Thursday, February 28, 2008
“Stealing and passing off as your own someone else’s ideas or words, or using information from another’s work without crediting the sources, is called plagiarism. Some specific examples of actions that constitute plagiarism include pasting together uncredited information.”
Sound familiar?
It’s the beginning of the University’s official plagiarism policy, which is e-mailed to all the people who run classes.
Many instructors copy and paste from the e-mail they receive to the syllabus they are writing, but many don’t cite where it’s from.
They plagiarize the section on plagiarism.
I don’t really care that my teachers are stealing something I’ve seen 50 times before without telling me that they didn’t write it on their own.
I care that my tuition dollars are going to people who don’t even have the courtesy to pretend to follow rules they are enforcing.
On the syllabus for one of my classes. my instructor forgot to remove the phrase “suggested wording” next to the section heading, which makes me even more confident that he lifted it straight from the University’s plagarism e-mail.
In the paragraph informing students that presenting someone else’s work as our own is grounds for expulsion, we are being served a heaping helping of hypocrisy.
Does anyone who reads my column know the Chancellor?
He should know that something as important to academia as intellectual property is being flouted so blatantly on his watch.
It would be fine if each syllabus contained a standard wording of the policy. That would make sense.
Then there would be no room for interpretation, no gray area.
Instructors can choose their own phrasing of the policy. The problem is when they cut corners.
Maybe they had other syllabi to write. Maybe they partied too much the previous weekend.
Whatever the reason, they didn’t get around to writing their own version, so they cut corners and just used the one they were e-mailed.
They’re just doing it once, no one will notice.
But guess what? Someone did notice. That someone was my Jazz instructor.
I didn’t even notice on my own.
I’m borrowing someone else’s idea in my column on plagiarism. It’s a whole other level of irony.
But notice how I am admitting that I didn’t think of it on my own, unlike the instructors I am referring to who are just as bad as students who run afoul of intellectual property laws.
By breaking the rule as they explain it, instructors are demeaning its importance.
They should have the courtesy of at least keeping up appearances.
Mersmann is a Lawrence senior in creative writing.
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Comments
Mersmann: Professors copy, paste plagarism policy
I couldn't find a single dictionary that uses "plagiarise" instead of "plagiarize." Merriam-Webster, American Heritage, dictionary.com.. Looks just fine.
Mersmann: Professors copy, paste plagarism policy
Is spelling something correctly technically "plagaris(e)"ing?
Wait - that's not spelling: it's Grammar.
For the record, it's "plagiarise".
Mersmann: Professors copy, paste plagarism policy
Wow. That's a lot of people that don't recognize (recognise?) humor. Humor. It's supposed to be funny. Lighten up, people.
Mersmann: Professors copy, paste plagarism policy
linguo_the_grammar_robot makes me laugh at the irony of his name juxtaposed with his consistent misuse of the word "right."
Mersmann: Professors copy, paste plagarism policy
I like vlad getting all up in arms and then thinking he's made a point by spelling plagiarize incorrectly. Ooooo buuuurn.
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