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Faculty Resources > Teaching Material > Articles for Discussion

 

 

Here is a list of articles that are useful in discussing the many sides and dimensions of plagiarism.  This is a more expanded list of articles than provided on the Teaching about Plagiarism page.

 

 

Focus on Who Owns Ideas

• Malcom Gladwell. (Nov. 22, 2004). Something Borrowed: Should a Charge of Plagiarism Ruin your Life? The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_11_25_a_borrowed.html

This feature article from The New Yorker by best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of a playwright who used a person's real life story without asking permission or even acknowledging the person as the basis of a play.  The article exams the question of who owns ideas in the arts.

 

• Jonathan Lethem (January 31, 2007) “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism” Harper’s Magazinehttp://www.harpers.org/TheEcstasyOfInfluence.html

 This feature article from Harper’s Magazine explores instances and issues of influence in the arts.

 

• Erik Faden (2007) A Fair(y) Use Tale   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo

Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University produced a 10:13 minute video premiered on YouTube that humorously reviews copyright principles through the words of Disney characters.

 

Focus on Accidental Plagiarism

• Doris Kearns Goodwin. (Jan. 27, 2002) How I Caused That Story. Time  

  http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,197614,00.html

A short piece written by presidential historian, Doris Kearns Goodwin, who addresses how she came to accidentally plagiarize and the steps she is now taking to make sure that doesn't happen again.

 

Focus on Honor 

• Robert Boynton (May 27, 2001). Is Honor Up for Grabs? Education Isn't

  About Surveillance. The Washington Post, B01 (available on Robert Boynton website

  http://www.robertboynton.com/articleDisplay.php?article_id=72)

A short editorial that questions whether plagiarism detection software, though successful in catching plagiarists, is missing the point. Boyton believes that the real issue is not how to catch plagiarists, but adhering to the honor code established by institutions of higher learning.

 

Focus on Responsibility

• Baty, Phil.  (May 28, 2004)  Plagiarist Student Set to Sue University. Times Higher

  Education Supplement. [Available through Lexis Nexis]

This short news piece presents the case of a college student who had plagiarized on papers throughout his college career but only got caught his last year.  The university decided not to grant the student a degree.  The student sued the university charging that it was the university's responsible to better educate him on plagiarism. 

       

Focus on Cheating

• David Callahan (2006) On campus: Author discusses the "cheating culture" with college students. Plagiary: Cross-Disciplinary Studies in Plagiarism, Fabrication, and Falsification, 1(4): 1-8 |

  http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.5240451.0001.004

The author of the book Cheating Culture talks to college students about how cheating has seeped into business, sports, and academics.  Callahan identifies three forces driving the prevalence of today's proclivity for cheating: importance placed on money and winning, the national sense of fear and insecurity, and the ineffectiveness of organizations and agencies meant to stop such behavior.  He concludes by stating that academic integrity is worth fighting for and challenges students to follow the words of Gandhi and "Be the change you want to see in the world." 

 

• The Infinite Mind Public Radio Show on Cheating, November 8, 2006 

This episode of the radio program "The Infinite Mind" examines the proliferation of cheating in high schools.  A text overview of the program can be found at http://www.lcmedia.com/mind452.htm The program can be downloaded for $10 or purchased on a CD for $18 at http://lcmedia.stores.yahoo.net/cheating.html

 

Originality

• Ed Tenner (2005) "Rise of the Plagiosphere: How new tools to detect plagiarism could induce mass writer's block" http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/06/issue/megascope.asp?p=0

This article explores the question if an information overloaded world will threaten the notion of originality of words?

 

Wikipedia 

Wikipedia, a marvel in demonstrating the power of social networking in building content, is not without its controversy.  Below are links to examples of the challenges presented with audience generated content

 

• Nature versus Britannica over Wikipedia Accuracy

In 2005, an article was published in Nature that claimed that information found on Wikipedia was as accurate as the Encyclopedia Britannica.  Britannica printed a 20 page rebuttal on its corporate web site.  Nature responded with its own press release rebuttal.

 

• Wikiality

This segment from a July 30, 2006 "Colbert Report" from Comedy Central brings a humorous look at the benefits and liabilities of audience generated content.  This segment of the Colbert Report's The Word titled "Wikiality" http://www.comedycentral.com/motherload/index.jhtml?ml_video=72347