In Your Own Words

I agree with Pennycook that a dogmatic focus on plagiarism is arrogant and hypocritical. I think that many teachers see policing against plagiarism as a way of maintaining their authority as a teacher. They might see a student’s plagiarism as an insult to the teacher’s intelligence or as a blatant act of resistance and defiance. From this perspective plagiarism is a crime and the teacher’s job is to issue, as Pennycook states, “threats, warnings, and admonitions.” From this perspective, teachers are likely to view students who borrow from texts as incompetent and deficient. I imagine that these assumptions would be made even more readily for students who speak English as a second language or other traditionally marginalized groups of students and would work to maintain the status quo and keep the “guardians of truth” in power.

I’ll admit that I have found myself working from this perspective of plagiarism as crime before, but I’ve come to recognize that it is much more beneficial to give students the benefit of the doubt. In the classes that I teach online, I serve a mostly nontraditional group of students with a wide variety of cultural backgrounds and educational experiences. I truly believe that most of the students who “plagiarize” do not understand how to properly cite sources or think that it is only necessary to cite direct quotations. They may have great difficulty paraphrasing and summarizing. Therefore, when I “catch” students cutting and pasting from the internet or other sources into their academic papers, I invite them to explain themselves, offer advice for citing according to academic standards, and allow them to redo their work. I feel that this approach allows me to understand my students better and to improve my explanations of class policies. It allows the students to learn from the experience and to maintain a position of respect and dignity.

I believe that the key is to listen to students in an effort to learn their intentions and understandings. I like Pennycook’s idea of a “fascination response.” Rather than responding defensively to students, teachers can respond with openness and curiosity in an effort to understand cultural and individual differences. It is also helpful to acknowledge the challenges in what we are asking students to do. For example, the students that Pennycook interviewed explained how difficult it was for them to “use their own words” in a language for which they felt no ownership. I think that it is important to be explicit about what we mean by such phrases and rules.