Resources for Teaching WritingFair and Effective Use of Sources
Because Davidson values academic integrity, it is important that faculty define plagiarism in a consistent way. The Writing Program has proposed a definition of plagiarism that is broad enough to suit a range of discipline-specific traditions and interests, yet exact enough in naming the ethical transgression that constitutes the offense. This definition is presented in the pages of The Davidson Writer:
The Writing Program and Little Library have created basic guidelines for making fair and effective uses of sources, materials that live among the Research Guides available on the Library homepage. You might bookmark these guidelines in your course materials or Moodle page. In fact, we urge that colleagues call attention to them in every College course.
Further Reading
The Citation Project assembles national researchers’ findings on students’ use and misuse of source materials. This includes information about plagiarism, patchwriting, and the uses/abuses of intertextuality–a seminal feature of nearly all academic writing. Because academic writing (and much intellectual writing that circulates in the public sphere) summarizes, paraphrases, and otherwise responds to and puts previous texts, data, and documentation to new use, fair and ethical use of the work of others is key in the maintenance of ethos.
