Intentional vs unintentional plagiarism transcript
Teachers:
Students:
Erica: Alright, so you've learned a bit about intentional and unintentional plagiarism. What we're going to do now is present you with some scenarios and you are going to see if you can identify which are intentional and unintentional plagiarism.
Ross: Yes. And you've got your paddles there with 'intentional' written on one and 'unintentional' on the other. So just hold up your paddles to cast your vote. Ready?
Jai: Yeah.
Emma: Yeah.
Luke: Yeah. Ready.
Ross: Okay. First scenario, Laura is worried about her creative writing homework. She's answered the question, but as she reads through the final draft, she's convinced it's no good. Laura knows that her friend Ali, who's in the year above, did the same homework task last year and got a good mark. Laura asks Ali to email his homework to her so she can use it. She promises to rewrite it so it looks very different to Ali's.
Erica: So what do you think, intentional or unintentional plagiarism?
Ross: You seemed a little unsure there Luke. You're going with intentional?
Luke: Yes. I wasn't sure because she said she'd rewrite it but it is intentional because she knows she's copying his work.
Emma: Yeah. Even if she rewrites it, she knows what she's doing.
Erica: That's right. This one is an example of intentional plagiarism.
Ross: Great start.
Erica: You ready for the next one?
Jai: Yeah.
Emma: Yeah.
Luke: Yeah.
Erica: Okay. Scenario two. Kim's research report for Biology is due in two days, but they haven't started it yet. They find an article online that perfectly answers their research question. Kim doesn't want to get in trouble for missing the deadline, so they download the content from the article and submit it as their own work.
Ross: Is this intentional or unintentional plagiarism?
Erica: No hesitation this time.
Emma: Yeah, I think it was pretty clearly intentional. I mean, to me anyway.
Jai: Yeah, like I felt bad for Kim that they left it so late and panicked, but it's definitely intentional plagiarism.
Emma: I can totally relate to that fear of getting in trouble if you miss a deadline at school though.
Jai: Yeah, same.
Luke: I think you'd be more in trouble for the plagiarism though, to be fair.
Emma: True.
Jai: Good point.
Teacher: Okay, this is good. All correct. You're on a roll. So let's mix it up now with some slightly more complicated ones. Scenario three, Jake has just completed his composition for his Music task. He's composed a number of songs and he is really pleased with them. However, when Jake's teacher hears one of the songs for the first time, she remarks that it's an exact copy of a folk song recorded in the 1970s. Jake doesn't remember hearing this song and is shocked to discover that his parents have a copy of the album at home. It must have been years since anyone played it at their house.
Erica: So what do we think? Is this intentional or unintentional plagiarism?
Emma: Um.
Jai: Yeah, this one's definitely a bit more complicated.
Jai: Yeah, because he heard the song at some point at his house.
Luke: Yeah.
Emma: Well he might've done.
Jai: I guess we don't really know for sure.
Emma: No, but he was shocked. So even if he somehow heard the song like years ago, it's not like he copied it on purpose, right?
Luke: Yeah, that's true.
Jai: Yeah. So if he fully believed that the song was his own original work, then I guess it's unintentional, right?
Luke: Right. Yeah, you're right. Yeah.
Erica: Yeah. Very good. Jake did genuinely think that his compositions were original. So this is an example of unintentional plagiarism.
Luke: Poor Jake.
Ross: Ready for scenario four?
Students together: Yeah
Erica: Here we go. Casey is part of a group project for Environmental Science where the group is designing a clean water filtration system. Casey is responsible for designing one part of the filter, but they're struggling. Casey finds a copyright-free 3D printing template online of a filter part that will work perfectly. Casey downloads the template and uses it to print their part of the filter.
Ross: Intentional or unintentional? Cast your votes.
Emma: This one's tricky too.
Jai: Yeah, it's getting complicated.
Luke: So the template is the problem, right?
Jai: Uh, yeah, the template from the internet.
Luke: What if the template was copyright free? Yeah, it is.
Jai: But Casey didn't design it. Someone else did.
Luke: Oh, oh yeah. No, you're right. Yeah.
Emma: But if it's a group project, then if Casey's using someone else's template for their work, then it's not just plagiarism for Casey, it's plagiarism for the whole group.
Jai: Yeah. That could cause problems for the whole group project.
Luke: Yeah. And it's not like it was an accident or anything. So it's intentional.
Emma: Mm, agreed. Intentional.
Jai: Yeah.
Ross: Alright. Four for four. That's right. This is another example of intentional plagiarism.
Erica: Spot on. Even if it's only a small part of your work, if you've borrowed anything from somewhere or someone else, you have to acknowledge it. Otherwise it's plagiarism.
Ross: Okay. Ready for your fifth scenario? Yeah, here we go. For Nour's Visual Arts project, she's making a sculpture that requires welding.
Nour's dad is a professional plumber, he teaches her the proper welding technique and supervises her while she welds. Towards the end of the project, Nour starts to run out of time so she asks her dad to finish the rest of the welding for her. Nour records in her Visual Arts journal that her dad showed her the correct technique, but doesn't mention that her dad did some of the welding.
Erica: What do you think? Intentional or unintentional plagiarism?
Jai: Wait. Intentional?
Emma: Yeah, I think so 'cause she didn't mention it in her journal.
Luke: And she acknowledged the fact that her dad taught her how to do it. But, that means she obviously knew she had to put it in her journal.
Emma: Yeah.
Jai: Oh, I see. So like she did some of it and he did the rest, but she didn't acknowledge that her dad did the rest of the actual welding when she ran out of time.
Emma: Exactly. Right.
Jai: Yeah. Oh, I so agree. Intentional.
Luke: I feel like everyone's running out of time in this scenario.
Emma: Mm-Hmm.
Luke: It's causing all sorts of problems. Yeah.
Ross: Right again, yes. This is another example of intentional plagiarism and you made a good point there, Luke. So not planning your time properly and then panicking is what makes a lot of people turn to plagiarism.
Erica: Alright, the final scenario, number six. Hiroshi has an essay for Modern History due tomorrow. He's completed it, checked through it, and is happy with what he's done. He asks his mum to do a quick read through. Hiroshi's mum reads the essay and thinks there are a few sections that could be worded better. She doesn't want to hurt Hiroshi's feelings, so she rewrites these sections and doesn't tell him. In the morning, Hiroshi prints out the amended version and submits it as his own work.
Ross: Final one. Intentional or unintentional plagiarism?
Emma: Oh no.
Luke: Yeah, this one's messed up.
Jai: Yeah
Luke: Not, not so much because it's complicated. Just more because there's no way he could've known.
Jai: Exactly. Plus his mum was just trying to help and wanted to do what was best for him and yeah didn't want to hurt his feelings. But she contributed to his work and he didn't acknowledge her work.
Emma: Yeah. Reading it and making sure it makes sense is fine I think, it's just the minute she went in and actually changed the wording.
Luke: Yeah, that's when it became a problem, for sure.
Jai: Yeah. I'm definitely going to have to warn my parents about this as soon as I get home.
Erica: So what's your vote?
Jai: Oh, sorry, I forgot to vote. Um, unintentional.
Emma: Mm, sorry Hiroshi.
Erica: And, of course, you are all correct. This is another example of unintentional plagiarism.
Ross: And that's a clean sweep. Six out of six. Well done all round.
Students together: Yeah.
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