Plagiarizing/Using Sources Inappropriately
Students today are likely to use sources inappropriately, failing
to cite them fully or even plagiarizing, for several key reasons,
in addition to simple sloppiness or a deliberate attempt to deceive.
First, learning to work with sources and weave them seamlessly
into one’s own writing is a very difficult task, one that
can trouble even professional writers. In addition, the “information
wants to be free” nature of the early Internet and Web
has led to increased cutting and pasting, as though anything
found on the Net must fall under the concept of fair use. Perhaps
most importantly, the growing awareness that concepts of intellectual
property are highly culture-bound and that copyright does not
even exist in other societies, along with the realization that “peer
to peer sharing” is in many ways now a fact of life, demonstrate
that what once seemed a straightforward, simple matter of “plagiarism” is
now fraught with complexities of all kinds.
Today, academic honesty is the site of much contestation. For
these reasons, you should include the PWR policy on academic
honesty and intellectual property in your syllabus. Read it with
your class, and discuss it in detail. If you suspect that a student
is using sources inappropriately, you should meet with the student
and talk carefully about how to integrate, cite, and document
sources in all academic work. You should not accuse
a student of plagiarism, though you can ask questions about how
the student is using sources and where the sources were found.
Directly accusing a student of plagiarism or in any
way penalizing a paper based on your suspicions violates Stanford’s
Honor Code. Any penalty assessed must be a result of a judgment
reached by the Board of Judicial Affairs set up to adjudicate
matters of academic conduct.
If you suspect outright plagiarism, you should meet immediately
with the Associate Director to discuss the appropriate procedures
for dealing with the issue.
