Posted for Emma Marris

Susan Blum is likely to start quite a few conversations with her new book My Word! Plagiarism and College Culture. One such conversation is already up and running at Inside Higher Ed.

Blum’s book represents the culmination of hundreds of confidential interviews with students, and comes to the conclusion that plagiarism doesn’t have the same taint in a youth culture rife with riffing, borrowing, sampling and file sharing. And she notes that when students are in school primarily to get a diploma and the career advancement that comes with it, they have every incentive to cut corners to make the grade.

Blum says that an aggressive campaign of catching plagiarists with tools such as Turnitin is misguided. Inside Higher Ed quotes her as saying, “It undermines our whole raison d’être. Are we there as police? Are we there as adversaries or to serve as models for our students? If we are aiming to get our students to love our subject, I don’t think this law enforcement approach is going to get us to our goal.” She prefers softer tactics including discussion of plagiarism issues and having her students turn in work multiple times as they progress on a project, so she can see it grow.

The idea that kids these days don’t see anything wrong with plagiarism has been floating around for a while. See this Guardian piece about plagiarism and the “Google generation”. And then there is the essay about plagiarism by Jonathan Lethem in Harper’s two years ago. It’s worth reading to the end. And come to think of it, this blog participates in the culture of sampling, sharing and riffing. For what is it but a bunch of other people’s words, artfully framed? Though, of course, we cite by linking.

See also

Cheating across the world – June 17, 2008 – British universities are turning a blind eye to cheating, plagiarism and manipulation of markings. That’s the message from former chair of the academic council of the University of London.

School’s plagiarism code plagiarized – April 01, 2008 – University of Texas at San Antonio students wanted to draft an honor code that discouraged cheating and plagiarizing.