I attended a seminar on plagiarism last week that actually raised NEW ideas about this issue. There was a great deal of information covered, but one question I had at the end was the relationship between plagiarism in written work and plagiarism in oral assignments. Although I eventually convince students of the importance of citing sources in papers, it seems that the ephemeral nature of presentations leaves them believing that it is less important to do so in those assignments. This is coupled with the fact that style sheets never deal with oral citation–and, yet, it seems more and more professors are assigning oral presentations in their classrooms (arts, science, business, etc.). Do you think there are different issues at stake related to plagiarism when dealing with presentations—particularly when students AREN’T using PowerPoint? Should we use different strategies with our students when teaching them about oral citation? I’ve thought about creating a “style sheet” for presentations that includes different examples of ways to note authors and sources. Does anyone out there already have such a tool?
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CAC.OPHONY is a weblog on communication-intensive instruction at the college level and its implications for students about to face the challenges of writing and speaking publicly in professional settings. CAC.OPHONY is written and edited by the Fellows of the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute, Baruch College, City University of New York.
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Actually, plagiarism is aptly covered in most contemporary textbooks on public speaking and business and professional speaking. Properly citing sources in-message is usually offered as one mainstays of presenting evidence for key points and arguments in an oral presentation. This is not a new issue in oral communication education, although it has become an increasingly challenging problem and thus all-the-more important an issue to address.
Reply to Rob
In my comment above I should have answered your last couple of questions. A good place to find some suggestion on orally citing sources is in the Bedford/St. Martins text, A Pocekt Guid to Public Speaking. A preview is availableat http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&id_product=2001003063 . It is a briefer version of A Speaker’s Guide (2e), which has a fuller treatment of oral citations. A preview is available at http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/speakersguide/default.asp?s=&n=&i=&v=&o=&ns=0&uid=0&rau=0 .
(Sorry for the shameless plugs.)
Reply to Rob
Jill,
These are really good questions.
In your experience, are students citing sources now, but doing so clumsily or incorrectly? Or are they skipping this entirely? What do the faculty who assign the presentations think about it?
This is an area I have not really had to deal with much–yet. (Our Great Works students typically do presentations that are based on primary literary texts, and it’s pretty clear when the text is being cited.) But my gut reaction is that it is similar to teaching students to cite sources in written papers when they are not quoting directly. IN my experience, that’s a scenario when they often omit citations, thinking they don’t matter. Citing properly when they are using something other than “common knowledge” is usually one of the tricky skills college students have to pick up in written work.
Doing so in an oral presentation — and doing so with some grace– seems like it will take some teaching.
Kate
Reply to Kate
Perhaps I’m missing the rhythm here, but surely the issue in Plagiarism and Oral Presentations is more profund than whether or not a proper citation has been made.
Plagiarism is about passing off the work of others as one’s own. We recognize in the written word styles that are not congruent with the student’s normal run of work. Or we use TurnItIn if the situation warrants.
I suggest that detecting plagiarism in oral presentations may be simpler. Ask questions. It ought to be clear from the answers whether the student knows what he or she is talking about, and whether the style of the answer is similar to style of the formal portion of the presentation.
Above all, as teachers we need to know the subject matter and have a sharp ear.
Reply to James Drogan
And another point.
My 40 years of experience in business and academia suggests that citations are often given in oral presentations as in a statement such as “According to the March 2006 Harvard Business Review……” Citations often come up in response to questions from the audience.
My thinking is that these “citations” come up in a normal course of discussion, but that it’s not necessary to mention every citation. In my professional and classroom presentations where I am using PowerPoint I include on slides, if appropriate, the source of the material, but I won’t always specifically direct the audiences attention to the citation.
My advice would be to make sure the citations are in order just as you would in a paper, but to use them in oral remarks with some discretion. There is a reason why citations are most often presented as footnotes or endnotes. Stopping to read every citation gets in the way of the story being told.
Reply to James Drogan