VOA教育报道2024--Defining Plagiarism, How to Avoid It

Defining Plagiarism¹, How to Avoid It

　　It has become easy for students to find and copy published material. But copying another person's writing without giving them credit can get students and other scholars into big trouble. Copying another person's writing without crediting them is called plagiarism.

　　Recently, the leader of Harvard University stepped down over problems related to the use of other peoples' work in her writing.

　　American copyright law protects original works of authorship including books, movies, music, images and artworks. The protection extends to computer software and the design of buildings and structures.

　　The owner can sell a copyright or permit others to use it because it is property and property ownership is protected by law in the U.S.

　　The idea is that copyright helps society. If people can gain from their own creations, called their intellectual property, then more people will want to create original works.

　　The law, however, permits the unlicensed use of copyrighted works under what is called fair use. Fair use can include criticism, comment, news reporting, education and research. However, there are some limitations.

　　In education, students can include small parts of copyrighted work in their writing and research. But they must provide credit to the original creators through a citation² which gives details about the source.

　　Many universities, including Harvard University, even urge students to give credit to sources of ideas when they come from discussions with professors or other students. Harvard even warns students about copying themselves. That is, they cannot hand in the same work for more than one class without the permission of their instructors³.

　　A failure to do so is considered plagiarizing⁴.

　　How can professors know if a student is plagiarizing?

　　Just as it is easy to copy, it is also easy for professors to know if a student has plagiarized⁶.

　　First, there are computer programs and artificial intelligence, or AI, tools that compare students' papers to large databases of published writing. The programs can identify whether students have copied published writing. Second, if English is not a student's first language, a professor might recognize a change in wording and writing style. This could bring more attention to the student's paper.

　　Plagiarism is punished in different ways. Professors could simply warn a student not to do it again, lower their grade, or they might fail the student in that class. In more extreme cases, a student may be temporarily banned or expelled from school.

　　Tools to avoid plagiarism

　　There are free tools to make citations⁷ easier for students and to avoid plagiarism. Zotero is a free, open-source program that helps organize all the research a student may use. For example, it can automatically create citations and combine them into a list. The Purdue Online Writing Lab, or Purdue OWL⁸ for short, is another free resource.

　　Many universities also have writing centers where students can learn the citation rules. And another way for students to learn how to avoid plagiarism is to read published papers and pay careful attention to how information is presented. Students should observe when and how citations are used. This can help them learn the rules of citations.

　　In educational, or academic, writing, it is better to cite too much than too little.

　　A possible double standard

　　Harvard's Claudine Gay resigned this month after several accusations⁹ of plagiarism in her academic work.

　　Gay's academic writing got attention after she was strongly criticized for her answers to a Congressional committee related to freedom of speech. Critics found several cases of possible plagiarism in her 1997 doctoral paper. Harvard's governing board first supported Gay, saying a review of her scholarly work turned up "a few instances of inadequate¹⁰ citation" but no evidence of research wrongdoing.

　　There has been debate among academics over whether her conduct amounted to academic dishonesty. D. Stephen Voss is an associate professor of political science at the University of Kentucky. He knew Gay when they were graduate students at Harvard. A paper he co-wrote in the 1990s was one Gay is accused of plagiarizing from.

　　He said in an interview with the New Yorker magazine that Gay did plagiarize⁵ from him. But what she copied from his paper was "trivial" and "inconsequential."

　　What Gay used from his paper "did not take an idea of any significance from my work." He added: "the bit she used from us was not in any way a major component¹¹ of what made her research important or valuable."

　　Roger Kreuz is a psychology¹² professor at the University of Memphis who is writing a book on the history and psychology of plagiarism. He told VOA in an email that if plagiarism is defined as taking words from another person's work, "the opinion of (Voss) doesn't really matter."

　　Kreuz wrote in the online publication, The Conversation, that university students and professors might face different requirements when it comes to plagiarism. Kreuz wrote that professors suspected of plagiarism may be given the benefit of the doubt by their schools. They may also be given the chance to make corrections to their published work.

　　Kreuz added that university leaders think that faculty¹³ members know what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. If a problem arises, administrators¹⁴ might think they were just being careless with their citations or use of quotation¹⁵ marks.

