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Frequently Asked Questions about Plagiarism

 (Or, more precisely, questions that Dr. Jerry Burns has been frequently asked, or that he has asked of himself)
 

Question: Have you begun to change your personal policy on how you handle cases of plagiarism?

Answer: Yes. I have decided to use Marian’s formal process, outlined elsewhere on these pages, from now on in dealing with cases of first-degree (see definition below) plagiarism. In that process, three other faculty members are convened by the Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs to consider the charges of plagiarism (or cheating). This faculty panel listens to both parties and renders its decision.
 

Question: What has led you to adopt the formal approach?

Answer: If you read the responses to the following questions, I think you’ll understand why I believe this policy is the best one. The questions that bear most directly on this decision are ones involving the likelihood and the intensity of denial from students, the ones describing repeat offenders, and the ones dealing with the emotionally charged circumstances in many plagiarism cases.

Question: Are there different levels or degrees of plagiarism?

Answer: Marian University distinguishes between the following kinds of plagiarism:

Question: In recent classes, how many different ways have you seen the word plagiarism misspelled?

Answer: In my most recent class of 15 students, three different ways: plagerism, (2x) plagirism, plagarism (2x).

Question: You have been teaching for more years than you’d like to admit. During that time, how many cases of plagiarism have you encountered?

Answer: While I have not been counting, I would estimate that I’ve had almost 100 cases that I’ve dealt with personally, including 9 in fall of 2009 alone.

Question: Did you include in that estimate the six plagiarized papers you received from one student in English composition about seven years ago?

Answer: Yes, I have to admit that that did skew the numbers.

Question: Do you remember what the mother of that student said when she contacted you?

Answer: Yes, she said she couldn’t help but feel that the plagiarism was her daughter’s cry for help.

 

Question: Did you agree with that characterization?

Answer: "For crying out loud!"  No, I thought it was the calculated attempt of her daughter—a solid C+ writer—to get an A in the course.

Question: Do persons accused of plagiarism often say "I don’t know how that could have happened!"

Answer: In my experience, almost always.

Question: In your experience, do plagiarists usually readily admit to their error and express their willingness to accept the consequences?

Answer: I would estimate that that happens in about 2% of the cases.

Question: Everything you know about human psychology is probably the result of watching episodes of the Bob Newhart Show, but are you tempted to make generalizations about the psychological makeup of plagiarizers who go deeply into denial even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary?

Answer: At one point in the past, I was tempted to think that the deep denial so often characteristic of plagiarizers was a manifestation of abnormal psychology. I have changed my mind on this. I now believe that the denial is a normal and almost inevitable kind of defense mechanism, similar to the denial that is witnessed when a person experiences severe trauma or the death of someone close. I think people feel a need to regard themselves as individuals with integrity, and have a hard time admitting that at least on some occasions they don’t act with integrity. I think it’s hard for people to admit that there’s a significant element of falseness in their life. After all, how many jobs, careers, or roles are there in life for people who can’t be trusted? And that’s what plagiarism tells the recipient of the stolen work: that the person can’t be trusted. I think a lot of people would strongly resist that characterization of themselves, and that a certain amount of deception involves some self-deception as well--as people struggle to preserve their positive self-image.

Question: Admittedly, everything you know about theology and salvation you know from watching episodes of Seventh Heaven …. but do you think it is possible for professors to "forgive and forget" and move on if the student doesn’t admit to plagiarizing?

Answer: As someone once said, "to ask the question is to know the answer." It’s hard to forgive individuals and move on if they are absolutely unwilling to admit to a mistake.

Question: Have you ever received papers from students in which they lifted whole pages of text from Pulitzer-Prize-winning writers?

Answer: Yes. One student turned in a paper that represented seven pages from a famous novel by Richard Wright. He "didn’t know how it happened."

Question: Have plagiarizers in your classes sometimes blamed other family members?

Answer: Yes. One student’s excuse was that her brother, who she indicated had written her earlier papers for her, got lazy or desperate and lifted his last installment of brotherly assistance straight from the New Yorker. She received an "F" in the course; he "didn't know how it happened."

Question: Is plagiarism often an emotionally charged situation for all involved?

Answer: Yes, while it’s probably one of the worst experiences of a student’s college years, it can also be distressing for faculty members as well. Plagiarism cases usually entail a disproportionate amount of a professor’s time and energy.

Question: Are students often brought to tears when accused of plagiarism?

Answer: Yes, even females at times.

Question: Do you find this uncomfortable when it happens?

Answer: Yes, and this is one reason why I would rather have the matter treated in a somewhat more impersonal format, with faculty who do not have personal interactions with the student.
 

Question: Do you look forward to dealing with upcoming cases of plagiarism?

Answer: I can't say that the detective work isn't sometimes engaging, but I would like to be able to head off all future cases "at the pass" by  a) making sure that students are fully informed so they don’t commit plagiarism unintentionally and b) acquainting students with the rather severe penalties, so they will realize that it’s not worth taking the chance.

