Introduction
Essay-writing is a hard task for most students. They have to put their thoughts into grammatically and stylistically appropriate forms, link sentences so that they create the cohesion of the text. But the most difficult in the writing process is to make due acknowledgements when borrowing another author's ideas. One has to learn how to
"take down the bibliographical details of books used and write the page numbers of material used for note-taking " ( Nikolov Turner, 1996 ) , in order to avoid the accusation of committing plagiarism.
This research paper reflects the attitudes of English majors at Janus Pannonius University ( JPU ) towards plagiarism. It will enlighten how they use source materials when writing their essays, and also reveal whether they plagiarise, or not. My hypothesis was that students can avoid the literary stealing by practicing ( that is writing several essays ).
Method
Thirty-six English majors at JPU participated in a research on essay-writing. In the procedure of collecting information from students, I got the assisstance of one of my groupmates, Klup‡cs Fl—ra, a second-year English Biology major at JPU. She collected data on April 28 and 29 from seventeen students, I made nineteen students fill in the questionnaires on April 29. On these two days we asked our groupmates to give information before their classes would have begun.
Students at the English Departement of JPU were asked to fill out a hand-written questionnaire. They had to answer four questions without writing their names on the paper. The respondents were told that they were not obliged to answer those questions with which they felt not comfortable. I collected the questionnaires. All the questions were answered.
After collecting the 36 questionnaires, I began to analyse the information English majors gave me. I wrote each question down on four separate blank sheets of paper. Below each question I indicated the different answers. This research paper reflects the results I got the way described above.
English majors at JPU were asked to answer the following questions:
Which semester do you attend as an English major?
How do you use different sources when writing an essay?
To what extent can you detach yourself from those sources? ( Do you plagiarise? )
Does practice ( writing lots of essays ) help you avoid plagiarism? Why, why not?
The reason for asking these questions was that I was interested in attitudes towards plagiarism, and I wanted to get to the point step by step. First, I would have liked to know the reasons for plagiarism ( students may plagiarise because they have written few essays for being only a first-year student, or they cannot use sources appropriately when writing an essay ). Then I came to the point : I asked the respondents whether they plagiarise or not. In the last question I gave a possible solution for avoiding plagiarism ( that is practice ), and the students replied why it was practicable, or why not.
Results and Discussion
Which semester do you attend as an English major?
All 36 students who returned the questionnaire answered this question. Nineteen students spent their second, fourteen students spent their fourth, two students spent their sixth, and one student spent his or her ( as the respondents answered anonymously ) eighth semester as an English major at JPU.
How do you use different sources when writing an essay?
All the 36 students returned their questionnaire by giving a brief information on their source-appropriation in the process of essay writing. Out of 36 students, 30 replied that they made acknowledgements, indicated the applied sources in the bibliography or reference section of the essays. If they did not want to change the style or the vocabulary of the text, they put the words in quotation marks. Four students took short notes, collected ideas from different readings, or simply summarised the sources. Only two students used their brains when they had to write an essay.
To what extent can you detach yourself from those sources? ( Do you plagiarise? )
All 36 students who took the questionnaire answered this question. Twenty students admitted that they plagiarised when they were required to write about a topic they were not excperts in. Fourteen students claimed that they cited the ideas they thought as relevant ones. Two students refused that they had even once plagiarised.
Does practice ( writing lots of essays ) help you avoid plagiarism? Why, why not?
The last question was also answered by all the 36 students who returned their questionnaires. Twenty students answered that practice did help avoid plagiarism as it made them move towards individualistic way of thinking, forced them to think by
themselves, gave them a better chance not to plagiarised, and also helped them to learn the perfect ways of citing. Sixteen students asserted that practice did not help avoid plagiarism, because one plagiarised from the beginning or never, it was not practice but common sense that helped, plagiarism was a conscious activity.
It is hard to define what plagiarism is and what paraphrasing means. They are borderlines, because to plagiarise something is equal to " pass off as one' own ( the ideas or work of another ) " , paraphrasing is a " restatement of text, passage, or work giving the meaning in another form " ( Webster's new encyclopedic dictionary, 1993 ).Paraphrasing is also considered as plagiarism at the English Departement of JPU according to the 1.4 version of the Guidelines for writing theses in the English Departement of JPU by Nikolov, M and Turner, S , which says :
" plagiarism also includes borrowing the ideas and arguments author without due acknowledgement, even if the words are changed ".
