Mersmann: Professors copy, paste plagarism policy
Instructors can choose their own phrasing of the policy. The problem is when they cut corners.
By Dennis Mersmann (Contact)
Thursday, February 28th, 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.
Discussion
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The instructors are not plagarising when they cut and paste policy that is recommended by the university. Borrowing your jazz instructors idea to right your column is also not plagarism. Do you have anything better to right about? How about the large number of students who actually do plagarise.
Is spelling something correctly technically "plagaris(e)"ing?
Wait - that's not spelling: it's Grammar.
For the record, it's "plagiarise".
Do you really understand the definitions of plagiarism in academics? The university willingly provides this wording for all professors to use. Also, a syllabus is not an academic work, so it hardly qualifies as plagiarism. In reality, it’s just a waste of a professor's time to come up with his own wording. How different could he REALLY make a paragraph on plagiarism than the one the university provides? Should professors really even need to tell students that plagiarism is wrong? Of course not, but I can tell you that I constantly combat plagiarism in my courses.
Don't give me this ridiculous 'my tuition dollars' argument either. First of all, your tuition dollars don't even make a drop in the bucket and are not the primary source of revenue for the university (try tax dollars and donations). Secondly, every professor you have ever had in course has likely written a 150 page master’s thesis and probably a 250 page doctoral dissertation, let alone dozens of academic articles and probably a few books. They certainly "follow rules they are enforcing." How do you like that? I cited you correctly.
This is all probably lost, however, on someone who can't spell "plagiarism." How does this get past an editor?
I couldn't find a single dictionary that uses "plagiarise" instead of "plagiarize." Merriam-Webster, American Heritage, dictionary.com.. Looks just fine.
Technically 'plagiarise' would be the British spelling. ;-)
Wow. That's a lot of people that don't recognize (recognise?) humor. Humor. It's supposed to be funny. Lighten up, people.
linguo_the_grammar_robot makes me laugh at the irony of his name juxtaposed with his consistent misuse of the word "right."
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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