Academic Integrity in the Digital Age

Stanley Fish’s New York Times’ article “Plagiarism Is Not a Big Moral Deal” begins by discussing how one of his colleagues actually took pages of Fish’s writing and published them into the concluding chapter of his own book. At the end of his article, Fish writes, “They took something from me without asking and without acknowledgment, and they profited – if only in the currency of academic reputation – from work that I had done and signed.” This poignant line illustrates just one reason why academic integrity is especially necessary nowadays.


One point that needs to be addressed is that in academia, thousands upon thousands of hours are poured into making and drawing conclusions. The research that is done in academia (and private industry) has improved the lives of millions – if not billions – of people worldwide. This research is performed by devoted people who have sacrificed their time in order to discover new things. They have produced something original.

Now, with access to infinite knowledge that has already been discovered, people can “rip things off” of other people’s work and pass it on as being original. The problem is that new discoveries, new innovations, new knowledge, new originality that could have been found is lost because of the willingness to stoop down and snatch other people’s work from them. The consequences of this are devastatingly enormous – loss of economic growth, health discoveries not made, historical mysteries never solved.

Just settling for copying and pasting is very easy. It’s also easy to be caught if it’s simply copied and pasted (as demonstrated with the SafeAssign assignment). After hours of trying to craft my own “plagiarism paper” (tweaking words, including my own writing inside of others writing, manipulating sentence structure, etc.), it became obvious that students who try to beat the system will, unfortunately, succeed sometimes. Originality has been lost (although she/he could claim that she/he is an original manipulator) hurting not just the plagiarizer’s learning but also humanity as a whole.

When this happens, the chance for something new to be said is eliminated. The freeing liberty of researching and arriving at a new conclusion is gone, and the true joy of learning is denied. And – this to me is the tragedy – many students (whether in high school, college, or beyond) are held in easy-access prison by having so many opportunities to copy, paste, tweak, manipulate, and pass off as their own. They never get to taste the freeing joy that true learning provides.

As an educator, it is essential that I take a firm stand against plagiarism and explain to students the above reasons of why plagiarism is detrimental to the student and society. But I cannot just leave it at that. I must design complex writing assignments that are original where the answers cannot be found online. Having class days where we write by hand as opposed to using the computer (what an original thought!) will force students to reason on their own and will be a preventative measure against plagiarism.

Fish’s article is titled “Plagiarism Is Not a Big Moral Deal.” Many of today’s students may, disappointingly, agree with this statement. It’s not just about morality, however. It’s also about progress and society and this is something that we need to address. If students write something and then realize somebody else took it and passed it off as their own (such as what happened to Fish), that student will possibly lose the motivation to create something original or discover something new. And that is something that we – as collective humanity -- cannot afford to have happen.
 

From the first day of class, it is imperative that teachers address the issue of plagiarism and academic misconduct.  In my syllabus, specific expectations and consequences are given to students so they know what plagiarism is and why it is destructive to their academic growth.  On major assignments, I do not give students a 0 if they plagiarize because I still want them to research, write, and learn.  However, their grades will still suffer.

Works Cited

Fish, Stanley. (2010, August 9). “Plagiarism Is Not a Big Moral Deal.” The New York Times. Retrieved from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/plagiarism-is-not-a-big-moral-deal/?ref=opinion.