SHAKSPER 2001: Re: Plagiarism

From: Hardy M. Cook (editor@ws.bowiestate.edu)
Date: 12/27/01 

The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 12.2894  Thursday, 27 December 2001

From:           Thomas Larque <thomas.larque@lineone.net>
Date:           Saturday, 22 Dec 2001 17:51:42 -0000
Subject: 12.2883 Re: Plagiarism
Comment:        Re: SHK 12.2883 Re: Plagiarism

>For longer papers, wouldn't it be useful for teachers to routinely
>review (or put students on notice that review might be demanded at any
>time) the work-in-progress materials, such as note cards, bibliography,
>outline, first draft?  I'm not a teacher, and my own college days were
>well before the PC and Internet, but it strikes me that it would be
>difficult for a student who purchased a paper online (or otherwise cut
>and pasted it from the web) to fabricate the working papers.
>Admittedly, this wouldn't catch plagiarism of quotes or swatches, only
>entire papers.

We had a similar suggestion last time we were discussing plagiarism,
although in that case it was from a tutor who actually carried out such
demands, requiring all essays to be submitted with at least two
substantially different drafts and extensive notes, as I recall.

The problem with all this is people like me.  I don’t plagiarise my
work.  I have never quoted without accrediting my source, let alone
stolen whole papers from the Internet, but if you required me to submit
multiple drafts or working notes to prove this then I would
automatically fail with every paper that I worked on.  The reason for
this is simple.  I don’t write preparatory outlines and I don’t take
notes.  I keep all relevant information in my head and keep the books
around me so that I can refer directly back to them where necessary.
And I don’t write a first draft.  My first draft is, with very minor
alterations, also my last draft.  And the minor alterations are done on
a Word Processor as I work, so - unless I print out a copy of my essay
every time that I write a sentence or before every use of the delete key
- I don’t have multiple drafts to show.

A person who has grown used to writing on a Word Processor simply
doesn’t have to wait until one draft is finished before altering the
text, and Word Processors don’t encourage printed records of draft work
(I have heard complaints from collectors and critics about the modern
lack of early drafts of novels, which used to be a valuable source of
information about how the writer changed his ideas between first putting
pen to paper and finally sending a text to the publisher - a thing that
Word Processors have almost entirely killed off).

Of course you could claim that my method of writing is notably inferior
- although my Professors, who judge the results, apparently wouldn’t
have agreed (most of my marks have been Firsts with a minority of Upper
Seconds) - but it seems rather extreme to punish me for not writing the
way that *you* write by telling me that if I hand in my own work written
in my own way I must be a plagiarist and won’t be allowed to pass the
course.

There is no easy answer to stamping out plagiarism, but I for one would
appeal to the Tutors on this list not to try to take an easy way out by
rewarding a particular writing style and forcing people like me to waste
time by fabricating extensive notes and drafts (which would not
otherwise have been written) for no reason, except to prove that an
essay is not plagiarised.

Thomas Larque.

"Shakespeare and His Critics"
http://shakespearean.org.uk

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