Plagiarism Presentation

1. Bloch, J. (2001). Plagiarism and the ESL students: From printed to electronic texts. In D. Belcher & A. Hirvela (Eds.), Linking Literacies: Perspectives on L2 Reading-Writing Connections (pp. 209-228). Michigan: University of Michigan Press.

 The notion of intellectual property and authorship (p. 210)
• Printed forms vs. electronic forms
• Cultural or non-cultural

 Any cross-cultural comparison runs the danger of dichotomizing the two cultures into polar opposites, presenting one culture as the opposite of the other (p. 213)
• Social factors
• The notion of intellectual authorship
• The changing definition of plagiarism

 Plagiarism from students’ perspectives

 Teaching about plagiarism
• Printed forms – Explicitly teach the norms of plagiarism (p. 220)
• Electronic texts – The distinction between what is private and what is public, the basis for determining whether something has been plagiarized, is even less clear in the electronic medium than in the medium of print (p. 212)

2. Pecorari, D. Plagiarism and the ESL students: From printed to electronic texts. In D. Belcher & A. Hirvela (Eds.), Linking Literacies: Perspectives on L2 Reading-Writing Connections (pp. 229-245). Michigan: University of Michigan Press.

 The concept of plagiarism is fully embedded within a social, political, and cultural matrix that cannot be meaningfully separated from its interpretation (229)
 Plagiarism is far from a clearly defined construct (p. 233)
 There is not as yet scholarly consensus as to whether electronic sources should or should not be treated as distinct from more traditional media for the purposes of debate about intellectual property (p. 234)
 From Pecorari’s study, the reaction toward plagiarism from university is that “punishment is the norm” (p. 243)
 Because of the conventions for citation are not universal, both students and their teachers need policies that permit new practices to be absorbed gradually, like all other new skills, and that allow students a margin of error as they try to hit a new target. Unfortunately, the majority of institutional responses to plagiarism surveyed here deny students that support (p. 244)

Class Discussion
Group 1
1. How do you define plagiarism? Is your definition different from your classmates? How (social, political, cultural factors)?
2. As a literacy educator, how do you avoid plagiarism in your students’ writing?
3. Bloch pointed out that “lacking formal knowledge of the rules governing the use of intellectual property, these students may produce texts that generate charges of plagiarism when there in fact was no actual intent to steal or cheat” (p. 221). Do you agree with his statement? Why?

Group 2
4. Should the importance of electronic texts weigh the same as printed texts? Please explain why.
5. How do you describe plagiarism?
6. Pecorari posed a question in her article, “is plagiarism, then, a defect in the product or in the process”? (p. 234) How would answer this question? Please explain why.

Group 3
7. What should teachers do when plagiarism occurs in a writing class consisting of English-speaking and non-English speaking writers? Should they be treated differently? Please explain why.
8. When was your first time to be introduced to the concept of plagiarism? Where and how did you get informed? Did your writing style change after that?
9. How do you define intellectual authorship? How is your definition different from other classmates?

Third Reflection on Ivanic and Camps (Sept. 23rd)

Ivanic and Camps (2001) mentioned that “the term ‘voice types’ useful to refer to the culturally recognizable ‘way with words’ that align a speaker or writer with one social group rather than another” (p. 6). I found this statement very interesting because there were some words that I tended to use in my papers because I thought they were more polite and not too strong, which might seem awkward to some Americans. My professor pointed out that the way I used “could” in my paper can be my ESL way of writing where he would have used “can” in that sentence. If word selection counts as part of my voice, do I need to change it based on my audience? How do I find a balance between audience and voice? Also, I found that my writing has been changing after being in the United States for four years. Writing is not only influenced by the culture from the L1 country, but also the environment, interaction with others and publications we read.

The authors also mentioned about how individuals can practice their power to accept or refuse privileged voices. If the context turns into a communist country, will Ivanic and Camps’ statement on voice stay the same? How do individuals exercise their voices while the communist country only accepts one? How do teachers encourage their students to have their personal voices in that kind of framework?

Second Reflection on Kaplan's article (Sept. 16th)

It was interesting to see different writing styles from Kaplan’s article; however, I wonder if Kaplan over generalized how L1 can influence how people compose in L2 by categorizing through ethnicity or language. In the article, Kaplan pointed out that in the Arabic language, people develop their writing with both positive and negative points. This writing style is very easily recognized in Chinese writing (in Taiwan) as well in that we are taught to include both positive and negative viewpoints in our essays in L1. By means of both perspectives, we are able to show readers how we understand the problems and which position we take. However, when we are taking TOEFL classes (in cram schools), we are always urged to provide only one perspective because that is not the way that Americans write.

Kaplan also mentioned about how Arabic students use coordinating elements when they write in English. I remember that teachers from the TOEFL cram school always reminded us that we should use coordinating elements as often as possible to connect ideas together and create a smooth flow in the writings. By using many coordinating elements, it is more possible to get a higher TOEFL grade. I am not sure where this strategy came from, but it seems like the teachers believe that the TOEFL composition reviewers prefer this kind of writing style.