The process of essay-writing inevitebly involves some kind of textual borrowing
( Pennycook, 1996 ). Half of the respondents claimed in my research that they plagiarised ( or paraphrased ) when they were required to write about a topic they were not experts in. This process is regarded as natural among students in general, because if they do not have the faintest idea about the field that has to be revealed, they read several texts, works that deal with the topic, and write down what they have found in the readings. In this sense they have stolen other writersÕ ideas, so they committed plagiarism, but they had to paraphrase as well ( " giving the meaning in another form " ), if they did not want to quote the whole text. At this point it also has to be taken into consideration that " all language learning is to some extent a process of borrowing other's words and we need to be lexible, not dogmatic, about where we draw boundaries between acceptable or unacceptable textual borrowings"
( Pennycook,1996 ).
One way of avoiding plagiarism, as I hypothesised, is practice. Out of 36 students who took the questionnaire, twenty agreed on this solution, because as the time goes by one can learn how to acknowledge other authors' work in an appropriate way. Sixteen students could not see any connection between practice and plagiarism. I can accept their opinion according to which plagiarism is a conscious activity, for, unfortunately , I know some students in my milieu who want to make their way without putting much effort in the work they are required to do, in this situation practice could not be a solution for avoiding plagiarism at all.
Conclusion
During this survey I gained a lot of information on essay-writing attitudes among English majors at JPU, focusing on one specific aspect, that is plagiarism. I expected to get to know the reason for plagiarising, also I tried to provide a practicable solution for avoiding textual borrowing ( Pennycook,1996 ), and I wanted to find out whether it is acceptable among English majors at JPU, or not. Not knowing the theme that has to be revealed in an essay makes the respondents plagiarise, which can be avoided by practicing in most students' opinion. I would like to go on with this topic and carry out a more extensive and detailed research, asking also four- and five-year English majors, so that I can get a full image of attitudes towards plagiarism among students at the English Departement of JPU.
Showing posts with label plagiarism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label plagiarism. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
W 026 F
Introduction
'If a student passes a course or degree, as a result of submitting plagiarised work, s/he is intellectually devaluing the original work of other students and the academic community as a whole.' ( GL p.37 )
Studying at the English Department of JPTE, students have to improve their writing abilities, and hand in different types of written material (for example, essays or take-home papers).
These writings have to suit requirements both in form and content. These are all listed in the book called Guidelines for Writing Theses in the English Department of JPU (GL). Mostly, they have to be typed or word processed. The number of words is always limited, and they have to be prepared in time. There is a serious rule, probably the first that students have to learn: avoiding plagiarism.
According to GL, 'plagiarism is deliberately copying the work of another author, word for word, with no acknowledgment' ( p.37 ). GL differenciates four forms of plagiarism: copying an author's text without quoting it, writing down another author's ideas in different words, borrowing the work of another student and self-plagiarising. Of course, translating a text written in another language and handing it in as one's own is also plagiarising.
In my view, plagiarism is simply a kind of stealing and I can not imagine myself ever doing it. In my paper, my aim was to find out JPTE students' opinion on this topic.
Method
I asked eleven English Majors to answer my questions on plagiarism. As I found the topic too complex to be put into 'yes-or-no' questions and brackets, I went down to the main hall one morning, interviewed students and noted down their answers. I asked them in Hungarian and they answered in Hungarian as well.
I had only five simple questions about the meaning of the word 'plagiarism', their attitude, and also about the consequences they knew. My aim was to see if they are familiar with this notion and if they are, how seriously do they take it.
Among the interviewed students, there were three seniors and eight freshers. I asked four boys and seven girls altogether. They were all helpful and answered all my answers.
Results and discussion
First, I asked if they were familiar with the meaning of the word 'plagiarism'. I was not surprised to hear that except for a first-year student girl all of them knew the meaning well. All of them said something like 'copying somebody else's text and handing it in as one's own', which is a short but correct explanation. They also said that this was the first thing tutors explained them before writing the first essays. Eight students connected plagiarism only to writing, but three also mentioned oral presentations. One girl told me that plagiarism is often noticeable in music, too.
My second question was if they have ever plagiarised. The answers were more different, than for the first question . Four students, three freshers and a senior stated that they had never done such a thing. These four students were out of those eight, who connected plagiarism only to writing. They also gave some explanation; one girl said that she was afraid of the shame. The others said that they rather wrestle with the topic for a while, but they would never sign anything that is not their own work.
