Plagiarism: Morality and Metaphor
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PLAGIARISM: MORALITY AND METAPHOR A Dissertation by BRANDON DULANE BARNES Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University-Commerce in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2014 PLAGIARISM: MORALITY AND METAPHOR A Dissertation by BRANDON DULANE BARNES Approved by: Advisor: Bill Bolin Committee: Donna Dunbar-Odom Tabetha Adkins William Thompson Head of Department: M. Hunter Hayes Dean of the College: Salvatore Attardo Dean of Graduate Studies: Arlene Horne iii Copyright © 2014 Brandon Dulane Barnes iv ABSTRACT PLAGIARISM: MORALITY AND METAPHOR Brandon Dulane Barnes, PhD Texas A&M University-Commerce, 2014 Advisor: Bill Bolin, PhD The purpose of this project is to analyze, in recent select plagiarism commentary both within and outside composition studies, the practical definitions of, proposed methods of preventing, and common ways of punishing or responding to plagiarism, bringing explicit attention to the moral reasoning that may justify or not justify each and devoting particular attention to metaphors that signal and advance such reasoning. My aim in this study is to encourage members of the composition field and other teachers of writing to approach plagiarism with critical, deliberate clarity, resulting in an enhanced ability to articulate to themselves and their relevant audiences (colleagues, students, public) why teachers and scholars approach plagiarism in the ways they do. I close this project with two recommendations for further inquiry which may help to resolve seemingly unnecessarily unresolved questions regarding instruction in citation conventions. v DEDICATION I dedicate this work to my family, especially my parents, Robin Harvey, Garry Barnes, and Ruth Barnes; and my sister, Brooke. Your fervent, unending support of my education— moral, spiritual, and intellectual—made this possible. To Amber, ever the equanimous Leia to my impetuous Han. To the late Katherine Norris, my welcoming grandmother-in-law. Her last words to me were “Get it finished.” Finally, to my daughters, Elizabeth and Katherine, apples of my eye. May your moral compasses always point to true north. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank everyone, especially Josh, who ever said an encouraging word to me about this project and who ever asked, with interest real or—politely—feigned, what it was about. The practice these opportunities afforded me to wrench specific from vague notions proved invaluable toward the project’s sluggish but eventual completion. I wish to thank, of course, the members of my committee; their support, patience, and personable exchange of ideas made lighter the burdens of writing. Special thanks to Dr. Bill Bolin for sharing his humor as well as his guidance in this subject of mutual interest. I want to extend very warm thanks to my colleagues. First, to my fellow graduate students in The Merce: Toni, CJ, Michelle, Sean, Melissa, LeAnn, Jonne—the food, wine, and washing machine I thank you so much for—and JP. Second but no less important, the Tarleton Crew: Rochelle, Marc, Ben, and Chris. Who can say, fellow graduate students, just how much your many invigorating conversations propelled me through? My colleagues at Trinity Valley Community College deserve special mention for their enthusiastic support of my efforts. Bill, Michael, Chris, James, and Amy—thank you. I work on one of the friendliest halls in academe. Special thanks also to James, who goes by “one of my colleagues” in an ensuing page. I would like to thank very much my wife, Amber, who understood, just as Virginia Woolf insisted, that a room of one’s own is necessary to write, and who listened again and again to my thinking aloud. She did more than read this dissertation: she lived through it with me. I love you, Amber. I must thank the late Dr. Randall Popken of blessed memory. You, sir, made a happy rhetorician of me after all. vii Finally, my deepest gratitude to Dr. Cleatus and Connie Rattan, whose warm sponsorship and dialogues over fifteen years have been of untold value, and from whom I have learned, perhaps more than from any others, that the life of the mind is self-justifying; and whom it simply would not have done to disappoint should I have failed to complete this project. I offer it, completed, as a pledge of my abiding affection for them. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 Plagiarism and Metaphor ................................................................................... 4 Outline of Chapters .......................................................................................... 8 2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ....................................................................... 11 Moral Philosophy ........................................................................................... 11 Egoism ................................................................................................. 13 Natural Law ........................................................................................ 18 Utilitarianism ....................................................................................... 22 Respect for Persons (Kantianism) ....................................................... 25 Virtue Ethics and Care Ethics ............................................................ 30 Metaphor ........................................................................................................ 35 Plagiarism ...................................................................................................... 42 Before 1995 .......................................................................................... 42 After 1995 .......................................................................................... 50 3. DEFINITIONS ..................................................................................................... 63 Definition and the Practical Syllogism ............................................................ 63 Plagiarism Is a “Viable Option” ..................................................................... 69 Plagiarism Is Collaboration with Texts ........................................................... 80 Plagiarism Is Bad Manners/Breach of Convention .......................................... 92 ix Plagiarism Is a Literacy Practice? ................................................................. 100 Plagiarism Is a Means to Keep the Gates ...................................................... 106 Plagiarism Is a Sin ........................................................................................ 116 Plagiarism Is an Offense to Education .......................................................... 122 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 127 4. PREVENTION ................................................................................................... 128 The Plagiarism-Proof Assignment: “More Ethically Satisfying”? ................. 132 Instruction in Source Reading: From Dancing to Digestion .......................... 139 Exhortation: Of Preaching and Teaching ...................................................... 148 The Threat of Getting Caught: Poison, Prison, and Pacts with the Devil ....... 156 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 169 5. PUNISHMENT AND RESPONSE ..................................................................... 174 Expulsion: “Death Penalty”? ........................................................................ 176 Failure for the Course: “Dramatic Device” ................................................... 184 Grade Reduction, Including Zero: Plugging in Formulas ................................ 194 Mandatory Revision: Liberation and Deficiency of Anger ............................ 201 Conclusion: Further Difficulties ................................................................... 220 6. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 232 Plagiarism Metaphors: Which Should Stay, Which Should Go? ................... 234 Moral Theories in the Literature ................................................................... 238 x Remaining Challenges of Theory: Definition and Acquisition ........................ 243 WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................. 258 VITA .................................................................................................................................. 275 1 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION This project’s goals—explicating the recent morality and metaphorization of plagiarism primarily in composition studies—might be best understood if placed in a broader context. The field of composition studies is rife with publications exploring the social, political, and economic impetuses and implications of its concepts and practices. By comparison, the ethical and, still more, the moral appear to receive far less explicit attention. This result is, I suspect, the product of two or possibly three causes: (1) the term “moral” too readily connotes or is synonymous with priggishness and authoritarianism; (2) scholars in the field may practically assume that what is meant by “ethical” is more or less self-explicating within the wider social and political goals of liberation