A Plagiarizing Pedagogy: How teaching plagiarism can lead to a more informed and less afraid student population.

Proposed Conference: UConn Conference on the Teaching of Writing


As educators it is all too easy to feel that plagiarism stems from some smug and mischievous instinct in our students, but in truth, the most prominent emotion surrounding the practice seems to be fear. In this regard, perhaps it is more productive as teachers that we try to manage fear than to augment it by validating our students' suspicion that we are "out to get them." Often when I discuss plagiarism issues with my students I discover that they fear being "caught" and "punished" yet, even after providing examples, they are not always able to identify which practices are punishable and what constitutes an academic dishonest act. This paper purposes to re-examine the punishment models that currently surround plagiarizing practices and offer an alternative pedagogy through the ideas of Kenneth Goldsmith to teach plagiarism as an uncreative practice in the composition classroom.

Goldsmith's activities like "Re-typing five pages" (where students transcribe five pages verbatim of a text they find online) helps exemplify the heuristic value of a plagiarizing pedagogy. As Goldsmith notes, "Many become aware of the role their bodies play in writing--from their postures to the cramps in their hands to the movement of their fingers--they become aware of the performative nature of writing" (203). This particular notion is not at all unlike Marshall McLuhan's belief that our nervous systems and identities essentially extend into the digital realms we create, which may allow us to see that even plagiarsim is an extension of ourselves and perhaps then, less malicious. Despite this notion, however, we often regard the wealth of unmanaged and un-authored information on the internet as a tempting demon on our students' shoulders leading them to evil; I purpose that extending the ideas of Goldsmith's pedagogy gives us the opportunity to tame that particular demon into something that can actually be used for learning instead of used against it.

I believe teaching plagiarism will extend beyond Goldsmith and will allow our students to contemplate the role and existence of the author, show them how to find and manage the sources they encounter, and respect the effort that goes into the creation of these works. These exercises allow us to seize the opportunity to teach our students about voice and originality while also allowing them to see that we are aware of the methods and practices of plagiarizing and therefore mitigate their theoretical belief they can "trick" us. Whether or not our students are motivated by a deceitful instinct or are simply confused about the precise and technical nature of citation, I propose that by meeting the issue of plagiarism head on by extending and advancing Goldsmith's unconventional pedagogical practice, we have the opportunity to claim a crucial teachable moment. By actually teaching plagiarism instead of just teaching something about plagiarism, we are able to shift the conversation away from scolding and towards an epistemic that is both informative, educational, and deeply applicable to the digital environment in which our students live and work.