Question: Can you give an analogy of what plagiarism is like? Would you compare it to drivers speeding, for example?

Answer: I’ve heard that analogy but I don’t think it’s a helpful one. Almost everyone speeds at some point or another, but not everyone plagiarizes; speeders frequently receive a warning, but this isn’t usually the case with plagiarism; there might be some occasions in which speeding might seem justified—emergencies, for example—but plagiarism is never justified; speeding involves doing more—and too much—of what is otherwise acceptable, but plagiarism represents a difference in "kind" rather than degrees.

If comparisons were made with offenses outside of academic institutions, I think it could be more helpfully compared with shoplifting or with counterfeiting. The comparison with shoplifting is useful in several respects: if you’re caught, it’s almost always a big deal; you’re not usually allowed to simply pay for the item after you’re caught with it; and to some extent the penalty is the same, regardless of the cost of the stolen item—it’s "the thought that counts."

Question: But haven’t you personally ever plagiarized or cheated in your countless years of education?

Answer: I unknowingly plagiarized in fifth grade. I thought my teacher (Sr. Joel) would be delighted at the fact that I got my hands on my uncle’s encyclopedia dedicated exclusively to the Civil War, at a time when encyclopedias were coveted items among lower middle-class families, and specialized encyclopedias--well!. I painstakingly transcribed whole pages from Volume II right into my paper, using my very best penmanship. I capped it off with a cover featuring a cannon cut out carefully from black construction paper. Needless to say, she wasn't delighted.

Question: Have you ever been accused of plagiarism?

Answer: Yes. In sophomore year of college, a former friend, Ed Z., asked to borrow my philosophy paper on Immanuel Kant so he could "get an idea of what the assignment was supposed to be." Later that week, the two of us found ourselves in our philosophy professor’s office trying to explain how two identical papers on Kant had been produced in a class on The Philosophy of Knowledge comprising only 20 students. Fortunately, although Ed Z initially "didn’t know how it could have happened," he gradually remembered, and I received my rightful grade, while he received an "F" in the course. Evidently, Dr. Sullivan -- in his "philosophy of knowledge"-- didn't give too much credence to
direct copying as an epistemological strategy.
 

Question: When college students plagiarize, do their parents usually find out about it?

Answer: No. In fact, under most circumstances, it would be illegal for professors to inform parents, even if that idea ever crossed our minds. If parents do get involved, it’s only because the student tells them. I can think of only two cases in which that happened.

Question: When parents get involved, is it always a helpful thing?

Answer: Not necessarily. Sometimes parents are even more unwilling than the student to believe that a dishonest act was committed. And as a matter of fact, according to one source, unfair assistance from parents is the fastest growing form of plagiarism.

Question: Have you ever received the same plagiarized paper more than once?

Answer: Yes, At UW-M, I received the same plagiarized paper, with some slight alterations, from two individuals in two consecutive years. When I received the second version of the paper a year after the first one, I suspected the authenticity of the earlier one as well.

Question: Are plagiarism cases handled with a high degree of confidentiality?

Answer: Absolutely.

Question: How rare do you think integrity is?

Answer: That’s another very interesting question. The word "integrity" was #1 on Merriam-Webster’s list of frequently looked-up words in 2005, so clearly the subject has been on a lot of peoples’ minds, as they have witnessed the spectacles of many famous and wealthy individuals—celebrities, business leaders, politicians (gasp!), clergy, sports figures—falling from grace because of dishonesty.

Some of the statistics about percentages of students who admit to cheating are likewise appalling, but I’d still like to believe that most people can be trusted in most situations. I still see the honor policy observed at roadside fruit stands where customers are asked to leave their money and to make their own change, so there must still be many persons of integrity out there.

Question: What do you do if you suspect that a paper is plagiarized but can’t prove it?

Answer: I bite the bullet and give it the grade it would deserve as an original work. I never mention the "P word," but I make a photocopy of the paper for my files, in case I am later able to prove plagiarism. 
 

Question: Is there a statute of limitation on plagiarism? Could a faculty member go back, a year or more later, and change the grade of the student whose work was later found to be plagiarized?

Answer: That’s an interesting question, and if I ever experience the situation again I’ll test the limits. Some analogies might be helpful: If it’s discovered later that someone purchased a car with counterfeit money, would the person get to keep the vehicle? If someone bought a house with a check that was found, after the lapse of several years, to be a forgery, would they get to keep the house?

I can tell you that the college degree was withdrawn from the young woman at UCLA after it was discovered that she had paid a fellow student thousands of dollars to write papers for her. It didn’t matter that she had crossed the stage and had received her diploma, or that her father was a multi-millionaire—the degree was invalidated. Similarly, the reputations of some scholars have been tarnished when plagiarism has come to light many years after publications of their books and articles. And then of course there has been Mr. Frey’s recent roller-coaster ride on the Oprah show, which testifies to how the charge of dishonesty can reverse one’s fortunes and prospects.

