Propositional Versus Encyclopedic Epistemology and Unintentional Plagiarism

ABSTRACT

Unintentional plagiarism abounds at universities. The literature offers several explanations for students’ difficulties with acquiring standards of good academic practice. In this paper, I propose an alternative account: unintentional plagiarism can only be understood in the context of implicit but irreconcilable forms of knowledge. While higher education institutions mainly operate within the framework of propositional epistemology, institutions of primary and secondary education tend to furnish students with encyclopedic epistemology. Accordingly, universities and institutions of pre-college education tend to propagate conflicting assumptions regarding the nature of knowledge. Put simply, propositional epistemology is characterized by dialogue, agency and the exchange of ideas, which are ideally made explicit in academic writing. By contrast, encyclopedic epistemology tends to present knowledge monologically, leaving the scholarly conversation around it out. It is highly likely that the hardwired legacy of encyclopedic epistemology among students impedes the acquisition of the dialogism of academic inquiry at universities, resulting in cases of unintentional plagiarism.

KEYWORDS:

• Inadvertent plagiarism
• propositional epistemology
• encyclopedic epistemology
• academic writing

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Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Erhan Şimşek

Erhan Şimşek studied English, European Studies and American Studies in Ankara, Berlin, Amherst and Heidelberg. In 2017, he received his PhD in American literature from Heidelberg University. Before he started working for the University of Duisburg-Essen, he taught academic writing at Bielefeld University for several years. He is the author of Creating Realities: Business as a Motif in American Fiction, 1865-1929. His research interests include composition studies, intercultural communication and academic integrity.