Todoro Sanico

CRL #3

Historian Giles Constable goes so far as to declare, "The term plagiarism should indeed

probably be dropped in reference to the Middle Ages, since it expresses a concept of

literary individualism and property that is distinctively modern" (39)

The very etymology of the word plagiarism demonstrates the antiquity of the concept: the

Roman poet Martial extended the meaning of the Latin plagiarius (kidnapper) to indicate

the theft of words as well as of slaves

Dwarf on top of giant = dwarf sees more

In hypertext, readers make additions and changes without necessarily leaving any trace

of who contributed what, and a text is never "finished."

Escalates to technology

"the larger fear that there is no such thing as originality" (40-41).

The heterogeneity of theories of authorship, the contradictory definitions that exist

simultaneously, render impossible any sort of unitary representation. Yet both pedagogy

and institutional policies on student authorship-and specifically, student plagiarism-

attempt just that

classified as academic dishonesty-a classification which would ascribe criminality to an

important stage in students' learning processes, thereby thwarting learning.

Student writing must be accorded the same respect as professional writing: it must be

treated as subject rather than object formation:

This is the institutions fault - a students own writing should be a subject, not necessarily

the study of other writers work

 Morality? Ignorance? Commended for patchwriting?

We know nothing - imitate these guys - dangers of summary - but not too much summary

because then you have no credibility

Plagiarism takes three different forms-cheating, non-attribution of sources, and

patchwriting

Plagiarisms, Authorships, and the Academic Death Penalty is a rather effective

logos/pathos-based commentary composed by Rebecca Howard on the origin and unsolved

problems of plagiarism. While Howards writing does not contain many elements that may

resemble an ethos-based argument, it is evident to the audience that the author feels strongly for

the subject. This conclusion can be easily made given her copious amount of citations and

thoroughly analysis of the roots of plagiarism. The one quotation I found most interesting was

the giant and the dwarf analogy. To reference the text exactly, Roman writer Lucan cautioned A

dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see farther than a giant himself. The giant

represents the original work of writing while the dwarf represents the shallower knowledge of

the person plagiarizing. To put in more plainly, plagiarizing, no matter what kind, is a form of

piggybacking on top of the shoulders of a more knowledgeable writer. More curious is the effect

that happens when technology is combined with this analogy. The Web allows people who may

or may not have legitimacy in their words to access and change information. An excellent

example is Wikipedia, a platform on which absolutely anyone can easily alter texts without a

trace. Peter Holland describes this online information as hypertexts: a text in which the original

writer and the editor are indistinguishable. Howard refers back to the analogy of the giant and the

dwarf to explain further: No longer do we have originators and plagiarists-or giants and
pygmies-but the collective, always unfinished text. Because the education system has taught the

majority of students to imitate better writers and summarize, plagiarism will still remain

prevalent in our society until English courses are reformed. In the end, teachers should focus on

the unique voice of the student rather than teaching the student to read and imitate the works of a

superior.