Re: Plagiarism (fwd)

[Eric Crump <wleric@showme.missouri.edu>]

Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 16:42:48 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jan Readling <jreadlin@Pigseye.Kennesaw.EDU>
To: "Moderated Writing Center forum." <WCENTR-L@MIZZOU1.MISSOURI.EDU>

Eric:
	I am a graduate student at Kennesaw State University.  I
understand from your message that you call yourself a social
constructionist.  Can you tell me what you know regarding the impact
social construction has had on writing centers?
	Thanks.
							Jan Readling
On Mon, 12 Aug 1996, Eric Crump wrote:

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 12 Aug 1996 10:18:18 -0500
> From: Valerie Balester <v-balester@TAMU.edu>
> To: Multiple recipients of list <wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu>
> Subject: Re: Plagiarism
>
> Jo, this seems like a better system than ours.  I like this idea.
>
>  1) We keep the students' folders of
> >graded work for a year after FYC, then permit them to be copied. Then the
> >original folders are destroyed. This has made it very easy to get our hands
 on
> >material in cases of grade questions, etc., and very few students seem to
 keep
> >photocopies of all their papers that will then migrate into frat files, etc.
> >Only a very small percentage of students comes and asks to copy their files.
> >All
> >this costs us is the allocation of one basement office as the file room.
> >
> I also had trouble with the CE article you mention.  Hey, I am a good
> social constructionist, but this is still plagiarism.  I do think we should
> care, and in all the programs I have been in, we have always understood the
> difference between what we call intentional and unintentional plagiarism,
> the latter being, in part, someone learning about boundaries and
> appropriation in an acceptable way.
>
> >I'm glad to know, btw, that other people out there still care about this
> >issue.
> >When I read articles like the one in last December's _College English_ that
> >argues that most plagiarism is just a sign of growth and that good social
> >constructionists shouldn't treat it as anything else, I begin to wonder if I
> >shouldn't have been a horticulturalist after all.....
> >
>
> Valerie Balester
> Director of Writing Programs
> Texas A&M University
> College Station, TX 77843-4227
> (409) 845-3155
> (409) 862-2292 FAX
> v-balester@tamu.edu
>