DeVoss & Rosati: "It Wasn't Me, Was It?" Plagiarism and the Web

In this article, DeVoss and Rosati divulge in the phenomenon of plagiarism among students today. Their audience for their work is directed towards fellow educators of writing and how this situation can be handled. These writers start their article with three stories of their encounters with plagiarism among their students in their time as educators. In the first story, Rosati was skimming a paper mill online to see what was being said about King Lear, while doing this she was familiar with some of the essays she was reading on the paper mill. When she asked for the three students to come forward she had more than those three come to her office and ask: "It wasn't me, was it?" In the next story, DeVoss was giving a tour of the library and notices that an older student did not show for the tour. When he turned in his assignment, all of his sources were from websites and not the most credible of sites either. She has a meeting with this student and shows him all of the resources the library has to offer as well how to find sources in the library. At this, the student was astonished with the work that goes into research. In the final story, DeVoss has a foreign student that although he does not quite have a grip on American writing, he proves to be bright and has a spark in his writing. Until on one assignment he turns in work that is lacking his "spark." She addresses the issue with the student and he reluctantly admits that he did not write the paper. According to the authors, the reason for sharing these stories is to remind educators the issues of research and plagiarism are interconnected to each other. The writers explain a theory by Rebecca Moore Howard that seeing some instances of plagiarism as "patchwriting" or "kidnapping" helps students grow with their writing skills whereas labeling is as theft is simply clarifying as stolen work. The authors explain how the readiness and ease of the internet has made plagiarism even more tempting. This is because of the plethora of information on a multitude of subject that can be found online and the simplicity of "copy and paste." In this work, the authors also mention that by focusing on plagiarism and seeing writing as intellectual property helps the students understand why plagiarizing is wrong. This article applies to this course do to the upcoming research we are about to embark on for our final work.