A Pedagogy of Resistance Toward Plagiarism Detection Technologies

This article interrogates the use of plagiarism detection devices from a critical and rhetorical standpoint, using both plagiarism detection technologies as well as essay mills as sites for analysis and subversion. My goal is to argue for a pedagogy of resistance to plagiarism detection technologies. Both plagiarism detection sites and online paper mills play into the very issue we as rhetoricians and compositionists should be resisting; that is, by upholding the singular notion of authorship as something individualistic, commercialized, and commodified, these sites reinforce individual authorship to the detriment of more communal forms of writing that are prized in online environments such as social networking sites, blogs, wikis, and so on. If we are forced into the circular logic of avoiding plagiarism/catching plagiarists/punishing plagiarism and prizing singular authorship above all other forms, then we risk failing to find the ability to break free and move beyond to more challenging modes of writing that rely on community. The potential time-saving benefits of plagiarism detection services—that is, the ease of discovering potential plagiarism—may unfortunately lull us into compliance and cause us to forget that there are larger issues regarding copyright law and ownership of ideas still up for debate.

► Plagiarism detection sites uphold a singular, commodified notion of authorship.
► These sites reinforce individuality to the detriment of communal forms of writing.
► The potential benefits of plagiarism detection services may lull us into compliance.