The Ethics of Plagiarism: How Genre Affects Writers' Use of Source Materials

plagiarism. Are we giving students a complete understanding of what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it? Because plagiarism is viewed as one of the ultimate violations of ethics in the academic world, many faculty limit their classroom discussion of it to moral exhortations, threats about penalties for violating university policies on academic integrity, and warnings about the ruined careers and reputations of people publicly charged with plagiarism. Faculty members are likely to take an absolutist view on plagiarism. In fact, plagiarism is a relatiue, not absolute matter. Whether something is plagiarism depends on context, circumstance, the audience’s expectations, the writer’s intentions, and perhaps most importantly, the genre or subgenre into which the piece of writing fits. The academic world’s standards for documentation are not the same as the business world’s. To view documenta-