When I read the plagiarism readings, I was honestly a little confused about what patch writing is. I have never heard of patch writing before; to me, it just sounded like paraphrasing. How are the two distinguished? From our discussion in class, I concluded that it basically is paraphrasing, but just using too many phrases that are the author's exact words. I did like how Howard emphasized that students should be asked to rewrite something that is patch writing (because of the belief that patch writing occurs when a writer does not really understand the source he is trying to paraphrase), rather than immediately calling it plagiarism and giving them a failing grade. She brings the idea of intent out, also. I think it is really important that intent is considered in cases of plagiarism. If a student actually intending to plagiarize and "pull one over" on their teachers, then, by all means, I believe the student should be punished accordingly. If the student plagiarized by accident, however, I really think that student should be allowed to explain what he or she was trying to do. I do not think we can just totally do away with the idea of plagiarism, as Howard mentions at one point, but I do agree with her on the issue of intent.
After reading Ong's essay, I have to say that I agree with him that many writers fictionalize their audience. I have had much experience with this recently. In trying to prepare essays for my medical school applications, I have had to imagine what type of person is reading my essay. I have based my responses on what I think the admissions board wants to hear. I had some help from a doctor I met over the summer who is on the admissions board here at UW. He read the first draft of my personal statement and pointed out ideas and even certain words that I should stay away from so that I do not offend anyone on the admissions committee. At one point, I talked about my parents' marriage and what I have learned from them, but he told me not to use this because of board members who may be divorced. He also told me not to use words like "blessed" because some board members are atheist. Eventually, I learned what types of things are good topics, but in doing so I have had to create an image of my audience without actually knowing who they are and what their background is.
5 comments:
I also agree that intent needs to be taken into account if a student is caught plagiarizing. On the other hand, though, how can you 100% prove that someone did not intend to copy someone elses writing or ideas? Obviously, there are cases where it is quite easy to distinguish (for example copying and pasting directly from a source with no credit giving to the author), but for things such as patch writing I believe intent would be a very hard thing to judge.
I was very surprised by the ideas that the doctor told you to stay away from in your personal statement. After hearing his reasoning, it makes sense not to mention certain ideas that may be offensive to the board. I would never have considered the topic of marriage to be offensive though. I agree that it is a lot harder to write for an audience when you don't know anything about the audience.
I too think that intent should be taken into account. I think sometimes when you have done a lot of reading for a big paper that you stop distinguishing what ideas are yours and what ideas you read. I know that it is hard for teachers to believe sometimes that it was unintentional but I think that if there is a chance the student did not intentionally plagarize then they should be given an oppurtunity to revise their piece.
I agree with you(and the others) that intent is huge when determining the appropriate punishment for plagiarism. However I also agree with Jenna that it is extremely hard to determine intent. This same predicament can be seen in legal cases. Murder for example has seperate degrees based on the intent of the perpatrator. These different degrees can lead to vast differences in sentencing. The hard part is to prove what people's intent was prior to their action.
From what I've learned about application essays, I'd say this doctor is going a bit overboard. There is a difference between using the word blessed and devoting the essay to religious proselytizing. I can't think of one thing wrong with using that word. In fact, I've seen samples of successful essays that discuss in depth how religion is tied to the desire to become a physician.
Really, that advice sounds paranoid and just wrong.
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