The Problem of Plagiarism

Art comes not out of the void, but chaos

Mary Shelley

The great French filmmaker René Clair was once asked whether Charlie Chaplin had plagiarized one of his films, A Nous la Liberte, in the making of Modern Times. Clair responded that if Chaplin had plagiarized him, he would have been honored. As Clair's response indicates, the definition of what is considered plagiarism and its effect on the creative process can be vague, inconsistent, confusing and highly contested. For writing teachers, the problem of plagiarism has emerged as one of the central pedagogical issues while, at the same time, presenting a unique opportunity for instruction.

Plagiarism refers to the inappropriate use of what is called intellectual property. In the United States, intellectual property is defined as creative acts that have been placed in a fixed medium. Intellectual property differs from physical property in that, with often complex restrictions, it can be borrowed, distributed and utilized without seeking the permission of the owner, something that would be a clear violation of the law in regard to physical property. Intellectual property is often given a fixed limit of protection, which is rarely true for physical property. Ideas, on the other hand, are not considered intellectual property unless they are placed in a fixed medium. Boyle (1996) argues that this concern for separating the idea and its expression is deeply rooted in concepts related to free speech: that the ability to express an idea should not be hampered by claims of ownership.

The use of intellectual property, both inside and outside the classroom, is governed by a myriad of often highly contested legal and ethical rules. Today, there has been much concern about violations of these rules, what are sometimes termed as the 'plagiarism epidemic' or the 'piracy' epidemic (Lessing, 2004, 2006). As will be discussed in more detail later, there is no general agreement as to whether such epidemics exist and, if they do, how they should be dealt with. Nevertheless, a variety of high-profile plagiarism scandals have permeated the news throughout the world. A study at an American university estimated that 18% of students plagiarize at some time, which increases to 31% for students scoring in the lower 25th percentile of the Student Aptitude Test (SAT), which many students need to take in order to enter university (Dee & Jacob, 2010). A poll at Cambridge University in Britain found that 49% of students admitted to cheating while only 5% admitted to having been caught (Sugden, 2008).

Surveys across universities often report similar estimates of presence of plagiarism; however, these estimates are not always matched by the number of students formally accused of plagiarism. In a survey of undergraduates in online courses in the United Kingdom, Selwyn (2008) found that more than 60% reported some instances of plagiarism. In the 2009–2010 school year, the Ohio State University, which has about 60,000 students, received 174 complaints of plagiarism (Coleman & Curry, 2010). The relatively low number may have resulted from the difficulty in identifying plagiarism or from the reluctance of instructors to involve themselves in the consequences of sending students to the academic misconduct committee (Curry, personal communication). The internet has often been cited as one of the key causes of this upsurge (see Howard, 2007). In a recent survey of teenagers in the United States, 36% reported using the internet for plagiarizing ('The Ethics', 2008).

This concern has not been limited to the West. Reports of cheating at Chinese college entrance exams have been widespread (Wong, 2009). A UNESCO publication entitled 'Corrupt Schools, Corrupt Universities: What Can Be Done?' (Hallak & Poisson, 2007) argues that plagiarism, as well as similar forms of academic corruption, is a worldwide phenomenon that involves people from a wide variety of backgrounds, including students, academics, journalists and politicians.

The growth of such reports has coincided with the growing Westernization of academic life throughout the world, particularly in areas such as publishing (Lillis & Curry, 2010), which has sometimes led to an importation of Western-style rhetoric regarding plagiarism. Often the rhetoric attached to plagiarism in non-Western cultures is also attached to the discussion of intellectual property. In many developing countries, there has been a pragmatic dimension to the concern over plagiarism, often viewing plagiarism as a threat to the credibility of the research rather than as a threat to academic integrity. A survey of the Higher Education Commission in Pakistan, for example, found that the fear of plagiarism has greatly hampered research at universities across Pakistan (Lodhi, 2010).

How plagiarism should be defined and dealt with has long been a controversial matter in L2 writing pedagogy (see Abasi et al., 2006; Abasi & Graves, 2008; Bloch, 2001, 2008b; Deckert, 1993; Fox, 1994; Matalene, 1985; Ouelette, 2008; Pecorari, 2001, 2003, 2008; Pennycook, 1996; Sapp, 2004; Scollon, 1995, 1999; Shi, 2004, 2006; Stanley, 2002; Sunderland-Smith, 2008). The problems that L2 writers have with plagiarism have often been ascribed to a variety of possible reasons, some of them highly contradictory: a lack of understanding of the use of intellectual property (Deckert, 1993), a lack of knowledge about plagiarism (Pecorari, 2008), cultural differences in concepts of authorship (Fox, 1994; Scollon, 1995) and the consequences of particular cultural and historical developments (Bloch, 2001, 2008a; Pennycook, 1996; Scollon, 1995).

The Debate over Plagiarism

The lack of a consensus has led to highly charged, and often emotional, debates over the nature of plagiarism and the appropriate responses to it. Despite attempts by many institutions throughout the world, defining and codifying a universal definition of plagiarism has remained a highly contentious topic in discussions of almost every form of writing.

The debate has touched some of the most prestigious institutions and individuals in the world. Well-respected newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington Post have been shaken by controversies over plagiarism by its reporters. One of the most famous cases of plagiarism is that of US Vice-President Joe Biden, who copied from the British politician Neil Kinnock, a charge that Biden attributes to a 'lapse' (Greenberg, 2008). Recent cases have ensnared politicians in Germany (Weber-Wulff, 2011), the United States, Great Britain and Korea, where the Minister of Education was accused of plagiarizing a former student's paper and a famous pop singer was accused of copying a hit song. In Iran, a group of researchers responded to the...