Avoiding Plagiarism

Investigating Chinese University Students’ Knowledge of and Attitudes Toward Plagiarism From an Integrated Perspective

“…Deckert (1993), for instance, differentiated several different forms of textual misappropriation: “incorporating strings of the source text without using quotation marks, not including any kind of reference to the source, and using quotation marks with paraphrased renderings rather than exact excerpts” (p. 134). The clear‐cut taxonomies and classifications of plagiarism notwithstanding, both students and academics often have diverse views of what behaviors constitute plagiaristic practices, especially with respect to less prototypical forms of textual misappropriation (Barrett & Cox, 2005; Flint, Clegg, & Macdonald, 2006; Flowerdew & Li, 2007a; Roig, 2007), not the least because “there is a fine line between plagiarism and poor academic practice” (Burkill & Abbey, 2004, p. 440). In this regard, Ashworth, Bannister, and Thorne (1997), Roig (1997, 2001), and Yeo (2007) have presented clear evidence of the diversity of understandings that college students and professors have of less obvious forms of plagiarism.…”

Plagiarism: Words and Ideas

“…In fact this is what is expected of them-students are taught ''writing to avoid plagiarism'' (a section heading in Ref. 6)-even though avoiding plagiarism plainly cannot be a proper goal. When one walks, one does not walk to avoid falling: one walks to go somewhere.…”

“…One may call all instances 'plagiarism' and distinguish between minor and major ones -as one calls both killing in self-defense and genocide 'killing' without treating them as equally blameworthy. Alternatively, one may choose to use the word 'plagiarism' only for cases where the author obtained unwarranted benefits -maybe calling other instances "poor academic practice" [6]-, just like one uses the word 'murder' for certain kinds of manslaughter only; for example, to Yilmaz [7] "borrowing sentences in the part of a paper that simply helps to better introduce the problem should not be seen as plagiarism." In any case, it is important to be consistent.…”

Why is Cheating Wrong?

“…For instance, the focus of Burkill and Abbey (2004) on ''regulations'' and on ''penalties'' for ''ignoring academic conventions'' indicates that to them the main reasons for students to avoid cheating are obedience to rules and avoidance of penalties. However, Kohn (2007) draws attention to those ''cases where what is regarded as cheating actually consists of a failure to abide by restrictions that may be arbitrary and difficult to defend''.…”