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Plagiarism Is Good for You
As a high school English teacher, I am speaking from the frontlines of what can only be classified as a war against plagiarism. Teachers at this very moment are putting suspicious phrases from their students’ papers into Google — and more often than you’d like to believe, they are finding a match.
From a teacher’s perspective, this is the dark side of the information revolution. It is now much easier for students to cut and paste lines and whole passages into their “own” essays, as quality sources are only a click away. What is much more disturbing, though, than these acts of plagiarism (which, after all, are only new in form, not substance) is that the ease of it actually makes many students believe that it’s not really wrong.
In this context, I have taken great interest in the debate sparked by Jonathan Lethem’s ingenious article — “The Ecstasy of Influence” — in the April issue of Harper’s magazine. Lethem ultimately defends plagiarism — or at least many forms of it — on the grounds that it is often performed for the public good.
Bob Thompson of the Washington Post nicely summarizes Lethem’s main point:
Listen to Jonathan Lethem hold forth long enough and you’ll come to understand that he sees the question of literary borrowing as part of a larger dialogue between private property and “the commons.” He thinks that artists who take an absolutist position on copyright are complicit in “what is essentially an attack on the public good” — the privatization of things “that should belong to everyone.”He’s talking about copyright-obsessed corporations like Disney, which Lethem likens to a creative roach motel (”cultural debts flow in, but they don’t flow out”). He’s talking about environmentally essential wetlands paved for private profit. He’s talking about private fortunes exempted from estate taxes because they were supposedly amassed independently of the social fabric surrounding them
What Lethem doesn’t reveal until the end of the Harper’s article is that he has himself plagiarized his entire argument. He concludes the article by revealing the sources of all of his best lines.
After giving props to Lethem for that brilliant manuever, however, I can’t help but feel that his perspective shows a slight naivete. Ultimately, he doesn’t recognize the key role of academic honesty in the educational process. It’s one thing for a creative artist to make something new out of something old, but it’s another thing for someone still learning how to articulate her or his thoughts in writing — to construct an original voice — to avoid the learning process by using the words of someone else.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of what Lethem calls “good plagiarism” — something which the Creative Commons, among others, does a great job of promoting.
And I also recognize that the very concept of “originality” is being redefined in the 21st century. “AhhWoo,” a commenter on the Washington Post article, makes a very valid point: “I’m surprised this article managed to get by without a nod in the direction of YouTube and the mash-up. It seems like to a large extent, Gen Y is defined by its liberal ‘plagiarism’ of popular culture. If there’s a generation gap, it’s that.”
I just believe that my students need to learn about the line between dishonesty and creative adaptation before they cross it. And they need to practice constructing their own voice — which is ultimately the most difficult part about writing and creativity, in general.
They may never write “one true sentence” (which was famously Hemingway’s only goal) — a sentence that comes purely from their own mind. That’s probably impossible — and maybe, to accept Lethem’s premise somewhat, not that desireable in the end. But understanding, through the attempt, that they themselves have something — however mashed-up — to add to the cultural conversation is essential.
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May 22, 2007 at 8:43 pm
I haven’t read the Lethem piece, but the passage you quote from Thompson makes it seem like it entirely misses the point.
The problem - and the concept - of plagiarism has nothing to do with copyright or public goods. That Lethem so blithely consigns other authors’ works to “the commons” (I notice his sell for full price) is one thing, but that’s not what plagiarism is about.
Plagiarism is pushing off another person’s work as your own - it is taking credit for what they did. It has nothing to do with impinging on their commercial rights. Falsely taking credit is wrong whether or not the work is in “the commons”. (And you can plagiarize public-domain works just as easily as you can copyrighted ones; for that matter, your use of a copyrighted work can still be plagiarism even if you have the legal right to quote from it. Plagiarism has nothing to do with copyright.)
