My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture

Susan D. Blum

Published by Cornell University Press 2011

My Word!

Plagiarism and College Culture

Susan D. Blum

https://doi.org/10.7591/9780801458408

Overview
Contents

About this book

"Classroom Cheats Turn to Computers." "Student Essays on Internet Offer Challenge to Teachers." "Faking the Grade." Headlines such as these have been blaring the alarming news of an epidemic of plagiarism and cheating in American colleges: more than...

Author / Editor information

Susan D. Blum is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. She is the author, most recently, of Lies That Bind: Chinese Truth, Other Truths and editor of Making Sense of Language: Readings in Culture and Communication.

Reviews

Robin Lakoff, University of California, Berkeley:

The prevalence of plagiarism among American college students affects all members of the university community in negative ways. The very phrase 'university community' implies a set of shared values; the existence of a culture of plagiarism among undergraduates undercuts that comfortable belief. And equally bad, finding ways to prevent plagiarism unproductively consumes instructors' and administrators' time and energy. To solve these problems, it is essential to understand what student plagiarism is: why they do it, why all our remedies fail, and why we need to care about it. This is the task undertaken by Susan D. Blum in My Word! Everyone who is a member of a university community will find insights here: Students will come to better understand why faculty and administrators are asking these impossible things of them; faculty and administrators will learn why their demands—simple enough to them—don't work for many students. Engagingly and clearly written and persuasively argued, My Word! is a book that raises and answers some of the most vexing questions addressed by members of modern academic communities.

Cathy Small, Northern Arizona University, author of My Freshman Year:

Susan D. Blum is genuinely interested in understanding her students and brings great care and compassion to her discussion of plagiarism. She generously draws on student interview segments throughout My Word! to illuminate today's campus climate. I especially like that Blum locates acts of cheating within the wider sociocultural context rather than regarding them simply as failures of personal morality.

Like Margaret Mead among the Samoans, Blum views her subjects—digital natives—as an exotic species. She notes their constant use of email, text messaging and the Internet. She declares them to be 'the wordiest and most writerly generation in a long while' and anoints their conversational tendency to quote TV shows and films an admirable form of 'intertextuality.' They are 'storming the barricades' of a new digital future, she claims, using the Internet to engage in collaborative work and to expand their knowledge base. She finds the hapless faculty members charged with teaching such students 'embattled and bewildered.' In other words: Get Twittering, grandma. Blum also embraces various postmodern theories of plagiarism. Internet-savvy, intertextual ingénues don't steal words; they engage in 'patchwriting' and 'pastiche,' constructing essays the way they create eclectic music playlists for their iPods. This practice, she argues, can be viewed as a form of homage or reverence as much as theft. In fact, as Ms. Blum’s research demonstrates, students today view writing — however we might define such a thing in a 'pastiche' culture — as a purely instrumental activity: a means to an end.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction: Plagiarism in College Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. A Question of Judgment: Plagiarism Is Not One Thing, Once and for All Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
2. Intertextuality, Authorship, and Plagiarism: My Word, Your Word, Their Word→Our Word Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
3. Observing the Performance Self: Multiplicity versus Authenticity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
4. Growing Up in the College Bubble: The Tasks and Temptations of Adolescence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
5. No Magic Bullet: Deconstructing Plagiarism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	148
Conclusion: What Is to Be Done? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 240
Illustrations
- Other: 1 table
Keywords: academic dishonesty; meanings of plagiarism; why people cheat; Plagiarism in school; understanding plagiarism

eBook

Published: June 15, 2011
ISBN: 9780801458408