In competitive environments there will always be those who attempt to rise to the top through deception, some will do so successfully, some will stumble and fall. The academic sphere is no different, plagiarism as well as other forms of cheating are commonly viewed by most of society as a large issue in college education. Many academic institutions have very little tolerance for plagiarism and are quick to discipline students for perceived academic misconduct. This opens a deep multifaceted issue regarding plagiarism and begs the questions: “What should constitute plagiarism?”, “When should and shouldn’t plagiarism be punished?”, and “What measures should be taken to prevent plagiarism?”. 

In the Bad Ideas About Writing book, Jennifer A. Mott-Smith discusses in her essay “Plagiarism Deserves to be Punished” a bad idea about writing, which is that plagiarism should always be punished. The Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA), a national association of college and university faculty, and Malcolm Gladwell, a journalist personally impacted by plagiarism, echo Mott-Smith’s idea that plagiarism shouldn’t always be punished. A better idea about writing is that unless plagiarism is directly copying information word for word from a source without attempting to cite the source it should be examined on a case by case basis and determined if there was malicious intent on the student’s behalf. It is important to consider various factors when examining plagiarism such as cultural factors, misunderstanding on the student’s part of what constitutes plagiarism, lack of knowledge on how to cite sources, or clumsy integration of ideas. In some cases there might not be malicious intent on the student’s part, as opposed to punishment for plagiarism, more education about writing and citation conventions would be beneficial.

 “Copy stock photo” by PashaIgnatov. iStock.

Firstly, it is important to define what plagiarism is before analyzing what the appropriate responses to plagiarism are. The Council of Writing Program Administrators defines plagiarism as “when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source.” (“Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices.”, 1). It is important to point out that the WPA distinguishes the difference between plagiarism and the misuse of sources. If a student makes a good faith effort to cite a source but inadequately cites the source, that is not plagiarism. However, according to the WPA, a student who is “fully aware that their actions constitute plagiarism” and claims someone else’s ideas as their own original ideas and/or copies someone else’s writing is guilty of academic misconduct. This stance is similar to Jennifer A. Mott-Smith’s stance in her essay “Plagiarism Deserves to be Punished”. Mott-Smith states “unless plagiarism is out-and-out cheating, like cutting and pasting an entire paper from the Internet or paying someone to write it, we should be cautious about reacting to plagiarism with the intent to punish.” (251) The consensus across both sources is that if an idea, section of text, or other intellectual material was taken from a source and no attempt was made to cite the source, and/or permission was not granted by the owner of the intellectual material, then plagiarism has taken place. 

Now that it has been established what exactly constitutes plagiarism, it is important to investigate in which circumstances instances of plagiarism should be punished. Mott-Smith and the WPA both agree that unintentional plagiarism or inadequate source use should not be punished, the proper response in this scenario would be providing further education for the student to teach them to cite sources properly. To prevent unintentional plagiarism the WPA recommends for faculty to “design contexts and assignments for learning that encourage students not simply to recycle information but to investigate and analyze its sources” (“Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices.”, 1) and “to include in [the] syllabus a policy for using sources … that clearly explains the consequences of both plagiarism .. and the misuse …  of sources.” (“Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices.”, 1) Mott-Smith corroborates the WPA’s stance by stating that “for much plagiarism, a better response is to just relax and let writers continue to practice the sophisticated skill of using sources.” (Mott-Smith, 251) The WPA also recommends the creation of an honor board to hear plagiarism cases and to teach all students proper citation conventions and expectations. 

 “Person Stealing Purse From Handbag” by Andrey Popov. iStock

What about in cases of intentional plagiarism? This is a morally ambiguous question. In the article “Something Borrowed” by Malcolm Gladwell, he discusses how plagiarism personally impacted his life and the life of a friend of his, Dorothy Lewis. A British playwright, Bryony Lavery, had written a play called “Frozen” about a psychiatrist who specializes in the study of murderers. In the play, Lavery had included many scenes that were very similar to case studies in Lewis’s book, “Guilty by Reason of Insanity.” Lavery had also verbatim quoted from a magazine profile of Lewis that Gladwell had written while Lavery was creating the character for the psychiatrist in her play without Lewis’s or Gladwell’s permission. Lavery in her meeting with Gladwell stated that she didn’t have malicious intent in plagiarizing their work, she stated that she didn’t know it was necessary to ask permission and cite them as sources. 

This is undeniably plagiarism, although without ill intent, but is this a breach of ethics for which Lavery should be punished? Lewis felt that Lavery should be punished, her viewpoint can be summarized as “I was sitting at home reading the play, and I realized that it was I. I felt robbed and violated in some peculiar way. It was as if someone had stolen—I don’t believe in the soul, but, if there was such a thing, it was as if someone had stolen my essence.” (Gladwell, 1) However, Gladwell felt differently. Gladwell felt that Lavery had copied descriptions of Lewis’s work and the outline of Lewis’s life to create a new and original play, Lavery hadn’t copied musings, or conclusions, or structure. Gladwell states that “old words in the service of a new idea aren’t the problem. What inhibits creativity is new words in the service of an old idea,” (Gladwell, 1) Gladwell’s mindset is that plagiarism, although distasteful, shouldn’t be punished if it was used to create something new and original, as that would inhibit creativity. According to the WPA’s guidelines, this would be considered plagiarism since Lavery did not make any attempt to give credit to her sources of inspiration and claimed it as her work, so Lavery is liable for repercussions. But, the WPA and Mott-Smith also state that in cases where a person doesn’t have ill intentions it is more effective to educate them on proper source use than to discipline them. So, it would be most effective to educate Lavery on conventions as opposed to a lawsuit.

In conclusion, Malcolm Gladwell, the WPA, and Jennifer Mott-Smith all agree that although plagiarism is a serious issue, improper citation of sources and unintentional plagiarism should not be punished if the student made an good-faith effort to attribute credit and did not have malicious intent. Gladwell takes it further by proposing that intentional plagiarism shouldn’t be punished if it is without malicious intent, isn’t excessive, and is used to make something new and creative. Mott-Smith points out that “citation standards vary widely and are often in the eye of the beholder.” (Mott-Smith, 251) The WPA and Mott-Smith both agree that it is better to educate students on expected citation and writing conventions as opposed to punishing them unless the plagiarism is blatant and ill intended.

Works Cited:

“Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices.” Council of Writing Program Administrators, 30 Dec. 2019, wpacouncil.org/aws/CWPA/pt/sd/news_article/272555/_PARENT/layout_details/false.

Gladwell, Malcolm. “Something Borrowed.” The New Yorker, 15 Nov. 2004, www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/11/22/something-borrowed.

Mott-Smith, Jennifer, editor. “Plagiarism Deserves to Be Punished.” Bad Ideas About Writing, Morgantown, WV, Digital Publishing Institute, 2017, pp. 247–52.