Re: Why plagiarism?

[zas Smith]

Bill:

I have used Turn it in the last couple of years and plagiarism was running
30-35 percent among undergraduates and 15 percent among graduate students.
Now I explain in detail what turn it in is and how it works.  As a result
now plagiarism is rare.

Zach

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 10:30 AM, Bill Hipwell wrote:

>  Dear colleagues:
>
>
>
> My experience with plagiarism at various institutions is that no matter how
> carefully documented a case I have been able to present, the
> administration/upper echelons of faculty have been consistently reluctant to
> take any real punitive action, either because they are litigation-averse, or
> are loathe to dissuade fee-paying students in any way from enrolling
> with/staying at the institution.
>
>
>
> Without wishing to appear too starry-eyed, I do believe from experience
> that it is a *very* small minority of students who plagiarise (I would
> guess less than 1%); I actually doubt that the proliferation of cheater
> web-sites actually increases the number of cheaters. Parallels in other
> areas of life may be found...
>
>
>
> As professors we must offer clear moral instruction regarding our
> expectations of honesty and originality.  Students in turn need and expect
> this from us.  We can also be clear that we will work to the extent of our
> capacities to detect and punish plagiarism, for the benefit of (i.e. not
> effectively to penalise) those students who turn in original (and perhaps
> slightly shabbier) papers.
>
>
>
> At the same time we need to ensure that we do not assign a volume of work
> that exceeds our capacity to read it carefully, train our teaching
> assistants in plagiarism detection (and accordingly regulate the workload of
> graduate students to ensure that they have time to read UG students' work
> carefully) and to resist vehemently any further encroachments by
> administration on our available time.
>
>
>
> Cheating, is at the root, a moral problem, and I feel it is a mistake to
> "blame the capitalists" for it, unless one is willing (as perhaps one should
> be) to go further and interrogate the fundamental moral basis of our
> capitalist society.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> Bill
>
>
>
> ___
> *Bill Hipwell, PhD*
> Honourary Research Associate
> School of Geography, Environment and Development Studies
> Victoria University of Wellington
> New Zealand
>
> Director of International Projects
> DAI Inc.
> Suite 300, 67A Sparks Street
> Ottawa, Ontario  K1P 5A5
> Canada
>
>  Telephone: +1-613-238-7842 (o)
>   +1-613-799-3188 (m)
> Facsimile:   +1-613-238-0007
>
> VoIP:  +1-613--686-1639 ext. 202
> E-mail:hipw...@daigroup.ca
>   william.hipw...@vuw.ac.nz
> Skype:William.Hipwell
>
>
>



-- 
Zachary A. Smith
Regents' Professor
Environmental and Natural Resources Policy
Politics and International Affairs
Box 15036
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011

zachary.sm...@nau.edu
web page: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~zas/
fax 928-523-6777
phone 928-523-7020


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Why plagiarism?

[Bill Hipwell]

Dear colleagues:
 
My experience with plagiarism at various institutions is that no matter
how carefully documented a case I have been able to present, the
administration/upper echelons of faculty have been consistently
reluctant to take any real punitive action, either because they are
litigation-averse, or are loathe to dissuade fee-paying students in any
way from enrolling with/staying at the institution.
 
Without wishing to appear too starry-eyed, I do believe from experience
that it is a very small minority of students who plagiarise (I would
guess less than 1%); I actually doubt that the proliferation of cheater
web-sites actually increases the number of cheaters. Parallels in other
areas of life may be found...
 
As professors we must offer clear moral instruction regarding our
expectations of honesty and originality.  Students in turn need and
expect this from us.  We can also be clear that we will work to the
extent of our capacities to detect and punish plagiarism, for the
benefit of (i.e. not effectively to penalise) those students who turn in
original (and perhaps slightly shabbier) papers.
 
At the same time we need to ensure that we do not assign a volume of
work that exceeds our capacity to read it carefully, train our teaching
assistants in plagiarism detection (and accordingly regulate the
workload of graduate students to ensure that they have time to read UG
students' work carefully) and to resist vehemently any further
encroachments by administration on our available time.
 
Cheating, is at the root, a moral problem, and I feel it is a mistake to
"blame the capitalists" for it, unless one is willing (as perhaps one
should be) to go further and interrogate the fundamental moral basis of
our capitalist society.
 
Cheers,
 
Bill
 
___
Bill Hipwell, PhD
Honourary Research Associate
School of Geography, Environment and Development Studies
Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand
 
Director of International Projects
DAI Inc.
Suite 300, 67A Sparks Street
Ottawa, Ontario  K1P 5A5
Canada
 
 Telephone: +1-613-238-7842 (o)
  +1-613-799-3188 (m)
Facsimile:   +1-613-238-0007
VoIP:  +1-613--686-1639 ext. 202
E-mail:  hipw...@daigroup.ca
   
william.hipw...@vuw.ac.nz
Skype:William.Hipwell