We’re all wading in a sea of information. We get drawn this way and that, and find it difficult not to get submerged in what seems to be a never-ending deluge of words. One of the consequences of having so much material out there is that we often feel nothing new can be said. The other related consequence is that we simply draw on this huge pile of readymade texts when we are asked to write something ourselves.
In previous columns, I’ve talked about plagiarism and the temptation to just reproduce past work and pass it off as our own when we are asked to write an assignment. But it might be worthwhile to look at this issue again in a slightly different way. A few weeks ago, I found myself getting increasingly depressed as I read one paper after another that indicated that some students had done just this. In some cases, the source from which the material had been drawn could be found at the very top of the list on a Google search of the topic. In others, it was a (sort of) clever copy-paste of sentences and paragraphs patched together from several sites. In yet others, the evidence was a mixture of amateur writing interspersed with paragraphs that were polished to a high gloss, carrying vocabulary and phrases that only a seasoned writer would use. But in each case, it wasn’t difficult for me to separate the original from the copied text.
All of this would probably sound very familiar to you, no matter which part of the teaching-learning spectrum you occupy. If you’re a student, you could be saying, “Well, everyone does it, what’s the big deal?” If you’re a teacher, you would be leaning back in your seat and thinking, “Yes, I know what you’re saying. How do we deal with it?”
I don’t have a definite answer, but what I do know is we need to tackle the problem head on, both as learners and as teachers/facilitators. Some of my colleagues have responded to the plagiarism bogey by only giving in-class writing assignments, where students have no access to a computer or the Internet. While that might be possible in many courses, it doesn’t hold for a wide range of subjects and tasks. What about projects that combine field work and background research? Or creative and reflective writing? Or assignments that require synthesis and analysis of a wide range of material? And how does it play out in the workplace, where a task is not just a test to be graded?
A possible way to address this is to go to what I see as the root of the problem. What is it that makes students want to plagiarise? The easy availability of information is only one part of it. The bigger issue, in my view, is that we do not give ourselves and our opinions/abilities enough credit. We think we have nothing much to say, and that the teacher is not interested in what we have to say but in the assignment meeting the set criteria. Maybe we also have certain ideas about how assignments are evaluated — that the content of the assignment is more important than the process by which it is done.
Unfortunately, this is a view that is encouraged by our education system, by and large.
I’m not about to imagine that we can undo that in the space of one article, but I do think we can begin by giving some importance to our own thoughts and ideas, and our own way of saying things. And by convincing ourselves that others (the teachers, in this case) are also interested in seeing something that truly comes from the student. No matter how raw, basic or common you think your views are, they are your views. What you write represents your effort and that’s what makes it important, particularly in a learning context. The teacher does not want to grade something that an expert wrote!
When I went back to the classroom after that spell of depression, I asked the group to think about what made them submit plagiarised assignments. Did they (a) think they wouldn't be found out; (b) think I wouldn't care if I found out; or (c) not care if they were found out?
I didn't really get an answer, but here’s something for us to think about. If you’ve found something on the Internet and have used it without acknowledgment in an assignment, the chances are very high that your teacher can find it too. Most teachers do care about both the content and process in an assignment and they grade accordingly — so yes, they do care.
And I’m really hoping the third option doesn’t hold.
The author teaches at the University of Hyderabad and edits Teacher Plus magazine. Email: usha.bpgll@gmail.com
