DeVoss and Rosati

DeVoss and Rosati address the issue of plagiarism: the definition of plagiarism, why students do it, and how it can be fixed. The authors start of by sharing stories of teachers who have caught their students plagiarizing. They go on to explain that most students do not understand what plagiarism is and at times are not sure if their work and research applies to the rules of plagiarism. For example, in the first story Professor Annette caught three students who downloaded a paper, printed it off and handed it in. She told her class that there had been three students that had plagiarized and they had to meet her in her office or they would fail the course. Professor Annette had 14 students show up to her class thinking they had plagiarized when in reality they had not. Rebecca Howard stated that many students who do research, manipulate it and piece their work with the original work are often accused of plagiarizing when they had just engaged in positive research activity called “patchwork.” Malloch described plagiarizing as “kidnapping” instead of theft because work is borrowed and mimicked as a result of a stage in writing development. DeVoss and Rosati state that often times professors ask students for correct or original which may lead the student to plagiarize by thinking that their idea is not original and correct and that they have to look at other written works and write something similar in order to obtain those requirements. The internet has also contributed in making plagiarizing easier because students are now able to download and copy and paste which tempts students into wanting to plagiarize. In conlusion, the authors suggests that teachers should have a clearer explanation to students as to what is allowed in research and what is assumed as plagiarism and that they should each students appropriate techniques for research. Overall I agree with the authors because often times I have wondered if what I was writing was considered plagiarism or not; I do think teachers should further explain the regulations of research.