a second time.” According to Internet authorities the punishment for
academic plagiarism is “most often handled by the individual instructors and the
academic institution involved” (plagiarism.org).
You’re right Kelly, colleges should help foster a student intellectually and
morally. Legal prosecution could irreparably endanger their future. However, there is still
a problem in the enforcement of these violations. We have both recognized the fact that
plagiarism is handled on a case-by-case basis. It is unfair for one plagiarist to receive a
failing mark and for another to expelled from school or worse. Students at Yale and
Harvard receive two semester suspensions, while at Washington and Lee, “you’re
dismissed permanently from the school” says current student Aaron Albert (The Price of
Plagiarism). A just and universal procedure would eliminate these unfair distinctions and
make students equally reprimanded regardless of the where they are enrolled.
Well Stefano, I adhere to the belief that plagiarism is an ethical issue, while you
see it as an inexcusable form of theft. All in all, we both want to see all student plagiarists
held more equally accountable. Criminal prosecution is too severe and damaging to a
student. Universities should adopt a universal statute that punishes students through
automatic failing of the course. An additional clause to this could be a misdemeanor mark
on the record that would reflect the copyright infringement at play. Mandatory royalties
to the author could also be adopted. Given all that we have debated, I think that we have
come up with a fair way to deal with student plagiarism.
After working on this assignment of collaborative writing, I have found that it is
extremely challenging to write an essay with another person, even someone who you
know very well. While I liked being able to have a partner and exchanging ideas, at
times it was very hard. It is difficult when two people have different writing styles to try
and mash them together in an essay and come up with one voice. It was also hard to
coordinate times during one of the busiest parts of the semester where we could both sit
down and record the essay which is a lot more work than expected. I did like however,
how Stefano and I were able to write our essay will apposing view points and almost
debate them during the audio essay and then come up with a consensus to the issue in our
essay. So while I liked some aspects of the collaborative audio essay, like being able to
have another person’s perspective on my writing, I found it more challenging than
rewarding.
Works Cited
Jost, Kenneth. “Combating Plagiarism.” The CQ Researcher. 19 Sept. 2003. PDF
Demirjian, Karoun. "What Is the Price of Plagiarism?" The Christian Science Monitor.
The Christian Science Monitor, 11 May 2006. Web. 04 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0511/p14s01-lire.html?s=hns>.
Hall, Mandi R. "Why Is Plagiarism a Crime?" EHow. Demand Media, 16 Feb. 2010.
Web. 07 Mar. 2012. <http://www.ehow.com/facts_5996421_plagiarismcrime_.html>.
"Plagiarism & Copyright." Nova Southeastern University (NSU) a Private, Research
University. Web. 08 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.nova.edu/library/dils/lessons/plagiarism/>.
"Plagiarism & Copyright." Nova Southeastern University (NSU) a Private, Research
University. Web. 08 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.nova.edu/library/dils/lessons/plagiarism/>.
"Guide to Plagiarism and Cyber-Plagiarism." University of Alberta Library Guides.
University of Alberta, 18 Aug. 2011. Web. 8 Mar. 2012.
<http://guides.library.ualberta.ca/content.php?pid=62200&sid=457755>.
Kane, Dan. "UNC Honor Court Failed to Find McAdoo's Obvious Plagiarism." News
Observer North Carolina. Newsobserver.com, 17 July 2011. Web. 3 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/07/17/1349691/mcadoo-paper-case-looksbad-for.html>.
"U.S. Copyright Office - Fair Use." U.S. Copyright Office. Web. 08 Mar. 2012.
<http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html>.
“What is Plagiarism?” Plagiarism.org. Accessed March 3, 2012.
http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/what_is_plagiarism.html