The other seven students said that they had plagiarised sometimes, but five out of seven told me it was only an accident (forgot to put the quotation mark to the right place), or wrote only one or two sentences of others.
This was the point where many of them asked : who can say where the limits of plagiarism are? All that one knows is that s/he must not copy somebody else's work without quoting but can anybody be sure that his or her thoughts are not pieces of memory from someone's writing? As Pennycock says in his writing: '... meanings are in a sense in circulation ,[...] language is cycled and recycled (p. 211).
All of those seven students mentioned high-school in-class essays, as the first place where they had plagiarised . A girl's explanation for plagiarizing was: 'In high-school, most teachers want students to write down what they had learnt from the book by heart, or not?' Another girl said that she always tries to avoid plagiarism, but sometimes she can not remember if she had read an idea somewhere or it was a thought of her own.
Next, I asked if they had ever been caught of plagiarism or knew somebody who had. Five students said they do not know any case like this; four students said they knew somebody in this situation; two said they had gone through this already.
I asked them what the results of these cases was. I heard different answers; two of them said it had no negative result at all; one girl said she got mark one for her essay; a boy had got mark 2 instead of mark 3. A girl told me about one of her groupmates who had not got the tutor's sign at the end of the semester.
Last, I asked their opinion on plagiarism. I could divide their answers into three groups. One boy said that plagiarism is not bad at all, because it can better, for example, an essay. In this case, I was not sure if the boy knew the meaning of plagiarism correctly; maybe he thought that quoting is a kind of plagiarising. The other two groups were 'Bad' and 'Bad, but...'. Five students belonged to each group.
Those who started their answer like 'It is bad...' said that plagiarism is the worst kind of stealing. They all said that it shows the lack of thinking and in the case of university students; it can be the result of bad time-arranging. A girl's advice to avoid plagiarism was the following: 'When you are planning to copy out some ideas from a book, just imagine how you would feel seeing your lines in someone's essay...She said that this always helped her. These five students were those who had never plagiarised or, at least, had not done it consciously.
The 'Bad, but ...' answer was continued with sentences like '...somebody may do it unconsciously...' or '...it can be the result of carelessness...'. A fresher's answer was the following: 'Sometimes I have to speak or write about topics that had been discussed, drafted and reasoned perfectly already. All I have to do is not forgetting to put the quotation marks to the right place.' These students were those who knew that plagiarism can be the result of a small accident but all of them agreed that it is hard to testify (and believe) these accidents.
Conclusion
As a result of my survey, I found that plagiarism at university is not a 'good joke'- like many of my formal high- school classmates thought. It is noticeable, it has its results. It is a shame. Much bigger shame than asking one or two more days from the tutor, or handing in a writing which is shorter than the requirement says. I saw that it is something that students know well, and that it does not only mean a few lines in the GL for them.
The fact that many students mentioned (the limit lines of plagiarism) made me think the whole topic over again. But I found that it is not such a big problem I never heard of anything like untestified plagiarism. Tutors' attitude also depends on the student's previous attitude in classes.
I found it interesting and useful to work on this topic. I heard other students' opinion, and found that they think almost the same way as I do. It was good to hear that almost all of them takes plagiarism seriously.
'If a student passes a course or degree, as a result of submitting plagiarised work, s/he is intellectually devaluing the original work of other students and the academic community as a whole.' ( GL p.37 )
Studying at the English Department of JPTE, students have to improve their writing abilities, and hand in different types of written material (for example, essays or take-home papers).
These writings have to suit requirements both in form and content. These are all listed in the book called Guidelines for Writing Theses in the English Department of JPU (GL). Mostly, they have to be typed or word processed. The number of words is always limited, and they have to be prepared in time. There is a serious rule, probably the first that students have to learn: avoiding plagiarism.
According to GL, 'plagiarism is deliberately copying the work of another author, word for word, with no acknowledgment' ( p.37 ). GL differenciates four forms of plagiarism: copying an author's text without quoting it, writing down another author's ideas in different words, borrowing the work of another student and self-plagiarising. Of course, translating a text written in another language and handing it in as one's own is also plagiarising.
In my view, plagiarism is simply a kind of stealing and I can not imagine myself ever doing it. In my paper, my aim was to find out JPTE students' opinion on this topic.
Method
I asked eleven English Majors to answer my questions on plagiarism. As I found the topic too complex to be put into 'yes-or-no' questions and brackets, I went down to the main hall one morning, interviewed students and noted down their answers. I asked them in Hungarian and they answered in Hungarian as well.
