Thursday, October 25, 2007
Student writers' understanding of plagiarism
Today, I read Kate Kellen's comments on how her students don't understand the concept of plagiarism in writing. Just when do we teach students about this bane of the English teacher's existence? If elementary students are allowed to copy from the encyclopedia for reports and middle school students are allowed to copy from the Internet and other sources with no regard to summarization, paraphrasing, quoting and citing sources, is it then up to high school teachers to correct years of "damage"? I find that almost unbearable and sometimes impossible. The process of incorporating research into writing takes years of practice- not just four years of the sporadic paper in English classes. I wonder what college English teachers have to say on the topic.
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2 comments:
Hey Mrs. H! I'm not even in your class, but oh well. No, it is not up to high school teachers to "correct years of damage." I think that elementary and middle school teachers shouldn't encourage us to use the encyclopedia and the internet without sourcing it. It's teaching students a very bad habit, and it's wrong. If I ever become a teacher, and God forbid if I do, I will NEVER allow a student to use other's work without giving credit to it. High school teachers shouldn't be in charge of fixing the damage done by years of plagerising.
It's not up to high school teachers to teach students about that. To me, I think it should be taught at a younger age. Elementary shouldn't just "copy" things, they can be taught to put it in their own words...maybe not the youngest classes but the older ones can. Giving credit is important because I know I would be quite upset about it if someone used my ideas in their writing without citing it.
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