Plagiarism at Harvard

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – It’s 2 a.m. and you have an essay due tomorrow morning. You tap your pen, you take a shower, you stalk some friends on Facebook. But no matter what you do, that unwritten paper is still looming on the blank page in front of you, becoming alarmingly more ominous as you desperately try to ignore it.

You have to do something, and quick, because the clock’s ticking and you’re feeling a little drowsy.

You have two options. You can stay up even later and attempt to write a mediocre paper with fabricated facts or quotations with the limited resources of the internet and that textbook under your bed, or you can Google a few words and copy-paste a brand new essay for a low fee…and suffer the burden of plagiarism.

According to a standard Merriam-Webster dictionary, to plagiarize is to “steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own” or to “use (another’s production) without crediting the source.”

But plagiarism itself can be ambiguous. Copying a sentence from a website versus taking an idea from an essay but using your own words can have entirely separate results and penalties.

The price for plagiarism can be colossal, for students and professors alike. At a prestigious university like Harvard, it can be everything, like losing a scholarship or a degree; but even worse, plagiarism can destroy a reputation.

A recently publicized case was the book, “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life” by Kaavya Viswanathan, a then Harvard sophomore, who directly used several passages from the books “Sloppy Firsts” and “Second Helpings,” both by Megan F. McCafferty, as mentioned in David Zhou’s article “Student’s Novel Faces Plagiarism Controversy” that appeared in the Harvard Crimson in April 2006. Viswanathan was a sophomore at the college when the scandal came to light.

David Zhou said, “Neither Harvard College’s Administrative Board Guide for Students nor the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Student Handbook mention the ramifications of non-academic plagiarism.” Thus, Harvard could take no action in disciplining Viswanathan, but her reputation as a writer and a student was stained with the foul colors of literary theft.

Some could even say that Viswanathan’s stint with plagiarism was more organized than other plagiarists’. “What is the price of plagiarism?” was an article published in the Christian Science Monitor and said that most students that plagiarize do so by means of the Internet, since its vast availability makes the task of tracking down a sentence or two in cyberspace nearly impossible. Plagiarizing by means of the Internet is also the easy, lazy way out, the article said.

Jane Kirtley, a professor at the University of Minnesota, said, “There’s a sense among students today that if it’s something they can find on the Internet, then by definition, they can use it freely without attributing it to anybody.”

In other cases, Harvard students who plagiarize on their work are sent to the Administrative Board, a committee composed of students and faculty members who work together to justly penalize honor offenders, according to an online version of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Student Handbook.

The Handbook says that “the full Board hears all disciplinary and academic review cases. Violation of the alcohol rules, disruptive conduct, academic dishonesty, and sexual harassment are typical of the disciplinary cases it handles.”

The first step involves the discovery of plagiarism in the student’s work and then the report by the professor or teacher’s assistant. An investigation ensues to determine the integrity (or lack thereof) of the student’s work before appearing before the Administrative Board, which will meet quickly to conclude what the penalty will be.

(x)

But unlike (x) , most professors do care about plagiarism and bringing negligent students to justice. Assistant Dean to the college, Jay Ellison, spoke of his time teaching, saying, “I have found cases of academic dishonesty a few times in my courses. I reported them to the Administrative Board for investigation as required by faculty rules.” Ellison is the Secretary on the Administrative Board and said that there have even been multiple repeat offenders of plagiarism, but that six students this year were pardoned of the charges against them.

The Handbook says that three main punishments may be given for disciplinary wrongdoing: a warning, probation, and requirement to withdraw. Because the degree of plagiarism varies between each offender, their penalties will also vary; the Administrative Board is careful and particular with each case, and is as likely to pardon an innocent student as severely penalize a guilty one.

Kelsey Quigley is approaching her final semester as a senior at Harvard. “Everyone writes papers, and everyone takes exams,” she said. She said that she has never plagiarized or been tempted to plagiarize, nor does she know anyone who has.

It’s about 2:30 a.m. now. You’ve sighed, you’ve grumbled, but now you’re ready. The blank page before you slowly starts to fill up, and you’re satisfied knowing it’s your own work.