Miguel wrote:
> Rick, Annette's student has taken an idea and correctly credited
> it's source. However, by not putting the material within
> quotations the reader is erroneously led to conclude that the
> words are the student's own and not those of the author of the
> original work identified in the citation. That is a
> deceptive/dishonest practice. Your own definition of plagiarism
> provided in earlier post makes this point: "plagiarism is the act
> of presenting the ideas, _words_ (my emphasis), or concepts of
> someone else as if they were your own ideas or words. Clearly,
> this student presented others' words as his/her own. That's
> plagiarism.
I think the key here is intent.
I don't suggest that the student get a good grade on the paper--she clearly
doesn't deserve one. But there is a great deal of difference between giving
a student a poor grade on a paper because she has not structured it properly
and flunking that student for cheating.
I honestly believe that the student did not _know_ she was cheating. _Many_
students turn in papers with quotations handled incorrectly--it isn't
unreasonable to assume she has done so in other classes and never been
called to task for it (even some English departments teach that you need
only cite the authors at the end of the body of the quote--without making it
clear that it IS a quote--to meet the standards of citations, there are
English instructors at my own institution who do that!).
The major key to me is whether the student intended to plagiarism--and
there I have to believe that had she intended to do so she would have simply
left the sources out altogether. Perhaps she DID intend to do so, but a
serious element of doubt exists, and given that it seems unfair to destroy
that student's academic record with an accusation of cheating.
Her paper should receive a low grade--and it that coupled with her other
grades in the class causes her to flunk, then she should do so. But if it
permits her to pass the class that too should be permitted.
One factor that has _not_ been mentioned is whether or not the student is a
Psychology major. If she is, she should certainly know how to cite a paper
in APA format--but if not, it is very possible that her own discipline uses
a very different approach (MLA, Turabian, etc.) and she is trying to adapt
to APA for the class. Should that be the case, it is not only possible but
actually _likely_ that her error was an honest one, rather than an attempt
to cheat.
> I agree that we should be weary of how administrators will view
> our charges of academic dishonesty exactly for the reasons you
> cite. However, we are talking about a senior here. If a senior
> can graduate from a college without knowing the fundamentals of
> proper attribution and paraphrasing, then perhaps the institution
> ought to be sued for academic malpractice for failing to teach
> "the basics" to their students.
Perhaps. But again this assumes the student is a psychology major, which
was not stated in the original message, only that she is a graduating
senior.
Here's an example. Take a couple consecutive paragraphs of mine from this
message and _correctly_ format them for me (with accurate structure and
attributions) in, for example, the proper format of the Society for Mutation
Research or the American Philosophical Society. There _are_ disciplines in
which the use of quotation marks (or setting a quoted body of text in a
single-spaced double-indented paragraph) is not required--only the provision
of the citation at the end. If the student is a major in such a field, it is
_very_ likely that she honestly didn't realize that the situation is
different in APA and concentrated only on correctly formating the work. For
example, I use Endnote extensively for preparation of documents (as a plug
in to MS Word). If I choose to do so, I can write a paper using APA format
(with which I'm most familiar), then convert it to any of several hundred
different formats simply by clicking a menu item. The format of the citation
and the Works Cited page will immediately be changed to reflect the correct
format for the discipline I am converting it to. But, should the discipline
require the use (or absence) of quotation marks or other structural changes
from APA, I will have to seek those out by hand. Many students use such
programs--particularly on a highly computerized campus (which her's was
stated to be by Annette). If this particular student did so--and wrote the
paper in a format with which she is most familiar--she can be faulted for
not investigating the differences more fully--but she certainly had no clear
intention of cheating.
Just something additional to think about.
Rick
--
Rick Adams
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Social Sciences
Jackson Community College
2111 Emmons Rd.
Jackson, MI 49201
