Though they don’t conduct a study per se, Annette Rosati and Danielle DeVoss use their student’s experiences as a means to understand the changing landscape of plagiarism tactics and practices. Thanks to the Internet, students have a large and readily available stream of information. They can easily locate a sample essay on a subject they are writing about and claim it as their own. The temptation to simply cut and paste is also present, particularly if the student is writing hastily or has a hard time rewording the original ideas.
The article is interesting as it analyses the mindset that students accrue as a result of the demands of their teachers. When teachers ask students to create a new idea, the students are forced to research sources that will not only provide them a new idea, but will present it within the confines of a “correct” interpretation. In order to assuage their professor, the students then use plagiarism not only to ease their job, but as a way of “patchwriting” or “kidnapping.” Thinking of plagiarizing as kidnapping implies that the source text is borrowed to assimilate one’s own writing with the author’s ideas and style.
Finally, DeVoss and Rosati seek to resolve plagiarism issues by explaining the concept of intellectual property. Intellectual property refers to the creative output of another person. Though its definition can be skewed and blurred, it is essentially an idea that belongs to someone else, whether it be a design, a template, text, or art. Proper knowledge of what belongs to whom and the practice of citing sources the right way are effective ways to prevent a student from plagiarizing.
DeVoss, Danielle & Annette C. Rosati (2002). “‘It wasn’t me, was it?’ Plagiarism and the Web.” Computers & Composition 19.2 (2002): 191-204. Web
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