Week 11: Plagiarism and Citation

Part 1:

Passages from Student Papers:

1.       ___ Kids don’t have any heroes to look up to in contemporary society, so we need to look to the past to find examples of leaders who approached perfection. We need to remember our Founding Fathers as men of unblemished good character and important accomplishments. For example, Joseph J. Ellis calls Thomas Jefferson a “fervent believer in human freedom,” a “sincere advocate of agrarian simplicity,” a man of “principled ideals,” and the author of “the most famous statement of equality in American history” (46).

WORKS CITED

 Ellis, Joseph J. “Jefferson’s Cop-out.” Civilization 3: (December/January, 1996-97): p 46-53.

I would grade this as “F”. The writer uses direct quotes and cites his source but the original source is taken out of context. The writer uses the quotations to further his or her argument, but this is not what the original author is trying to say at all.

2.       ___ Joseph J. Ellis argues that Jefferson inhabited throughout his life a series of contradictions between his beliefs, which were liberal and far ahead of their time, and his own behavior and position in society, which forced him into a much more conservative position (46). But Jefferson was not the only one who had to face the disjunction between a belief in freedom and the reality of being an owner of slaves. George Washington, for example, never expressed abolitionist sentiments, but he freed his slaves in his will.

WORKS CITED Ellis, Joseph J. “Jefferson’s Cop-out.” Civilization 3: (December/January, 1996-97): p 46-53.

I would rate this as “D”. It presents some of the original authors ideas alongside some of the writer’s own added ideas in such a way that it is unclear whose ideas are whose.

3.       ___ Now that DNA tests have established that Thomas Jefferson almost certainly was the father of at least on child by his slave Sally Hemmings, we can add yet another layer to the paradox Jefferson lived. He was an aristocrat who believed in equality, a slave owner who advocated abolition, a man wo loved the simple rural life but was also a sophisticated connoisseur of European architecture. Now we find out that he was also a man who denounced black women as inherently unattractive in his Notes on the State of Virginia, yet he was sleeping with one himself.

WORKS CITED Ellis, Joseph J. “Jefferson’s Cop-out.” Civilization 3: (December/January, 1996-97): p 46. Jefferson, Thomas. Notes on the State of Virginia.

I would grade this as a “C”. There is a bibliography entry but no parenthetical citation that acknowledges that a source is paraphrased. It seems to also include sources that exist but were not consulted, or that were used but left out.

4.       ___ If we look at history more closely, it becomes harder and harder to find anybody who is an unblemished hero. One famous American, Thomas Jefferson, was many things, but mostly he was a creature of paradox: a wealthy Virginian who wrote a famous statement of equality, a sincere advocate of simplicity who worshiped the art and architecture of Paris; above all, a strong believer in human freedom who lived his entire life as a slave owner. Jefferson himself acknowledged the massive gap between his principled ideals and his personal reality. We may not like to think so, but our whole American society is caught in that same central dilemma: between the promise of liberty and the fact of racial discrimination.

I think this deserves an “A”. The writer has used verbatim from the source and does not acknowledge the original source with parenthetical citation or a works cited entry. This might be considered to be intended to deceiving the audience that this is the author’s original work.

5.       ___ Joseph J. Ellis portrays Thomas Jefferson as a man who embodied, in his life and in his beliefs, “the central dilemma of American history: (46). For Ellis, the “most poignant” aspect of Jefferson as a creature of paradox: (46) was that he believed deeply in freedom, yet he couldn’t quite bring himself to free is slaves. Ellis calls attention to other important tensions as well: although Jefferson believed n living a simple rural life, he spent years living a cosmopolitan life in Paris, and served two terms in the White House at the center of American power; although he believed in equity he considered himself an aristocrat. Ellis’s portrait makes this central figure in American history more complex, and he suggests that American history as a whole is hard to get a grasp on, because it, too, is riddled with paradoxes. Ellis’s argument about American historical paradoxes is even more valid today than it was in Jefferson’s time. We live in a country of freedom and oppression, of ideals and cynicism, of opportunity and hopelessness. Which America you live in depends on who you are. Jefferson is particularly interesting because, as Ellis demonstrates, he managed to have one foot in two of these Americas at the same time, and it almost tore him apart. Whether the problems of post-9/11 America will now tear this society apart remains an open question, but an examination of Jefferson can help to point us to an answer.

WORKS CITED Ellis, Joseph J. “Jefferson’s Cop-out.” Civilization 3: (December/January, 1996-97): p 46-53.

Grade “G”. There is both parenthetical citation and a works cited entry. The writer refers to the source author by name also and paraphrases the original source accurately. Some of the formatting is confusing for me. I feel like the writer’s argument is headed in the right direction and It is clear that this additional point is theirs, but it is not sufficiently synthesized in such a way as to be completely clear. 

Part 2: Reflection on “self-plagiarism”

After reading this article it seems to me that most self-plagiarism is likely unintentional and that it might not be easy to see the harm in doing so. It also seems that this is a relatively new issue and that it might be misunderstood by many authors.

Part of me at first did not quite understand how you could avoid self-plagiarism in your introduction and methods section if you are one of the only authors who has previously published on this topic. When looking at research articles, especially on more obscure topics in psychology and anthropology, I often see authors referring to their own previously published work in the review of relevant literature in their introduction section. However, the authors typically acknowledge that this information is from a different publication and simply cite the most relevant information from previous research in order to frame the current research that they are presenting. The major issue seems to be when the authors pass off previously published information as new information or cut and splice information from previous work into another article without proper citation.

Personally, I have not recycled much work in my college career. I tend to like to take on topics that are different from other things I have previously studied in order to broaden my horizons. But admittedly, once you are familiar with a topic, and this would be especially true for scholars who have spent their entire lives studying the same topic, it is easy to not even notice that you are paraphrasing yourself since it seems like it might be difficult to remember exactly where the knowledge originally came from in your own work.  

I can certainly see why this is an issue when it comes to publishing and copyrights. We learned about how to determine how influential/relevant an article is based on the number of times it was cited previously in this class. Self-plagiarism might take away from the relevance/importance/influence of the original article and not give credit to the work of co-authors.

I can imagine that this could be a very muddy issue and something that would also we wise to discuss with a librarian while working on publishing new papers that utilize one’s previous work in some degree.