Beyond Plagiarism
Transforming Pedagogy to Help Students Write with Sources
How to teach students to properly cite sources rather than stumbling into plagiarism
Description
When academia treats plagiarism as a right-or-wrong issue, university students are expected to already understand how to avoid this act of academic dishonesty. However, source use is filled with complexities, and student plagiarism is often connected to student struggles with the subtleties of academic writing. Scholarly work that involves incorporation of sources is, in fact, a complex network of processes. Beyond Plagiarism offers a pedagogical approach to plagiarism that is intended to help instructors, administrators, and advisors address plagiarism and mentor students’ understanding of these processes and their development as academic writers and scholars.
Starting with an overview of the complexities underlying plagiarism and source use, the book offers practical tools that teachers can integrate in their classes. These tools include examples of modifications to syllabi; integrating processes into assignment design, classroom support, and feedback and grading; meta-texts to guide student reflection on their use of sources; explanations of why source use is important in academic writing; guiding students through learning how to read for writing, analyze genres to better understand expectations, and practice paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting in their own assignments; approaching AI tools strategically; and modeling successful strategies for each step of the scholarly process. By taking a pedagogical approach, expert members of the academic community can help students understand how academic writing builds on and incorporates sources; provide support for students to learn to do these things through a process approach; and respond to situations of plagiarism with nuance, compassion, and a growth mindset.
Kenny Harsch is the former Director of the English Language Institute and former Undergraduate Coordinator & Advisor in the Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
Betsy Gilliland is Professor in the Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi Mānoa.
Reviews
“We know it’s important for our students to write, but how do we help them excel while avoiding the pitfalls of plagiarism and AI use? In Beyond Plagiarism, Kenny Harsch and Betsy Gilliland offer real solutions for rethinking academic dishonesty and helping students become invested in their roles as writers. By treating plagiarism as a pedagogical challenge first and foremost, they suggest constructive ways to engage novice writers in academic disciplines, provide feedback, and model effective reading and writing strategies. This book includes philosophical insights into the writing process as well as concrete ideas for designing plagiarism-proof assignments. It will be of tremendous use to writing center tutors along with faculty in source-driven, writing-intensive disciplines.”
- Shelby M. Balik, Metropolitan State University of Denver
“Harsch and Gilliland take an animated and refreshing approach to the very complex process by which imitation as a form of learning can too easily become plagiaristic. This approach is enabled through the lens of English as a Second Language and Second Language Studies; a deep belief that a pedagogical mindset towards plagiarism is liberating to committed teachers; and, their highly organized orientation towards a productive use of instructing and learning time. The insertion of question boxes throughout is a brilliant method to promote the reader to reflect on their own processes of learning to write, the disciplinary standards, and what is considered common knowledge in their fields.”
- Kathleen O. Kane, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa
Beyond Plagiarism offers clear and easy-to-implement solutions with suggestions that extend well beyond addressing plagiarism. The advice given is directly applicable, well-reasoned, and clearly grounded in experience.
- James Tierney, Yale English Language Programs