Plagiarism in Sociology Courses

Don Barrett

Plagiarism: :"the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work" (Random House Dictionary, 2^nd edition, 1987).

Plagiarism is against university policy and can result in suspension from the university. The policy on plagiarism, as well as other policies on academic honesty, are in the catalog -- you should be familiar with these policies. Besides violating university policy, it is important for me to know that you understand the material and can summarize it in your own words. Thus when I encounter plagiarism, the assignment is graded 0 and the grade cannot be replaced. Depending upon the severity, I may also report the incident to the Office of the Vice President of Student Affairs.

In my courses you are frequently asked to write an answer that illustrates your understanding of someone else's work.  In these situations it is easy to slip into plagiarism unintentionally. My rule is that if it sounds like the words of the author, or is only a slight alteration of the author's words, then it counts as plagiarism. Since there are occasionally problems with understanding what is plagiarism, I am giving an example below.

For this example, I'm going to use a paragraph from an article of mine on working class gay men that appears in Gay Masculinities. The paragraph describes how interviews were conducted: 

Understanding how subjects perceive themselves, present themselves to others, and the intricacies of their social and sexual relationships requires in-depth interviewing procedures that capture relatively subtle differences in expression, behavior, and feelings. In keeping with previous qualitative research on gay men (Connell, 1995; Brendstrup and Schmidt, 1990; Siegel and Krauss, 1991; Weitz, 1989), interviews were conducted as loosely guided conversations. The interview had no pre-defined structure other than a standard set of introductory comments. However, to insure that specific topics were covered in all interviews, an inventory checklist of topics was reviewed periodically during the interview. This interview style allows for spontaneity and comfort on the part of the subject and allows the subject to describe his feelings and his interactions with others in his own terms.

Suppose that after reading this, the following was submitted for a methods course as a description of how an interview of students was to be conducted: 

As we've talked about in class, understanding the intricate social relationships experienced by older returning students requires interviewing procedures that capture subtle differences in expression, behavior, and feelings.  When I conduct the interview I will have no pre-defined structure other than a standard set of introductory comments. I will also use an inventory checklist of topics that I will review periodically during the interview. Interviewing this way allows for spontaneity and comfort on the part of the subject and allows the subject to describe his feelings and his interactions with others in his own terms.

As you can see, much of the language in this paragraph is from my original text. This is a combination of direct quoting of my text and paraphrasing without attribution; this qualifies as plagiarism. The paragraph below underlines the sections that count as copying or paraphrasing:

As we've talked about in class, understanding the intricate social relationships experienced by older returning students requires interviewing procedures that capture subtle differences in expression, behavior, and feelings.  When I conduct the interview I will have no pre-defined structure other than a standard set of introductory comments. I will also use an inventory checklist of topics that I will review periodically during the interview. Interviewing this way allows for spontaneity and comfort on the part of the subject and allows the subject to describe his feelings and his interactions with others in his own terms.

To avoid plagiarism this would need to be put into one's own words, and it would be necessary to attribute your description to the original source. For example, the writer for the assignment might say:

As we've talked about in class, obtaining information on relationships such as the complex ones experienced by older returning students is not easy.  As Barrett notes in his article in Gay Masculinities, getting the subject to talk freely is the best way to get a sense of the important, but hidden, actions and feelings that occur when he is interacting with other students.  Like in Barrett's research, I will go into the interview with an introductory statement and a checklist of points that need to be covered, but I will not read from a set of questions.