I'm afraid that I couldn't cope with reading the entirety of 
Peter Levin's essay but, for the record, Oxford Brookes has 
always argued that the detection and penalisation of 
plagiarism could only succeed as part of an institution-wide 
holistic policy that focussed as much on learning and 
teaching issues as on detection and penalisation (see the 
many papers by Jude Carroll, alone or with various 
collaborators including myself, over the last five years or 
so).  The change in name of the Academic Conduct Officers 
reflected a broadening of the role of the individual 
postholders to include a personal involvement in the 
learning and teaching aspects of the strategy rather than 
any change in the University's policy of ensuring that the 
learning and teaching aspects of eliminating plagiarism were 
pursued at least as vigorously as the detection and 
penalisation aspects.

I was also intrigued by Levin's fifth reference (at the foot 
of page 3).  Nothing is in quotes and nothing is inset, so 
what text is the reference referring to?  On checking the 
reference, it can be found that, in fact, the whole 
paragraph is a direct quote from the source but this is 
effectively hidden from the reader.  In other words, it 
gives the appearance that the author has developed certain 
ideas (or, at the very least, has reformulated certain ideas 
of others) when, in fact, they were simply copied verbatim 
from the work of someone else.

At Oxford Brookes, we are clear that this would be regarded 
as plagiarism (although, if there was only one instance in 
the work submitted and particularly if the student was at an 
early stage of their course, it would not be particularly 
serious plagiarism) because we believe that it is essential 
to ensure that students understand the importance of very 
clearly distinguishing between, in the biblical phrase, mine 
and thine in the work they submit for assessment.  While a 
scribbled note on a feedback sheet may or may not improve a 
student's understanding and correct their practice of this 
issue, a one to one discussion of the issue with the 
Academic Conduct Officer, together with a Formal Warning for 
"negligent academic practice" or the penal loss of a handful 
of marks both of which will be taken into account in any 
future plagiarism will make the point far more effectively. 
  In other words, we do not counterpose the detection of 
plagiarism and the imposition of an appropriate penalty with 
our learning and teaching strategy for eliminating 
plagiarism - at Oxford Brookes, in addition to the many 
other teaching mechanisms for explaining what plagiarism is 
and how to avoid committing it, the disciplinary process 
also includes a significant pedagogic aspect and contributes 
to the understanding of those students that the other 
mechanisms have failed to reach successfully.

But then, as I understand it, Levin does not think there is 
any problem with students passing off the views of others as 
their own so presumably there is no need to ensure that they 
learn how not to do so.  The following questions may be 
answered in the part of the Levin's essay that I did not 
reach but I wonder if he holds the same view in relation to 
Masters' dissertations? PhD theses? journal articles and 
other academic publications?  And, if not, when and how 
future academic authors should be taught the necessary skills?

Jon Appleton
Oxford Brookes

Peter Levin wrote:
>  
> If there's anyone out there who's interested in a view of plagiarism and anti-plagiarism practices in the context of the present state of the UK education system, you might like to see a new paper of mine called 'Why the writing is on the wall for the plagiarism police', at 
> 
> http://www.student-friendly-guides.com/plagiarism/writing_on_the_wall.pdf <http://www.student-friendly-guides.com/plagiarism/writing_on_the_wall.pdf> 
> 
> Comments welcome.
> 
> Peter Levin
> 
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