| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Issues in Plagiarism

This version was saved 16 years, 10 months ago View current version     Page history
Saved by PBworks
on June 6, 2007 at 5:34:22 pm
 


COMMENTING - You are invited to comment on the contents of this page using the Comments link located above.

Faculty Resources > Understanding Plagiarism > Cultural Issues and Plagiarism

 

 

 

Cultural Issues and Plagiarism

 

The framework under which "plagiarism" is conceived in American academia is the product of a particular cultural and institutional history and not one that is universally shared. Notably, this framework depends on a notion of student writing as intellectual property--that is to say, writing valued as the original scholarly contribution of an identifiably autonomous author--that may clash with other frameworks for understanding the function of student writing (for example, as simply a means to demonstrate the retention of information, as the intellectual equivalent of stomach crunches, or as an opportunity for building social networks for future use).

 

It may be too simple to describe different conceptions of plagiarism as embodying "western" or "non-western" cultural values or ideas of intellectual property rights. After all, some of the earliest copyright laws were developed in China during the Tang dynasty more than a millennium ago. And some of the strongest challenges to ideas of autonomous authorship have emerged out of western traditions of theory (Mikhail Bakhtin, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida) and practice (hip hop sampling, open source software, wiki-produced reference sources).

 

Nevertheless, as teachers, we are likely to encounter students who have grown up in a non-U.S. academic context and may have different ideas of individual ownership and property rights, or for whom the academic construct of a scholar or researcher owning words and ideas may seem unnatural, nonsensical, or event ethically indefensible. Of course, our job is to make sure all students understand and follow the academic integrity expectations of the institution in which they are enrolled, but we'll be better equipped to teach these expectations if we are aware that work we might regard as plagiarized is the unintentional result of differently understood notions of originality, paraphrase, citation, and the function of writing as a student.

 

Even with respect to intentional plagiarism, there are are differences with respect to international students of which we should be aware, though these differences are likely to be more situational than cultural. That is to say, the same pressures to do well that can lead American students to cheat may have special force when a visa is on the line, and the same desperation experienced when an assignment is confusing or overwhelming may be ratcheted up when language barriers interfere as well.

 

To learn more about the cultural issues involved in questions of originality, attribution, and plagiarism please visit the resources below.

 

 


 

Ranked Choices (in order of relevance)

 

  • #1 - Sharon Myers (March 1998). "Questioning Authority(ity): ESL/EFL, Science, and Teaching about Plagiarism." TESL-EJ 3(2)

 

 

http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej10/a2.html

This article provides a wide-ranging account of the ramifications for scholars and teachers of the dominance of western notions of academic integrity, particularly plagiarism, in an increasingly global and networked scholarly world. Myers considers both experienced publishing researchers in the sciences and inexperienced ESL students, with a particular focus on Chinese scholars and students trying to adhere to academic conventions contrary to their own cultural sense of intellectual propriety.

 

 

  • #2 - Christine Keenan and Peter Jemmeson (2006). "International Students and Plagiarism: A Review of the Literature." UK: Bournemouth University Centre for Amademic Practice.

 

 

http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/cap/documents/Plagiarism+and+International+Students.pdf

A thoughtful review of current literature on the cultural ramifications of plagiarism as it plays out academia as the tension of western and non-western views of ownership, respect, and copyright. Of particular value is the examination of the reasons for the rise of plagiarism among international students.

 

More Choices

 

  • Rebecca Moore Howard (March 2007). Plagiarism Bibliography: Intercultural Issues

 

http://wrt-howard.syr.edu/Bibs/Intercultural.htm

Rebecca Moore Howard, a noted plagiarism scholar, has put together a collection of bibliographies on key issues in plagiarism scholarship. This bibliography is on the intercultural issues of plagiarism. For a complete list of her plagiarism bibliographies, see the Plagiarism Scholarship section of this site.

 

  • International Student and Scholar Services Offices (2006). Tips for Faculty Working with Inernational Students in the Classroom. University of Denver

 

http://www.du.edu/intl/isss/tips_faculty.pdf

Handout prepared by the University of Denver to aid faculty in understanding how to work with International students, especially in terms of being aware of the cultural issues involved in helping international students conform to Western notions of scholarly attribution.

 

  • U.S. Culture Series: U.S. Classroom Culture

 

http://www.nafsa.org/publication.sec/documentlibrary.dlib/students_coming_to_the/u.s._culture_series_3

[Note - I've just cut and paste the following description from their site - talk about not practicing what we're preaching! - to remind myself that it's there and to write up a blurb for it later.] A brochure describing this brand-new resource, the perfect orientation tool for your international students. Written by NAFSAns Michael Smithee, Sidney L. Greenblatt, and Alisa Eland, this publication guides international students through the culture of U.S. college classrooms by addressing a variety of topics including an overview of U.S. higher education, its academic structure and faculty roles, and the classroom itself. 2004. 32 pp.

 

  • William P. Alford. To Steal a Book Is an Elegant Offense: Intellectual Property Law in Chinese Civilization. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995.

 

Attempts a cultural, historical, and economic of why intellectual property theory and practice emerged unevenly across the globe, with particular reference to China.

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.