In “Beyond ‘Gotcha!’: Situating
Plagiarism in Policy and Pedagogy,” Mary Prices argues that common knowledge,
or knowledge that one doesn’t cite, is context-dependent and relies heavily on
the discipline. Have you ever taken a course outside of your discipline where
you felt inclined to cite what might be considered common knowledge in the
field? How can instructors better address this concern to students outside of
their discipline?
In “The Fair Use Doctrine: History,
Application, and Implication for (New Media) Writing Teachers,” Rife believes that composition instructors’ pedagogy should place stronger emphasis on
teaching students how to evaluate whether source material they choose to
incorporate into their projects passes the four factors test. When you begin
teaching, do you plan on making this a component of your course? What problems and/or
benefits do you see arising from introducing and emphasizing fair use to your
students?
Tom,
ReplyDeleteI’m wracking my brain trying to think of an instance when I cited material that was common knowledge in a discipline outside my own. The problem for me is that I didn’t take many classes outside of my discipline when I was in undergrad. The closest I can think was in a World Religions course (which was technically within my discipline). I did one project on Darwin and religion and another on Aung San Suu Kyi. Neither of these are individuals were people that I knew a great deal about. I specifically recall that for the second, my professor commented that “the paper was thoroughly cited” which was possibly his nice way of saying I had over-cited. For me, this is a bad habit from the fear of plagiarism instilled in students. I think there are three steps to avoid citing common knowledge. The first is to educate students about plagiarism in a way that empowers them to contribute their voice without fear of mistakes. The second would be to help them understand what discourse communities are. The last, and possibly more time-consuming would be to make sure they research that discourse community, or that discipline. We may not be able to bring them totally up to speed, but we can start. I have another example of how a professor put this kind of thought into action, but I’m really trying not to ramble!
I too have shared your fear of accidentally plagiarizing and therefore over citing. I like your suggestion of empowering students. I would love to hear in class what other strategies you have learned from past professors regarding citing sources.
ReplyDelete