Plagiarism: The Worm of Reason

Abstract

Several years ago while attending a writing conference, I asked a member of a special session, a college director of composition who had just presented a new approach to the teaching of writing, what safeguards against plagiarism he had built into his program. As an English teacher, I have always felt slightly inadequate when dealing with plagiarism, and I was merely curious as to whether people who designed and administered composition programs ever worried about the problem. The speaker reacted to my question like a born-again Christian who was forced to read Freud's The Future of an Illusion. His expression grew tight, he looked down at his papers silently (as if thinking, God give me strength!). At first I thought that he wasn't going to answer, but finally, with a reluctant smile of congeniality, he said: This program avoids the evils of plagiarism. If you were following what I was saying, you should realize that if a student feels properly engaged in the process of writing, he doesn't need to copy from others.

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