Plagiarism is wrong because it is dishonest, because in the school setting it detracts from the student’s real education and constitutes a form of cheating, because it deprives the actual author of the credit they deserve for their own work, because it misleads the reader by obscuring the original provenance and context of the words or ideas used, and because it misleads the reader by creating a distorted picture of the material being presented to them as original. All of that is wrong whether or not the original author is deprived of payment, whether or not the larger culture had previously shaped the plagiarized work, whether or not the original author is a wetlands-draining pig, or whatever.
Plagiarism consists of nothing more - and nothing less! - than using another’s work without attribution. No matter what that work is, who the author is, and whether or not the public should have a right to use it, you are telling a lie if you say you personally invented it. Even if it has a Creative Commons non-attribution license, you are still telling a lie by implying that you wrote it yourself. (The license merely means that you don’t have a legal obligation to pay or or acknowledge it; it doesn’t mean that you wrote it. If you say you did, you are lying, and you are plagiarizing.)
We shouldn’t support plagiarism, and we should encourage our students not to cheat on their schoolwork and not to lie to their readers. What we want to do about “the commons” is another issue. (I’ll be looking forward to seeing Lethem donate his works and their proceeds to the public good.) Cheating and lying are what they always have been; there’s no need to wax rhapsodic about them.
May 23, 2007 at 8:52 am
While teaching freshman English at a university a few years back, I ran into this problem frequently too. The more interesting cases were the ones in which students “plagiarized” legitimately–that is, wrote papers that were a patchwork of others’ texts, perhaps adding in a sentence or two of their own, but citing sources correctly. This is were things get a little sticky. The students haven’t lied, so they haven’t violated what Kevin suggests are the rules. But they haven’t necessarily put together arguments of their own either, haven’t found their creative voices.
I suspect this is Lethem’s trick too. That he ultimately reveals his sources suggests that, despite his protestations otherwise, he does grant some legitimacy to authorship. So the question need not be one of honesty, but rather one of what constitutes originality.
This isn’t a new question. Plenty of thinkers over the last few centuries have suggested that works are socially constructed, that the notion of the individual author is an illusion. As Bernie rightly points out, probably everything we think is in terms of something else, comprised of concepts that we have borrowed from others.
So it certainly seems like we can’t hoSo, it’s not only increasingly frequent that students will use others ld students to writing entire papers of Hemingway’s “true sentences.” In the ol’ information age it’s become increasingly apparent that what we typically mean by originality is “uniquely synthesized.” So, a paper that copies a single source but cites it properly has not synthesized anything. This is generally why teachers require a minimum number of citations in a paper–to ensure that students are able to piece together several separate ideas into one overarching idea or theme. And this minimum number notion is often at the heart of what constitutes an original work in terms of copyright. A mashup that merely combines two works by overlaying them tows this line, for instance.
So while “cheating and lying [may be] what they always have been,” as Kevin suggests, notions of originality may not be. Because more information is available more quickly to more people, folks are more likely to use this information. In terms of students writing papers, going to the library and using the card catalog to search for works by author and title is a vastly different experience from searching full text or keywords on Google, WorldCat, JSTOR, etc.
As our culture pushes us toward increasingly specialized tasks, we are spending far less time and effort reinventing the wheel; we are building cars, so to speak. So it’s not only a product of our technology that our concept of originality has become more obviously defined as a synthesis of others’ ideas and works; it’s also a product of our culture (as if the two were unrelated).
