It wasn't me was it?

DeVoss, Danielle and Annette C. Rosati. "It wasn't me, was it?": Plagiarism and the Web." Computers in the Composition Classroom. Eds. Michelle Sidler, Richard Morris, and Elixabeth Overman Smith. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2008: 151-164. Print.

The story that the author's open with about students being unsure of whether or not they plagiarized is one that I can relate to as it's a concern my students (especially at the for profit school I teach with) are very vocal about. In that particular Comp I course, that is canned, student were required to write an informative research paper on a topic that they were interested in. This meant they often knew little about what they were writing about. When these students submitted there work to the writing center (which was required in the course design), they often received comments about sources being weaved together. The most common question I was asked: how am I supposed to write an informative paper that I am learning about without relying so heavily on my sources.

I felt all the issues brought up (especially about new texts causing further issue) were still relevant. I particularly liked the quote from p. 159 in regard to a student plagiarizing the design of a website: "Did this student plagiarize? How does electronic publishing complicate our print-based assumptions about what plagiarism is and isn't? What is common practice on the Web? How do we separate code from design in online space? Design from content?" I think that while we do have CC, we're still navigating these issues.

I included this site because of our recent conversation about OWL's.