Originality, imitation, and plagiarism [Book Notes]

April 22nd, 2008 Stewart Posted in book notes, ou-tulsa, writing |

Originality, imitation, and plagiarism : teaching writing in the digital age [WorldCat.org]

OU-Tulsa
Call number PN 167 O75 2008

(With this post, I’m adding a feature to my blog to point out noteworthy additions to the OU-Tulsa Library book collection. In the future, for a quick run-down of all these posts, just select “book notes” under Categories on the right-hand column.)

Plagiarism is a significant problem for higher ed in the internet age. This text, edited by Caroline Eisner and Martha Vicinus, does an admirable job of bringing to light all the concerns and opportunities compositionists and writing instructors now face. Three sections, Originality, Imitation and Plagiarism, respectively, contain chapters that fully examine the nuances of these concerns in modern academic writing.

For example, the section on Originality includes discussions on copyright in the information economy, ethics in scientific scholarly publishing, open access publishing in physics, and authorship versus authority in the age of the wiki. Imitation authors consider the role of genre writing, education through imitation, and the changing nature of “common knowledge” over time. The final section, Plagiarism, discusses matters of plagiarism as part of an academic discipline, as copyright infringement, as regards detection software (Turnitin.com), and as a convention of the Western academic culture.

Nothing about this book suggests a “light” treatment of these issues; instead, authors from a diverse range of backgrounds and interests consider these issues deeply and with consideration. A commendable effort, and one which should be of interest to anyone who writes for scholarship, or who assigns writing assignments to their students.

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