Response to Sowden's Article on Plagiarism
Present a short critical response to the issues raised by Sowden in his paper, ‘plagiarism and the culture of multilingual students in higher education abroad’. In your response you should support or challenge some of Sowden’s arguments using evidence.
Plagiarism is likely to be a hot issue to the public. In Sowden’s article, he claims that the cultural differences are the main key to plagiarism which mostly happens in Asia. On the other hand, evidences show the culture-specific concept may be suspicious. Liu (2005) combines the research data and his own experiences in China to prove that plagiarism is not as acceptable as Sowden(2005) mentioned in his paper. In this essay, I am going to evaluate the Sowden’s (2005) claims and advices about plagiarism. Firstly, I will challenge some of his considerations that different culture causes plagiarism. And then I will go on to support the suggestions he gave to reduce this phenomenon happening.
Do cultural differences cause plagiarism?
Sowden(2005) claims that the understanding of plagiarism differs from different countries especially in Asia which causes plagiarism . He gives two examples including Japanese and Chinese that is about the ownership of knowledge. He reported in his article that the author’s words belong to the public when they said something true, and people can use it without citation. This claim may be dubious. As cited from Liu (2005), the data from Sowden(2005) is likely to be used by those students who were found plagiarizing which may shows the source unreliable. And he considered that in Insull and Craig’s study(2003，as cited in Liu 2005, p 234), students replied the concept of copying other words without paraphrasing is wrong. With his own experience, also in China, he claims teachers in China are likely to warn students not to plagiarize (Liu, 2005).These evidence can perhaps show in China it is a need for students to credit the source of citation and the understanding of plagiarism is
Plagiarism is likely to be a hot issue to the public. In Sowden’s article, he claims that the cultural differences are the main key to plagiarism which mostly happens in Asia. On the other hand, evidences show the culture-specific concept may be suspicious. Liu (2005) combines the research data and his own experiences in China to prove that plagiarism is not as acceptable as Sowden(2005) mentioned in his paper. In this essay, I am going to evaluate the Sowden’s (2005) claims and advices about plagiarism. Firstly, I will challenge some of his considerations that different culture causes plagiarism. And then I will go on to support the suggestions he gave to reduce this phenomenon happening.
Do cultural differences cause plagiarism?
Sowden(2005) claims that the understanding of plagiarism differs from different countries especially in Asia which causes plagiarism . He gives two examples including Japanese and Chinese that is about the ownership of knowledge. He reported in his article that the author’s words belong to the public when they said something true, and people can use it without citation. This claim may be dubious. As cited from Liu (2005), the data from Sowden(2005) is likely to be used by those students who were found plagiarizing which may shows the source unreliable. And he considered that in Insull and Craig’s study(2003，as cited in Liu 2005, p 234), students replied the concept of copying other words without paraphrasing is wrong. With his own experience, also in China, he claims teachers in China are likely to warn students not to plagiarize (Liu, 2005).These evidence can perhaps show in China it is a need for students to credit the source of citation and the understanding of plagiarism is
References: Liu, D.2005. Plagiarism in ESOL students: is cultural conditioning truly the major culprit? Elt Journal Volume 59/3: 234-240. Sowden, C.2005. Plagiarism and the culture of multilingual students in higher education abroad.ELT Journal Volume 59/3:226-232. Ydstie, J. (2002). Internet & college cheating. Aired 21/05/2002 o NPR. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story.php?storyld=1143717 [Accessed June 2007]