1) Price writes, “This may seem risky, perhaps even like evidence of the continuing collapse of academic standards, but I argue that a situated understanding of plagiarism will preserve, not harm, academic values of honesty and integrity. Acknowledging that the definition of plagiarism does not persist stably across contexts will, paradoxically, help open up that safe space that we wish to offer our students”(90).
This view of plagiarism is very different from the punitive view adopted by both institutions I’ve been a student and taught. In your role as either a student or instructor or both, how do you imagine this more situated understand of plagiarism would have impacted yours or your students’ learning.
2) I encountered a discussion of the fair use doctrine for the first time in a graduate course in Summer Session B, but in my time in graduate classes for my MA and the other graduate coursework I’ve had here at FSU, which includes a fair amount of narrative nonfiction workshops, and my time teaching at various institutions it was never discussed. I’m wondering if my experience is unique or relatively common and if you agree with Rife’s argument that this should be a topic addressed in the networked, multimodal composition classroom.
Hi Annaliisa,
ReplyDeleteI also have experienced mostly the "punitive view" regarding plagiarism, and I think that a more situated view sounds useful because it explores the goals and reasoning behind citation practices. Maybe it was due to a lack of time, a lack of assigned responsibility, or something else entirely, but I don't recall ever learning anything about avoiding plagiarism/proper citations except a general high school directive to reference Purdue Owl if we had any questions. Because of this, I viewed plagiarism as this horrible accident that students stumbled into like a deep pothole, only avoidable if you were really on the lookout. It produced a lot of anxiety about what to cite, how to cite it, and what "rephrasing" really means. Additionally, the moral component made me terrified to ask questions about it. Framing it instead as a situated practice that aims to give credit and foster conversation makes it something approachable, learnable, and not characterized by the fear of accidentally becoming a criminal.