 "Photo: Ryan Propes")
UT librarian Meghan Sitar believes an “information overload” is the cause of student confusion regarding plagiarism.
Sitar said faculty often assume that students are learning about plagiarism in their writing classes and expect students to incorporate that information into their work, but in reality students are still unclear on the definition of plagiarism and how to avoid it.
“Students care about plagiarism,” Sitar said. “But they often don’t learn what it is or how not to be accused of it until they are actually accused of plagiarizing.”
UT Libraries in collaboration with the Undergraduate Writing Center presented a class Tuesday afternoon to discuss plagiarism and tips on proper citation, paraphrasing and note-taking. The class is offered once a semester and is open to UT students, faculty and staff.
Plagiarism is defined by the University as representing material, such as verbatim text, ideas or structure, obtained from a secondary source as your own. Sitar gave an example of not having to cite the fact that Abraham Lincoln grew up in a log cabin, because it is common knowledge found in multiple sources. Sitar said many cases of plagiarism are unintentional since students are not clear on when facts and to be cited and how to paraphrase.
Biology freshman Arame Thiam said she thinks students and professionals alike are confused by what information is considered to be common knowledge.
“You may know something and don’t think it needs to be cited,” Thiam said. “But common knowledge is not necessarily common knowledge.”
Sitar said plagiarism is a hot topic in the news and on college and university campuses.
Last Thursday, the UT Senate of College Councils voted to require writing component courses to include an addendum in class syllabi describing academic dishonesty. The UT Annual Disciplinary Report for 2006-2007 reported 87 cases of cheating and 85 cases of plagiarism for the school year.
Although it is a problem at academic institutions, Sitar said plagiarism involves not just the young and the foolish. She gave examples of published authors, playwrights and clergy accused of plagiarism in recent years.
UT staff member Judy Dean attended the class because she is writing a book and needs to know plagiarism rules. Dean said she thinks the availability and accessibility of information is one of the causes of plagiarism.
“Because more and more information is out there it’s assumed everybody knows this, and people think ‘Why do we have to attribute this?’” Dean said.
Sitar said students should be concerned with plagiarism and learn how to avoid mistakes in order to protect the value of their degrees and the integrity of their future careers. She gave the example of a two-year investigation at Ohio University involving plagiarism in mechanical engineering master theses. The university revoked one degree and recommended that 12 theses of graduated students be rewritten.
“Things you can do now in college can come back to haunt you,” Sitar said. “You want to know that when you graduate from UT that you’ve learned something and that the progress that you’ve made in school has been genuine.”
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