A comment related to (1) below.
I totally agree with what you write here. However, I am interested in how
institutions deal with the problems that arise when students move to a
different institution, particularly when moving from undergraduate to taught
postgraduate study. Students have learnt a certain "style" and set of rules
and (hopefully) stuck to them for 3 years. They then may need to very
quickly learn new styles and rules, as their postgraduate course may be
relatively short. I'm sure that most students don't consider this when
making choices of where to study.
Does anyone have any proven techniques or good ideas for getting around this
problem?
Thanks
Derek.
_________________________________
Derek Ord
Head of Student Administrative Services
University of Hull
(01482) 465980
-----Original Message-----
From: Plagiarism [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon
Appleton
Sent: 07 June 2006 20:39
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Plagiarism in context
At the risk of going round the circle again, I would just
like to make two points:
1) there are a lot of different citation systems out there
and, as the recent interchange has shown, there are a lot of
different views amongst academics about what does, and what
does not, constitute plagiarism. While students should be
made aware that there are different systems, it is essential
that each institution clearly sets out those systems that it
will accept and which it will not (and actively teaches
students how to use the former).
Not to do so can lead to the totally unacceptable situation
(which although extreme did actually occur, albeit some time
ago and could not do so now) where a Joint Honours student
was writing a 3rd year dissertation that spanned the two
(diverse) subject areas, was recommended to use a particular
citation system by one subject area and was told by the
other subject area that if they did, they would be
disciplined for plagiarism.
Similarly, each institution must clearly define what it
regards as plagiarism and then ensure that *all* its staff
apply that definition since not to do so makes it impossible
to teach students consistently what plagiarism is and how to
avoid committing it. Similarly, institutions need to ensure
that whatever system they have for penalising plagiarism, it
apply consistent penalties to students who breach that
definition. I'm sure that how this objective can be
attained could be the subject of an even more extensive
email exchange than the present one but, as I understand it,
the main/ most frequent criticism of the OIA in complaints
involving plagiarism has been inconsistency on the part of
the institution.
Perhaps the debates that will be generated inside an
institution by the determined introduction of such
institution wide policies will spill over into the wider
academia and enable us to develop a common understanding of
the issues across institutions ...
2) The question of intent: For the record, Oxford Brookes
does have clear regulations and policy that sets out the
definition of plagiarism that I enunciated, ie one where the
question of intent is irrelevant to the finding that someone
has committed plagiarism while being one factor (although
not an over-riding one) in determining the appropriate
penalty. My clearly too diffident wording was not because I
was articulating a personal view but because I recognise
that other institutions and other individuals have different
definitions of plagiarism and that I could not assume a
common approach to the issue. (I am not clear to what
extent any of us are articulating anything other than
subjective views.)
I am also clear (again, as is Oxford Brookes) that all
assessments of whether a student has committed plagiarism
are matters of academic judgement. Thus, if in the
considered judgement of those in the relevant academic
field, the work appears to pass the work of others off as
that of the author, then it is plagiarism. And that is a
judgement that academics are eminently equipped to make, in
the same way that they can and do make judgements about
whether a piece of work is first class, barely scrapes a
pass or is a fail. While judgements about plagiarism are
indeed subjective, so are all matters of academic judgement.
Such judgements can be made more objective by using
detailed assessment criteria based on the various learning
outcomes of the course and at Oxford Brookes we are working
to develop similar aids relating to plagiarism. However, I
am far from confident (pace Erik Borg) that academics are
(or can reasonably be expected to become) anything like as
well equipped to judge whether a student submitted a
significantly plagiarised piece of work deliberately because
they had run out of time to do anything else or
unintentionally because they did not understand what they
were supposed to be doing.
I stand with Ian Gordon on this issue and the very useful
concept of "more or less wilful negligence" for which
authors have to take responsibility.
Jon Appleton
Oxford Brookes
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