Discourses of plagiarism: moralist, proceduralist, developmental and inter-textual approaches

Abstract

This paper reconstructs prevalent academic discourses of student plagiarism: moralism, proceduralism, development, and writing/inter-textuality. It approaches the discourses from three aspects: intention, interpretation and the nature of the academic community. It argues that the assumptions of the moralistic approach regarding suspect intention, the transparency of interpretation, and the homogeneous nature of the academic community are in effect sustained by discourses of proceduralism and development. This results, first, in the simplistic rendition of student identities as honest/dishonest, and, second, in the proposal of or acquiescence to the triad of prevention, detection and punishment. The paper concludes that radical re-conceptualization of plagiarism may only be discovered in the discourse of inter-textuality where intention, interpretation and the academic community are construed as social practices concerning the negotiation of various identities and values – those of students as well as those of academics.

Keywords:

• plagiarism
• discourse analysis
• moralism
• proceduralism
• development
• authorial identity
• inter-textuality

Notes

1. ‘Proceduralism’, in many respects, is not unlike legalism as conceived by Judith Shklar (1964). The term is preferred, however, as the law in general scrutinizes the suspect’s intention, whereas the main consequence of proceduralism is that it brackets it.