Plagiarism and ideology: Identity in intercultural discourse

Abstract

The concept of plagiarism, as used both in considerations of academic writing and in international negotiations over intellectual copyright, assumes a model of communication based on autonomous, rational, individuals who behave as originators of their own discourses. But studies of communication, beginning with Goffman's concepts of production format and footing -and also including the concepts of enactment, social role, face, politeness pragmatics, metaphors of self and communication, and innatist/social concepts of knowledge -indicate that such a unified, autonomous, and original communicative identity presupposes an oversimplified model of communication, centrally based in the ideology of the rational, autonomous individual which has been dominant in Europe since the Enlightenment. The concept of plagiarism masks the assertion of this ideological position. (Plagiarism, ideology, identity, intercultural discourse) Intellectual copyright is a term which has been in the news for years. International negotiations over this concept cover everything from scholarly works to brand names of products and pornographic videos. Scholars and teachers have a primary interest in questions of intellectual copyright -both in regard to our own writing, and as an aspect of teaching expected forms of attribution to our students. One suspects that pornography and brand names are somewhat more central to the lawyers who participate in international negotiations; nevertheless attribution of authorship in academic writing remains a perennial problem in writing, and crosses lines of cultural identity.Treatments of academic plagiarism tend to presuppose a common ideological ground in the creative, original, individual who, as an autonomous scholar, presents his/her work to the public in his/her own name. Thus the issues raised in The Chronicle of Higher Education concerning a historian's originality (Magner 1993a,b) focus directly on the establishment of the facts

Plagiarism in second-language writing

“…Texts and ideas expressed in written form came to be seen as their authors' intellectual property, leading to the emergence of the notions of authorship and originality, and resulting in the introduction of copyright laws in eighteenth-century England i (for a more detailed historical account, see Sutherland-Smith 2008, andBloch 2012). The notion of plagiarism in the English-speaking world is thus historically linked with the issues of authorship, originality, ownership of texts, and copyright (Scollon 1995). It is this understanding of plagiarism with its network of related concepts that was subsequently adopted by English-speaking academia.…”

Second Language Writing and Bidialectalism: A Case for African American Student Writers

“…Fairclough (1992) calls "interdiscursivity", drawing on abstract discourse types as students create new text. Sipho's view of using the ideas and language of others can be blamed on the Enlightenment concept of texts as commercial products (Scollon, 1995). The utilitarian discourse system of intertextuality distributes power and privilege to writers like Philip, who can inhabit the "textual world" of academe.…”

Copying machines

“…Since Grignon had mentioned all of these copies and persons to whom he had sent them in his prior testimony, the court did not doubt the validity of his explanation. 15 In an attempt to undermine the originality of "Chanson Numéro 7 / Luc", counsel for Roussel called upon expert witnesses who compared it with fourteen other songs to show that Grignon's composition was "not new." However, Judge Denault criticized counsel for the defendant for neglecting the question of whether or not Grignon had access to, or remembered hearing, any of these apparently similar compositions: "It is important to note that apart from 'Born to run,' no effort was made to have René Grignon identify any of these melodies or to determine whether he knew of them or had already heard them" ( § 19).…”

“…Underlying both of these views is a concept of knowledge and communication which takes ideas, as well as their wordings, as capable of being originally crafted by individuals. 15 20 Scollon suggests that the seemingly simple concept of plagiarism is shorthand for a bundle of "hefty concepts" including "the nature of the person who undertakes to communicate, the concepts of the ownership of discourse as individual or personal property". 16…”