Imitation, not theft: a mixed-methods study of plagiarism

This mixed-methods study examines how student writers’ use of others’ work that is labeled plagiaristic may actually represent productive attempts to engage in scholarly discourse through imitation, which has a long history of use in pedagogy. The study’s two research questions were: do points of transition into new composing contexts correlate with higher rates of plagiarism? and: is the education students receive about plagiarism in lower-level composition classes transferable to new composing contexts? The research conducted at Dalton State College includes the analysis of records kept by its Dean of Students Office and interviews with instructors. Findings from this project may inform a more understanding approach to plagiarism reporting and handling grounded in the potential of imitative writing as a pedagogical strategy to help students develop their composition skills. The study offers insights into the prevalence and handling of plagiarism at the college, on both an institutional and instructor level.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Author dc:creator

• Burger, Amy

Contributors dc:contributor

• Stewart, Jennifer L.
• Hunter, Rik; Palmer, Heather
• College of Arts and Sciences

• Academic writing--Study and teaching
• Imitation in literature
• Plagiarism

Licence

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English, eng

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/701

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.utc.edu:theses-1865