Tuesday, February 26, 2013

"The Problems of Plagiarism" by Rebecca Moore Howard

Rebecca Moore Howard’s “The Problems of Plagiarism” opens up the questions I think many students, teachers, writers, and more can relate to: What is plagiarism and how can it be defined, who is to be punished for such crimes, and how do you catch the plagiarist in the first place? Then arose the idea of “patchwriting,” in which Howard believes should not be considered plagiarism. Patchwriting, to Howard, is the changing or deleting of a few words to create a new sentence out of the previous one. Agreeing with Harold Bloom on his comment noting that “all writing today is influenced,” and “we do not write alone, and often it is texts, not people, with whom we collaborate.” (p. 4)

College sources today suggest that good writers cite most everything and do not patchwrite.(p.4) Howard argues that it is simply a way of putting down in words what we have learned from scholarly writers, and in the medieval times it would not be considered so criminal like.

How do you feel about patchwriting?
Should it be considered plagiarism or not?
Why do you think there is so much confusion regarding plagiarism?

6 comments:

  1. The way patchwriting is described sounds a lot like paraphrasing. I'm not really sure how they differ, but I know paraphrasing requires the author to cite the original source. So if somebody "patchwrites" something without referencing the original work, then it's plagiarism.

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    Replies





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      Delete
  2. I agree with Walt that patch writing does sound very similar to paraphrasing because trying to paraphrase something is when you have something and you're trying to put it in your own or different words. According to Howard that's what patch writing is so that would make patch writing a form of plagiarism. So if someone doesn't reference the author who they patch worked from, then that would be plagiarism.

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  3. I believe that patchwriting should be considered plagiarism because it was not an original idea and there was no credit given to the original author or creator. I also believe that one is lazy for using patchwriting, I think that people patchwrite because they don’t want to put in the extra effort to cite the source, so instead they try to change a couple of words to attempt to make the thought or saying their own.

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  4. I agree with Janae, patchwriting should be considered plagiarism. By only changing the words with similar words, it is not enough to paraphrase a sentence. The structure of the sentence also needs to be changed without changing the real point of the reading. Just like what Janae said, people that do patchwriting is just lazy to produce a better sentence

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  5. i couldn't believe that i would ever be re-unite with my ex-lover, i was so traumatize staying all alone with no body to stay by me and to be with me, but i was so lucky one certain day to meet this powerful spell caster Dr Akhere, after telling him about my situation he did everything humanly possible to see that my lover comes back to me, indeed after casting the spell my ex-lover came back to me less than 48 hours, my ex-lover came back begging me that he will never leave me again, 3 months later we got engaged and married, if you are having this same situation just contact Dr Akhere on his email: AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com thanks very much sir for restoring my ex-lover back to me, his email: AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com or call / whatsapp: +2349057261346












































































































































































    hindi ako makapaniwala na kailanman ay muling makiisa ako sa aking kasintahan, labis akong na-trauma sa pananatiling nag-iisa na walang katawan na manatili sa akin at makakasama ko, ngunit napakasuwerte ako sa isang tiyak na araw upang matuganan si Dr Akhere, matapos sabihin sa kanya ang tungkol sa aking sitwasyon ginawa niya ang lahat ng makataong posible upang makita na ang aking kasintahan ay bumalik sa akin, sa katunayan matapos na ihagis ang spell ang aking dating kasintahan ay bumalik sakin ng mas masg 48 now, dumating ang dating kasintahan ko. bumalik sa pagmamakaawa sa akin na hindi na niya ako pababayaan, 3 buwan mamaya kami ay nakipag-ugnay at nag-asawa, kung nagkakaroon ka ng parehong sitwasyong ito makipag-ugnay lamang kay Dr Akhere sa kanyang email:
    AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com maraming salamat sa sir sa pagpapanumbalik ng aking dating kasintahan bumalik sa akin, ang kanyang email: AKHERETEMPLE@gmail.com o tumawag / whatsapp: +2349057261346

    ReplyDelete