I started to think that L1 might not always be the one reason why we write in English differently from Americans. There are other reasons that can influence how we compose. Like the two examples I have above, it could be the stereotypes that teachers or schools have for American writing. Cultures and L1s are not necessarily always the reasons that create differences in writing in English. There can be other external influences.

Also, I was wondering why we need to write like native speakers of English. I understand that we have to write according to the audience. However, if we follow how to write like Americans, aren’t we colonized by English speakers? Will we at the same time lose our voices? Which native speakers’ model should we follow? We cannot assume that every English speaking country writes the same and how do writing teachers decide what to teach?

Literacy Autobiography

I started learning English when I was a 5th grader, but I did not learn it in my elementary school. At that time, the government did not implement any English courses at the elementary level. I began to learn English at private cram schools before entering junior high school. At the cram schools, I had English speakers (American and British) and Mandarin speakers (Taiwanese and Hong Kongese) as my teachers. It was a lot of fun in the class because grammar and writing were not the main focuses. The classes emphasized oral literacy and some of the conversations were real-world related while some of them were in textbooks. I did not really get to write or read that much until I entered junior high school. However, I wrote to my cousins who live in Vancouver and Philadelphia constantly to practice my writing. I continued going to the cram school until I graduated from junior high school.

After entering junior high school and senior high school, the classes were exam-oriented. The teachers were Taiwanese/Mandarin speakers. Each chapter in the textbooks had the same layout – a short article, a vocabulary list with Chinese definitions and example sentences, sentence structures, and questions about the article. We spent a lot of time on drilling and grammar structures. The only time we got to talk was when the teachers asked us questions (questions listed in the textbooks) about the articles. However, not everybody had the chance to talk because the class size was too big (around 45 to 50 students). I was able to make simple conversations before entering junior high school and the class was not that difficult, except grammar. We were not taught how to do real-world writing, but were drilled with example sentences. We are not asked to draft, revise or peer review our writing and never got feedback from the teachers. What we got back was grammatical corrections. The ultimate writing goal was to pass the high school entrance exam.

The English class in high school was slightly different. We had to keep a diary once a week to exchange with another student from other classes. It was fun even though nobody checked the writing. I was not sure if what I wrote was correct. Other than the diary, we were taught to practice writing to fit the goal of college entrance exam (250 words for the writing). It was not too much fun because the writing style is the same as junior high school. No writing techniques were introduced, like outlining and brainstorming. Oral literacy was not emphasized and grammar still possessed the most valuable position. The layout of the textbook was similar to the one in junior high school.

I majored in English when I was in college. The classes were different from high school but they were still kind of teacher-centered. The writing classes were boring and drill-oriented. Grammar correction was still the focus. We read many different kinds of books, but mainly only for class purposes. I tried to talk with my classmates in English in order to practice but they did not seem to appreciate my efforts.

I learned Japanese in college too. The teacher was a Taiwanese speaker who knows how to speak Japanese. The experience was a failure. What we did in the class was to repeat what the teacher said on the textbook. We did not get to do any real conversations. The only thing I remember was that we were asked to do drills. It was really boring and I did not get to practice Japanese at all. Now I can only say some simple greeting phrases which I learned from my grandparents who were under Japanese education a long time ago (they were educated in Japanese in Taiwan and then went to Japan for higher education). As for the reading and writing, we read the passage in the class as a group, but did not have any chance to write. I guess our level was too basic to start writing. I can barely speak any Japanese now. I wish I could have spent more time on Japanese.

First reflection (Sept. 9th)

After reading Casanave’s articles, a few questions came up in my mind. Some of the questions are related to the usage of textbooks and some are about the power relationships within schools.

1. Beliefs and Realities in Controversies in Second Language Writing:
The author talked about how writing teachers might be outliners or brainstormers which can affect how they teach composition. I was thinking that other than outlining and brainstorming, what are other methods that can assist writing? How do teachers decide what method(s) to be used in a classroom? Since students might react differently toward the methods they learn in class and we do not want them to shy away from developing their individuality and voices. Do we need to incorporate writing textbooks for composition classes?
Casanave also mentioned about teachers’ choices on textbooks and some schools assigning textbooks for teachers. I think that the decision we make about textbooks is important. When we decide what books are to be used, we are supporting certain publishers and the knowledge that they want people to believe. It is like those publishers are colonizing the publishing industry. Do we really believe what they say or are we just following the mainstream perspectives?

2. Looking ahead to more sociopolitical-oriented case study:
I was wondering if exam-based writing is beneficial for students. What can students learn from it? Are there any hidden dis/advantages behind exam-based writing? Since writings are designed to pass exams in some countries, how do teachers balance the real-world writing and exam-based writing in the class? Even though we learn how creative writing or different writing techniques can assist students to develop their voices in the TESOL program, it is difficult to incorporate what we learned to writing classes because schools have the power to decide what is to be taught in order to increase their reputations.