So, what is plagiarism? Consider the following statement:

Myth: The rubber soles of shoes or rubber tires on a car will protect you from being struck by lightning. Fact: Rubber-soled shoes and rubber tires provide NO protection from lightning. However, the steel frame of a hard-topped vehicle provides increased protection if you are not touching metal. Although you may be injured if lightning strikes your car, you are much safer inside the vehicle than outside.

The above sentence appears verbatim in:

Safeco.com, City of Fort Collins, CO, University of Victoria Elementary Education Program, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, Denton County TX, FEMA.GOV kids' site, Times Record News (a Scripps newspaper), Wichita Falls, Lightning Protection Service & Installation, Inc., Berlin, NJ, National Weather Service Forecast Office, Jackson, MS, Emergency Management Service, Portage, WI, WeatherBug.com (sponsored by Cool Savings, Inc.), Goddard Flight Center (NASA), Steuben County Gov., Bath, NY, Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, Emergency Management Service, Tuscaloosa, AL, Factmonster.com, Kidzworld.com, Florida Family Insurance Co., Inc., weatherandkids.com, bikeleague.org, Emergency Management, Springfield, MO, United Electric, Inc., cybercom.net, vaudevilleproductions.com, easyweb.easynet.co.uk, Chiltern District County, Buckinghamshire, England, and dozens of others...

WHY? Producers of text in civic contexts--for the public good--do not have profit motives or proprietary interests; the  more the texts circulate, the better, and specific uses of texts make attribution unnecessary or undesirable.

The concept of plagiarism varies in different contexts and 'textural cultures.' The textural culture of public service operates with less proprietary interest than either business or academia. The textural culture of business operates with selective proprietary interest, based on goals.

Textural context in academia (research):

• is highly individualistic
• is based on credit cycles of individual production, invention, and publication
• privileges the ownership and attribution of ideas, concepts, and words to express them

Textural context in academia (teaching):

• is focused on individual growth
• is preoccupied with evaluation of individual achievement
• recognizes and rewards original thinking and innovation by novices
• tends to perpetuate (and teach) assumptions about authorship from its own context

The values in our context of teaching include the following:

 We care that students are developing (through their own effort).

We want to know we are evaluating their learning authentically.

Secondarily, we want students to learn to do things the way we do.

Secondarily, we want to emphasize ethical behavior and prepare students for social and occupational challenges.

Why might a student plagiarize? Perhaps it is because we tend to use writing as a test. In higher education, we tend to use assessment-oriented assignments. The potential for submitting others' work is greater if the assignment is assessment-oriented.

• A learning-oriented assignment is particularized, asks for multiple texts, is goal-driven, and is more integrated. It is difficult for a student to submit others' work, there is less of a reason to do so, and 'learning' is the outcome.
• An assessment-oriented assignment is generalized, requests a single text, is format driven, and is less integrated. 

Please click on the "Examples of Assignments" subsection to view Anson's suggestions for assignments used in a variety of ways.

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