Week Twelve #12: Klausman: Plagarism and the Internet

On the Klausman, Plagarism and the Internet article:

In this article, Klausman examines three different forms of plagiarism: direct, paraphrased, and patch-worked. Direct is when a portion of a text is quoted without the proper quotation markings. Paraphrased plagiarism occurs when some of the words are changed in a direct quotation but not enough to make it actually paraphrased. Patch-worked is when only one source is cited and multiple ideas are used, but not properly.

I like that Klausman explains these in his classes. I think that it would be good for everyone who's ever going to write a paper to have someone walk them through what plagiarism looks like and what an acceptable paper looks like. You have to know what you're supposed to be doing before you can do it. I think that by showing students what is and isn't acceptable they can have a reference to go off of and that they will be more likely to catch themselves in the act of plagiarizing and be able to correct it rather than be graded down for missing it.

I think it's interesting that Klausman says that even though our technology would lead to more easily plagiarized work, most of the time, plagiarism is an accident. I think it's true--we might think that we are acceptably paraphrasing an idea, but without the instructions of what the proper form is, we cannot do so.

I am confused about patch-work plagiarism and I learned how to define different kinds of plagiarism. Before reading this, I could explain that I might think something was plagiarized, but I might not have been able to tell you why; now I am equipped with different terms that apply to different situations.