　　Students, on the other hand, must follow university policies on academic behavior. Harvard, for example, warns that students may be forced to leave the college if they plagiarize. Work written by students is more likely to be closely examined and put through tools that identify plagiarism than faculty work.

　　Many students consider this a double standard.

　　Kreuz wrote in an opinion piece in The Boston Globe that university plagiarism policies for faculty are unclear.

　　How "can academics set or enforce policies for faculty when the concept is so ill-defined?" he asked.

　　Words in This Story

　　original — adj. created first

　　author — n. a person who writes a work or starts something

　　citation — n. quotes from written works

　　style — n. a way of doing something, such as writing, that is identifiable

　　grade — n. a number or letter that is given to a piece of schoolwork that shows the student's level of success

　　academic — adj. related to school especially colleges or universities

　　trivial — adj. not important or useful

　　inconsequential — adj. not important; resulting in nothing

　　significant — adj. important

　　benefit of the doubt — idiom to treat someone as honest or good although there is some doubt whether they are

　　faculty — n. the teachers at a school or college

　　double standard — idiom treating two groups very differently in a way that is considered unfair

1 plagiarism   

n.剽窃，抄袭

参考例句：

• Teachers in America fight to control cheating and plagiarism.美国老师们努力对付欺骗和剽窃的问题。
• Now he's in real trouble.He's accused of plagiarism.现在他是真遇到麻烦了。他被指控剽窃。

2 citation   

n.引用，引证，引用文；传票

参考例句：

• He had to sign the proposition for the citation.他只好在受奖申请书上签了字。
• The court could issue a citation and fine Ms. Robbins.法庭可能会发传票，对罗宾斯女士处以罚款。

3 instructors   

指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The instructors were slacking on the job. 教员们对工作松松垮垮。
• He was invited to sit on the rostrum as a representative of extramural instructors. 他以校外辅导员身份，被邀请到主席台上。

4 plagiarizing   

v.剽窃，抄袭( plagiarize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He was accused of plagiarizing his colleague's results. 他被指控剽窃同事的成果。
• Moderates are plagiarizing his ideas in hopes of wooing voters. 温和派为讨好选民在盗用他的观点。 来自辞典例句

5 plagiarize   

v.剽窃，抄袭（别人学说、著作）

参考例句：

• Never plagiarize your paper.课程论文千万不要抄袭。
• It's not a viable option to plagiarize someone else's work.剽窃他人作品的行为是不可取的。

6 plagiarized   

v.剽窃，抄袭( plagiarize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The poem employs as its first lines a verse plagiarized from a billboard. 这首诗开头的几行抄袭了一个广告牌上的一节诗。 来自辞典例句
• Whole passages of the work are plagiarized. 那作品整段整段都是剽窃的。 来自辞典例句

7 citations   

n.引用( citation的名词复数 )；引证；引文；表扬

参考例句：

• The apt citations and poetic gems have adorned his speeches. 贴切的引语和珠玑般的诗句为他的演说词增添文采。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Some dictionary writers use citations to show what words mean. 有些辞典的编纂者用引文作例证以解释词义。 来自辞典例句

8 owl   

n.猫头鹰，枭

参考例句：

• Her new glasses make her look like an owl.她的新眼镜让她看上去像只猫头鹰。
• I'm a night owl and seldom go to bed until after midnight.我睡得很晚，经常半夜后才睡觉。

9 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

10 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

11 component   

n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的

参考例句：

• Each component is carefully checked before assembly.每个零件在装配前都经过仔细检查。
• Blade and handle are the component parts of a knife.刀身和刀柄是一把刀的组成部分。

12 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

13 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

14 administrators   

n.管理者( administrator的名词复数 )；有管理（或行政）才能的人；（由遗嘱检验法庭指定的）遗产管理人；奉派暂管主教教区的牧师

参考例句：

• He had administrators under him but took the crucial decisions himself. 他手下有管理人员，但重要的决策仍由他自己来做。 来自辞典例句
• Administrators have their own methods of social intercourse. 办行政的人有他们的社交方式。 来自汉英文学 - 围城

15 quotation   

n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情

参考例句：

• He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare.他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
• The quotation is omitted here.此处引文从略。