19 Understanding Unintentional Plagiarism from a De/colonizing Perspective

We are a group that includes graduate students, recently graduated students, international students, educators who teach academic writing and research methodology courses, a tutor in our university’s writing centre and a practitioner in the internationalization office. With these multiple and overlapping roles and positions, we came together as a research group because of our experiences of a racial gaze in the context of plagiarism. We would like to share what we have learned with first-year students who may have similar experiences and want to understand them. We draw on Bhattacharya’s (2016) idea of de/colonizing academia to address social inequities by acknowledging multiple and critical ways of knowing, albeit in a western context. We want to build conversations that have resonance for those who identify with our experiences.

One of the distinct themes that emerged from our research project on our experiences as new international students was the culture shock of the Canadian classroom. Specifically, we struggled to reconcile prior understandings of plagiarism with those in our current context. Most of us had a vague idea of plagiarism but no clear or commonly shared understanding. We noted that in the university classroom plagiarism is often presented as something simple but we soon realized that avoiding inadvertent plagiarism was fraught with complexity. Classroom instruction on plagiarism, even if limited, was also somewhat threatening and couched in terms of morality and consequences, which closed off questions. We noted that many of us felt extremely threatened by the potential to unintentionally plagiarize without knowing we were doing so. Many of our group noted a lack of information, and contradictory messages. Moreover, we found that education about avoiding plagiarism was seen as solely the student’s responsibility. We noted that if a student did not understand plagiarism, they were seen to be the problem, not the lack of instruction. One member of our group wrote: “I panicked and wondered if I would fit in. I continuously contemplated whether to leave or stay. The research and learning strategies were entirely different from my background and this made me doubt myself.” Several of our group had been accused of plagiarism, when they had not realized they had transgressed, with quite severe consequences. The emotional damage of these experiences emerged as a strong theme in our research.

We want first-year students to know that there exists a large body of research literature which shows that many cases of student plagiarism are not intentional and are often the result of a lack of understanding about writing requirements at the university level (see Abasi & Graves, 2008; Blum, 2009; Bretag, 2016; Eaton, 2021; Eaton & Christensen Hughes, 2022; Howard, 1993, 2000, 2016; Pecorari, 2003). Yet, when it comes to plagiarism, there is still an “overrepresentation of reporting among particular student groups including international students, students of colour, and those for whom English is an additional language” (Eaton, 2022, p. 6). Racialized students and those who are translingual are often subjected to particular scrutiny with regard to plagiarism. This is something which affected each of us deeply.

Students may plagiarize unintentionally for a variety of reasons without intending to cheat (Chandrasoma, et al., 2004). They may be unaware of the extremely complex and discursive quagmire of academic citation practices (Badenhorst, 2019). Or they may be relying closely on texts as a stage in the development of their own writing—a phenomenon that has been described as “patchwriting” (Howard, 1993, 2016). What is meant by “plagiarism” is far from universal and has historic and geographic roots, and, as such, perceptions of plagiarism depend on prior educational experiences and understandings of plagiarism in those contexts (Mott-Smith, et al., 2017). Far from being a deliberate attempt to cheat the system or to engage in academic misconduct, student plagiarism often results from a combination of not understanding western knowledge and writing practices, a lack of specific instruction, and institutional policies that focus on disciplinary action only after misconduct has been identified.

Research suggests that the following strategies have been useful for first-year students. They can:

• ask professors questions about their expectations, and what resources or instruction they offer on avoiding plagiarism.
• find out about their university’s policies surrounding plagiarism, including procedures regarding what they can do if they are accused of plagiarism.
• practise writing summaries and paraphrases regularly as they gather information from academic texts, as both note-taking strategies will challenge them to find alternative ways of restating authors’ ideas. They should always practise recording their sources’ bibliographical information.
• seek help from their university’s library, writing centre, professors, teaching assistants, and experienced and knowledgeable peers on ways to avoid plagiarism. Where practical, students can seek feedback on how well they are incorporating sources within their writing before they submit assignments.
• read various academic sources about what constitutes plagiarism, particularly in western academic contexts.
• journal their experiences. Journaling will help to keep students’ authentic voices as they learn how to write in a western context.

Of course, we believe in academic integrity, and none of us want to plagiarize. We were drawn together as students and educators by our experiences with plagiarism and because of the harm being perpetuated by accusations and fear of plagiarism. We feel that it is important to turn the gaze on these institutional practices and to question why, given the enormous amount of research literature on and attention to these issues, practices of inequity continue. Even though universities may seem to be institutions that resist change, they do change all the time (de Santos, 2017). Equity, diversity, inclusion and de/colonization pose a challenge, but a challenge that must be continually taken up to ensure that positive change happens.

References

Abasi, A. R. & Graves, B. (2008). Academic literacy and plagiarism: Conversations with international graduate students and disciplinary professors. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 7(4), 221–233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeap.2008.10.010

Badenhorst, C. M. (2019). Literature reviews, citations and intertextuality in graduate student writing. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 43(2), 263–275. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2017.1359504

Bhattacharya, K. (2016). The vulnerable academic: Personal narratives and strategic de/colonizing of academic structures. Qualitative Inquiry, 22(5), 309–321. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800415615619

Blum, S. D. (2009). My word! Plagiarism and academic college culture. Ithaca.

Bretag, T. (Ed.). (2016). Handbook of academic integrity. Springer.

Chandrasoma, R., Thompson, C., & Pennycook, A. (2004). Beyond plagiarism: Transgressive and nontransgressive intertextuality. Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 3(3), 171–193. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327701jlie0303_1

de Santos, B. (2017). Decolonising the university: The challenge of deep cognitive justice. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Eaton, S. E. (2021). Plagiarism in higher education: Tackling tough topics in academic integrity. Libraries Unlimited.

Eaton, S. E. (2022). New priorities for academic integrity: Equity, diversity, inclusion, decolonization and Indigenization. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 18(10), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-022-00105-0

Eaton, S. E., & Christensen Hughes, J. (Eds.). (2022). Academic integrity in Canada: An enduring and essential challenge. Springer. https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/79360

Howard, R. M.  (1993). A plagiarism pentimento. Journal of Teaching Writing, 11(3), 233–46.

Howard, R. M. (2000). Sexuality, textuality: The cultural work of plagiarism. College English, 62(4), 472–491. https://doi.org/10.2307/378866

Howard, R. M. (2016). Plagiarism in higher education – An academic literacies issue? Introduction. In T. Bretag (Ed.), Handbook of academic integrity (pp. 499–501). Springer. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-287-098-8_70

Mott-Smith, J. A., Tomaš, Z., & Kostka, I. (2017). Teaching effective source use. University of Michigan Press.

Pecorari, D. (2003). Good and original: Plagiarism and patchwriting in academic second-language writing, Journal of Second Language Writing, 12(4), 317–345. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2003.08.004