November 19, 2008 at 5:12 am
Hello. I would like to comment about how plagiarism is seldom, if ever, defended, and how I would like to change that. To me, it is common practice that has lead to convictions and is an essential part of who I am. I plagiarize EVERYTHING. I most likely will even plagiarize this article. If one can call other compulsions mental illnesses, then the need to plagiarize is definitely another one of them. Everything about the act is appealing. It is a subset of kleptomania, I would imagine, except it involves ideas. One is bereft of originality or even intelligence, and would do anything for praise or academic success, even if it is unwarranted, so the person plagiarizes once, and from there is hooked because it is simple to do and attains positive results without brain usage and work input. This refers to SOME people. I wouldn’t call my plagiarism mental illness. After all, I’m proud of being a plagiarist. It’s just some integral part of me. It’s in my blood, and I am not unintelligent. I just see a nice written work and plagiarizing it is tempting. Some works are just waiting to be stolen from. They look “plagiaricable.” You know how someone makes a comment and another says “I’m going to use that”? Some things are just THAT good. Plagiarists steal any idea they find good. Some people are just different. Ahh… I remember MY first plagiarism… It brings tears to my eyes. I handed in my King Lear book report with a smile on my face as my teacher unwittingly assumed of my brilliance. Kids should NEVER have to fear the consequences of plagiarism. It’s expression. It’s saying “fuck you” to school while simultaneously receiving an A+ in every class, particularly English. And imitation is the greatest form of flattery, after all. So kids appreciate literature? Good for them!
But plagiarism is cool, anyhow. I mean, it harms virtually no one, except for teachers who may be disappointed (and tough shit, because it’s THEIR fault for placing confidence in a student. School is BORING to students, and every successful student cheats). The original author certainly doesn’t care about what occurs within the classroom setting, and may even be DEAD. Take Shakespeare, for example. Anyhow, not ALL plagiarizing students go on to lack original thoughts and plagiarize as adults. Just because I have doesn’t mean other students will. And I’m glad I am the way I am. That way I can defend this beautiful act that I admire even more than originality. I even plagiarize things from online and show my parents, who think I’m an outstanding writer with immaculate opinions, style and eloquence. They’ve seen too much of “my” works for me to come out of the plagiarizing closet and have them accept me as a plagiarist. They never will, and it hurts me that I have to keep such a vital part of myself a secret. I have plagiarized to them so many times that my whole life would be determined that I lied. Ever since I first learned how to read and write, I have plagiarized. So please parents, accept your little plagiarists. They are good people. They simply have a variation. Embrace diversity, even if what makes people diverse is their unoriginality. Teach your plagiarists how to plagiarize without getting caught. That will be advice they can take with them forever. After all, the world considers plagiarism bad, and people are always preparing to catch plagiarists and punish them for their acts. This could lead to a low self-esteem in young plagiarists who don’t feel valued for who they are.
And teachers, don’t get mad, get glad :). No student likes having to deal with an uptight bitch. I hated those who attempted to “crack down” on plagiarism. I thought they were being discriminatory against me and others like myself in school. And the sad fact was that I couldn’t take my complaints to anyone in the administration. I got in trouble once and I went home and cried. My mother wasn’t notified, but she witnessed my sullen disposition and was curious, but I couldn’t say anything. I had nowhere to turn. For this reason I know how the black people must have felt, and any other discriminated minorities in history. And teachers, don’t try to change a plagiarist, even if you take it that the plagiarist needs extra help. He doesn’t, so don’t try to work with him. You especially should not be mean and report him, otherwise he will not feel welcome and rebel. Just make your classroom one that will nurture plagiarists and support their actions. That’s all it takes. Say to your students, “Anyone who is not a plagiarist, do this assignment yourself. Anyone who is, just go to the school library and come back when you’re finished plagiarizing.” You will probably be quite surprised at the amount of students revealed to be plagiarists as they all get up and leave. Be sure to grade people based off of how good they plagiarized. While their actual work can no longer serve as grading material and criteria, you can grade them based off of choice of authors they plagiarized. Such as if the authors they picked used proper grammar and such. You will realize that why so many students in your class never excelled was really just because they were latent plagiarists! And you would judge the ones who have always plagiarized as good people as opposed to just dishonest and stupid.
April 21, 2010 at 3:30 pm
Why don’t we copyright every word in the english language so nobody can speak. People can’t even write stories or songs without someone accuse them of plargarism. Language belongs to everyone and they can use it as they choose even if someone already said it.