(法学专业英语Unit1)Text B.doc

Text B Academic Integrity and Student Plagiarism: A Question of Education, Not Ethics Susan D. Blum Student plagiarism is a problem on many college campuses. The two main approaches that institutions use to prevent it call for treating plagiarism either as morally wrong or as a crime. But neither avenue can be universally successful. Institutions that approach the problem of plagiarism as a matter of morality often create honor codes. Such codes appeal to the desire of students to do the right thing. The codes assume that, with appropriate social pressure, they will. Students are asked to affirm that they will practice virtuous conduct as members of an academic community. But while students may subscribe to the principles embodied in the notion of academic integrity, other principles can lead them to plagiarize or accept their classmates’ infractions. For instance, friendship and friendliness — student solidarity — are virtues that often take precedence over adherence to an academic code of honor. The second approach to preventing plagiarism — treating it as breaking a rule, or as a crime rather than a sin — emphasizes law and enforcement. Many colleges regularly revise regulations dealing with academic integrity, and call on faculty members and administrators to vigilantly enforce them. Colleges now also often rely on electronic plagiarism-prevention resources like Turnitin — whereby professors submit student papers to that Web site and receive an “originality report” demonstrating whether any part matches existing works in the database. Although some students may embrace rules governing academic integrity, others are likely to see them as akin to other regulations or laws that they follow reluctantly or ignore. The laws regarding drinking, for instance, are routinely flouted at almost every college, and those regarding music downloading, a form of sharing intellectual property, are broadly disregarded. Traditional efforts by administrators to prevent plagiarism fa