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Bùi Hoài Trang – ID 2013140021

Vũ Thị Diễm Phúc

Anh 1 – CTTT KTĐN K59

14 September 2021

Plagiarism in America

Published in 2014, The Prentice Hall Guide for College Writers’s article

“Plagiarism in America” by Dudley Erskine Devlin discusses the rising problem in

student’s plagiarism, the reasons for such problem and addresses solution to tackle with

the situation.

Devlin cites research to show that although students know that such action

during school is not permitted but the rate of plagiarism is still considerably high since

they seem not to “consider it to be a big deal”. According to Devlin, there are reasons

leading to this such as imitation between friends, uninterest in the course, “large lecture

course” or tension from family and school, that way, the replicating of other’s work

seems like a way of saving time. Devlin argues that by increasing the awareness of

students with “honor code”, “online tutorial”, lessons about ethic in academy, with the

support of technology (fly-cam, Turnitin.com), there has been significant improvement in

the situation but still exists a number of particular students show disapproval. Therefore,

Devlin concludes that more serious method should be conducted to control plagiarism in

academic, more penalty should be carried out.

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This topic is so much practical and should be considered by every teacher,

school and authorized individuals. However, it is also controversial, therefore, I do not

totally agree with Devlin’s opinion. The number (of what?) which Devlin states is striking

and I agree with the issue raised. In contrast to some student’s thought that plagiarism

is not “a big deal”, it violates the moral rights and even in some cases, plagiarism could

be considered a fraud which can be punished by the court. While it is said that

plagiarism is a way of saving time, it is also the poor time managing and organizing skill

that draw people into panic and lack of confidence, hesitation with new things.

Consequently, they might have the thought that other’s work is better than theirs. Come

to the solution, it is true that educating students about academic moral is long-lasting

and not easy but I think that applying strict control over students is not the best solution.

Some might have the fear of unintentional plagiarism that they don’t want to state their

idea. In such case, strict environment will deter them from being creative. Moreover, too

much strictness can make a student even more stressful during exam, which leads to

confusion, hastiness and the need of reference. Therefore, I think what is important is

that students be taught about not only academic honesty but also soft skills, being

confident and creative.

Generally, the author has successfully drawn the attention of target readers.

Devlin begins building his credibility by giving a sense of ethos as a teacher, citing

convincing facts and statistic; however, the unorganized argument structure and the

aggressive tone of writing weaken his credibility and reader’s emotion appeals.

Devlin is an English teacher of Colorado State University and also an editor,

blogger on many controversial issues related to education. Therefore, he must be a

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person with experience in educating, encounters many cases and especially, he cares

about the students. Knowing the background of the author has already made the

readers feel more reliable and trustworthy. Throughout the essay, Devlin uses many

strong sources that strengthen his credibility and appeal to ethos, as well as build his

argument. These sources include the report by researcher Donald McCabe in Education

Digest and Liberal Education, the opinion of Timothy Dodd of Duke University and the

information from Trip Gabriel, writing in New York Times. Devlin also points out

evidence about famous people who were “found guilty of plagiarism” and how it costed

them.

Adding to his ethos appeals, Devlin uses strong appeals of logos, with many

statistics and survey from researchers. The striking number emphasizes the importance

of the issue and draws the attention of readers- who are mostly education authorities.

Devlin describes the way University of Central Florida do and the effective outcome

gained with specific number. These show that Devlin has made research before he

writes the article, the details and numbers build an appeal to logos and impress upon

the reader that this is a problem worth discussing.

However, the way Devlin organizes the structure is quite disorder: the methods

are not written constantly but come between other main parts, making it harder for

reader to follow. Moreover, the tone of Devlin is quite aggressive when mentioned the

solution. He emphasizes that the only way to tackle with this issue is to “introduce zero

tolerance rules”, and that vigilance and punishment is the best way to deal with this. To

some people, especially students, these may cause them more fear and panic when

participate in school and can lead to panic on exams.

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Though the structure causes some confusion and to some people like students,

reading this may cause more distress but to the target readers, Devlin does draw the

attention of teachers and education authorities by his personal experience, clear survey

and statistics.

Works cited

Devlin, Dudley E. “Plagiarism in America.” The Prentice Hall Guide for College Writers.

10th ed., authored by Stephen Reid, 2014)