 I have one paper that I received over 20 years ago that I still expect to stumble upon some day on the Internet, as more and more items appear on the web.
 

Question: What would you do if you did find the original of that paper?

Answer: Good question. I think I would still try to file a "change of grade" form, even though the person graduated from Marquette over 15 years ago, and I'm no longer employed there—just to test the limits of plagiarism cases.

 

Question: If I get caught, how do I get out of it?

Answer: Given my response to the previous question, can you ever be sure that you’ve "gotten out of it?"

Question: Have developments in technology made it easier to plagiarize or cheat and get away with it?

 Answer: I haven’t decided whether or not the Internet has made plagiarism easier to get away with. In some ways, it’s actually “leveled the playing field,” making it easier for teachers to discover and document cases of plagiarism.  In the last case with which I dealt, it took less than 15 seconds to locate the original source of the student’s paper.

However,  technological advances have probably made in-class cheating on tests easier. Students have been known to use their camera phones to store “photos” of test-related information, and to text-message answers to other students. Modern calculators can also store information that can be retrieved on math tests. Small bits of data can even be stored on electronic watches, so the seemingly time-conscious student might be attentive to other factors as well.

 On the other hand, teachers can now easily “shuffle” questions and easily produce several different versions of the same “standardized” test to foil would-be cheaters.
 

 
Question: I can understand that plagiarism often produces negative emotions for  professors or teachers, who might feel that their trust has been betrayed. Or they might feel that they were played for fools.  Have you ever experienced the negative emotion of guilt stemming from a plagiarism case?

 Answer: Yes, on a few occasions. Once, a student charged with plagiarism tearfully begged for a second chance. A good grade was important to her, she said, because she had a rare form of cancer and only had a year to live. I must say that I had mixed feelings, occasioning the additional feeling of guilt, when I saw the student three years later, looking quite jovial—and remarkably healthy.

(Follow-up) Question: What did you say to her?

Answer: I don't remember, but for the record I refrained from saying, "You're supposed to be dead."

Question: Are there other situations in which you, the recipient of the plagiarized work, ironically end up feeling guilty?

Answer: Yes. I sometimes feel guilty in second-guessing the authenticity of the tears being shed by a seemingly remorseful student pleading for a second chance. I feel guilty as I sometimes find myself thinking, "This person treated me to a dead-on impersonation of a writer for the New Yorker; am I now encountering an Oscar-worthy impersonation of a penitent student?" My internship in the Bob Newhart School of Parlor Psychology hardly prepares me to decide which tears are "real" tears, since even some Mattel products claim to shed them.

What have other colleges and universities done to thwart plagiarism?

There are at least 4000 institutions that have adopted an electronic service such as "Turnitin" to detect plagiarism. (Students at a college in Nova Scotia, however, organized a protest against their school’s adoption of such a service.) St. Norbert’s in DePere, Wisconsin requires students to affix their signatures to a statement certifying that the paper submitted represents their own work.  Some schools refuse to return papers to students after they’ve been submitted, so that returned papers can’t enter into “circulation.”

Question: Do you like any of those options?

Answer: No.  A phrase I have begun to hear quite a bit is culture of integrity, and I think this is the best alternative: to try to nurture a culture of integrity.

Question: Speaking of repeat offenders, have you ever had an admitted first-time plagiarizer blister you with righteous indignation upon a second accusation of plagiarism?

Answer: Yes. Once, a student rather readily confessed to first-degree plagiarism in a composition course, and sobbingly vowed never to do it again. However, she also had submitted another paper that I hadn’t yet read at the time of my first plagiarism-related interaction with her. When I read her next paper, it seemed even better than the earlier (plagiarized) one. Given the fact that there had been an overlap, I assumed that the second one (already in my possession at the time of the earlier incident) was also plagiarized, and I tried to tactfully question with her the authenticity of the paper. When I did so, she exploded in righteous indignation. "How stupid would I have to be to plagiarize another paper after our earlier discussion?!" she wanted to know.

Question: How stupid would she have to have been?

Answer:  I’ve never found that question—"How stupid would I have to be?"— to be an easy question to answer when it comes to plagiarism.

Additional Questions to be Addressed (Stay Tuned!)

   Question: Since you are posting these FAQs on the web, are you afraid that someone else will take credit for these utterances?

    Question: "Can I be held accountable for the plagiarism that I unintentionally committed in the past, now that I’m aware of what I had done wrong?"

    Question: What makes you suspect that a paper is plagiarized?

    Question: "How many consecutive words are needed for it to be considered plagiarism?"

    Question: "Can you plagiarize without realizing it?"

    Question:  Isn’t it possible that many words in a student’s paper could be the same as in another source just by coincidence?

    Question: Many students request help from others in college. How much help is too much help?

     Question: It is possible to tick off a long list of high-profile individuals in the news who have committed serious acts of deception. Isn't there a double standard? Aren't    college students being held to a higher standard of integrity than presidents, archbishops, congresspeople, journalists?

J. Burns, Marian University. 2011

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