Plagiarism Policy: Hearing Your Voice

Introduction | Plagiarism Defined | Subtleties | Intellectual Boundaries
Public and Private Property | Hearing Your Voice | Traditions of Rhetoric | Think About Alternatives

When we read your papers, we hear your voice. In fact, as you read this now, you're probably "hearing" me in your head. The same is true whenever we as teachers pick up one of your essays and, in fact, we have a very good sense of your voice from the first-day writing sample. With each paper, we "listen" to you improve, though on some level the voice always sounds the same. No matter how may students we have, no matter how many sections we're teaching, we always know your written voice, and we do what we can through commenting and classwork to help you develop that voice, to move it further into academic discourse.

It's when the voice doesn't sound the same that we begin to suspect that either you've been given too much help or that, in fact, you've plagiarized. It may be that you're using language that sounds different from what you've used in other papers. It may be that your ideas don't sound like other ideas you've had. In any case, the paper sounds different. There's no way to disguise this. If you came into class suddenly speaking an octave higher, we'd notice that too. It's just as obvious when we read your work.

But that means it's obvious to you, too. If you're not sure if you're plagiarizing, all you have to do is make sure that you can talk about your paper. After all, a paper is really just a written conversation—can you continue that conversation in person? Would you be able to explain the ideas you're presenting in your paper? Can you explain the words you're using to help express those ideas? As long as you can discuss your paper, explain it further, and explain the very language you use, then the paper is clearly, firmly, you and yours.

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