I had only five simple questions about the meaning of the word 'plagiarism', their attitude, and also about the consequences they knew. My aim was to see if they are familiar with this notion and if they are, how seriously do they take it.
Among the interviewed students, there were three seniors and eight freshers. I asked four boys and seven girls altogether. They were all helpful and answered all my answers.
Results and discussion
First, I asked if they were familiar with the meaning of the word 'plagiarism'. I was not surprised to hear that except for a first-year student girl all of them knew the meaning well. All of them said something like 'copying somebody else's text and handing it in as one's own', which is a short but correct explanation. They also said that this was the first thing tutors explained them before writing the first essays. Eight students connected plagiarism only to writing, but three also mentioned oral presentations. One girl told me that plagiarism is often noticeable in music, too.
My second question was if they have ever plagiarised. The answers were more different, than for the first question . Four students, three freshers and a senior stated that they had never done such a thing. These four students were out of those eight, who connected plagiarism only to writing. They also gave some explanation; one girl said that she was afraid of the shame. The others said that they rather wrestle with the topic for a while, but they would never sign anything that is not their own work.
The other seven students said that they had plagiarised sometimes, but five out of seven told me it was only an accident (forgot to put the quotation mark to the right place), or wrote only one or two sentences of others.
This was the point where many of them asked : who can say where the limits of plagiarism are? All that one knows is that s/he must not copy somebody else's work without quoting but can anybody be sure that his or her thoughts are not pieces of memory from someone's writing? As Pennycock says in his writing: '... meanings are in a sense in circulation ,[...] language is cycled and recycled (p. 211).
All of those seven students mentioned high-school in-class essays, as the first place where they had plagiarised . A girl's explanation for plagiarizing was: 'In high-school, most teachers want students to write down what they had learnt from the book by heart, or not?' Another girl said that she always tries to avoid plagiarism, but sometimes she can not remember if she had read an idea somewhere or it was a thought of her own.
Next, I asked if they had ever been caught of plagiarism or knew somebody who had. Five students said they do not know any case like this; four students said they knew somebody in this situation; two said they had gone through this already.
I asked them what the results of these cases was. I heard different answers; two of them said it had no negative result at all; one girl said she got mark one for her essay; a boy had got mark 2 instead of mark 3. A girl told me about one of her groupmates who had not got the tutor's sign at the end of the semester.
Last, I asked their opinion on plagiarism. I could divide their answers into three groups. One boy said that plagiarism is not bad at all, because it can better, for example, an essay. In this case, I was not sure if the boy knew the meaning of plagiarism correctly; maybe he thought that quoting is a kind of plagiarising. The other two groups were 'Bad' and 'Bad, but...'. Five students belonged to each group.
Those who started their answer like 'It is bad...' said that plagiarism is the worst kind of stealing. They all said that it shows the lack of thinking and in the case of university students; it can be the result of bad time-arranging. A girl's advice to avoid plagiarism was the following: 'When you are planning to copy out some ideas from a book, just imagine how you would feel seeing your lines in someone's essay...She said that this always helped her. These five students were those who had never plagiarised or, at least, had not done it consciously.
The 'Bad, but ...' answer was continued with sentences like '...somebody may do it unconsciously...' or '...it can be the result of carelessness...'. A fresher's answer was the following: 'Sometimes I have to speak or write about topics that had been discussed, drafted and reasoned perfectly already. All I have to do is not forgetting to put the quotation marks to the right place.' These students were those who knew that plagiarism can be the result of a small accident but all of them agreed that it is hard to testify (and believe) these accidents.
Conclusion
As a result of my survey, I found that plagiarism at university is not a 'good joke'- like many of my formal high- school classmates thought. It is noticeable, it has its results. It is a shame. Much bigger shame than asking one or two more days from the tutor, or handing in a writing which is shorter than the requirement says. I saw that it is something that students know well, and that it does not only mean a few lines in the GL for them.
The fact that many students mentioned (the limit lines of plagiarism) made me think the whole topic over again. But I found that it is not such a big problem I never heard of anything like untestified plagiarism. Tutors' attitude also depends on the student's previous attitude in classes.
I found it interesting and useful to work on this topic. I heard other students' opinion, and found that they think almost the same way as I do. It was good to hear that almost all of them takes plagiarism seriously.
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