Student Name: Cherry (Qing Meng)

Critical Reviews of Sowden¶s Article

2010/9/24

Meng0420@hotmail.com

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¦resent a short critical response to the issues raised by Sowden in his paper,

µplagiarism and the culture of multilingual students in higher education abroad¶. In

your response you may wish to support or challenge some of Sowden¶s arguments

using evidence.


 


Today, an increasing number of students choose to study abroad for their higher

education. When they pursue their success in academic work, they face with the

problem of plagiarism in western university, which has aroused a heated debate. In

this paper, I will examine Sowden¶s arguments on this issue. He demonstrates four

cultural characteristics which have an impact on overseas students¶ value to

plagiarism, and emphasizes the important of getting rid of stereotype to overseas

students who have different culture value. In addition, the author shows that we

cannot be an original writer or speaker usually, and suggests how to avoid plagiarism.

In particular, I will focus on four main issues which are mentioned in Sowden¶s article:

plagiarism is acceptable in China, making the most of memorization results in

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plagiarism, there is very little original thought and language, and what methods are

beneficial to overseas students to avoid plagiarism.

 




  




Sowden (2005) claims that it is acceptable to plagiarize in China. I do not agree with

Sowden¶s opinion on this issue. He argues that knowledge and famous words belong

to everyone (Sowden, 2005:227). As a consequence, without in-text citation and

reference list, the words of other authors can be used by everyone, and be copied in

everyone¶s paper (Sowden, 2005:227). For example, a group of Japanese students

who fail to write the citation in their text said that as the sentences of author must be

true, it is unnecessary for them to write the author¶s name (Sowden, 2005:226).

However, in my opinion, the claim is inaccurate. First of all, the source of his

evidence to support his claim is trustless. The information backing up his claim only

comes from students those had plagiarism experience (Liu, 2005: 234). He does not

put a comparison group to support his claim. Hence, it is hard for readers to believe

his argument. Besides, according to Liu, Chinese students are usually cautioned not to

plagiarize. What is more, in ancient China, the notion of ³plagiarism´ has existed (Liu,

2005:235). For instance, when a person needs to quote from a poem, he must say ³Shi

(a poem) yun (read or said)«´ (Liu, 2005: 236). Therefore, I think Sowden¶s

claim---plagiarism is acceptable in Far East, especially in China is not right.

 


 




˜
Sowden (2005) argues that in international students¶ country, learning by rote and

memorization makes students to get success. Students are not encouraged to raise

doubts about their teachers¶ said or authors¶ opinion, only to ³copy and reproduce

them´ (Sowden, 2005: 227). Sowden contends this learning method leads to

plagiarism. From my point of view, it is unjustifiable. It is undeniable that Chinese

students and more Far East students are dependent more on memorization. However,

reciting good sentences and writings to improve their own writing skills is different

from reproducing other¶s ideas and language, which can provide useful rhetorical

skills and valuable writing skills for students (Liu, 2005: 237). Liu suggests what

students are supposed to do is learning by rote creatively, not view the memorization

as a channel to copy. Thus, memorization is not meant to plagiarize.








 


According to Sowden (2005), no matter what is our value of plagiarism, at various

levels, both ideas and language are reproduced in our academic text. It is undoubted

that this issue raised by him is significant. I agree with his claim. Because we learn

from others, assimilate the essence, and reproduce existing ideas and language in our

own text (Sowden, 2005: 230). In addition, Sinclair (1987) in a presentation shows

that owing to the limit of words within reaches, we have to adopt ³pre-constructed or

semi-pre-constructed phrases´ when we talk or write a topic or text. Therefore, it is

true that we cannot be a completely original writer or speaker.

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üespite being an entirely original writer or speaker is difficult for us; we still can

solve this problem partly. Sowden (2005) suggests that oral presentation is beneficial

to students to avoid plagiarism. In the first place, this way forces students to deeply

realize the content of their subject, and improves their skill of memorization in order

to clearly and simply restates author¶s arguments in oral expression (Sowden, 2005:

232). In the second place, although students are not using their own original thoughts,

in presentation process, they are supposed to simplify authors¶ ideas and express it in

their own words. In this way, the possibility of plagiarism is reduced, comparing to

write a text (Liu, 2005: 240). In addition to oral presentation, participating in EA¦

programmes also is a good method to reduce the chance of plagiarism. In EA¦

programmes, international students are able to access and adapt to the culture value of

their host country, including the notion of plagiarism. What is more, they can learn the

skills of avoiding plagiarism in this programme (Sowden, 2005). Thus, in my opinion,

oral presentation and EA¦ programme are needed to be contained when overseas

students come to western university. 




To summarise, this paper analyses the Sowden¶s arguments on the issue of plagiarism

among overseas students. Because inaccurate source of Sowden¶s information, Liu¶s

experience in China, and evidence of plagiarism in Chinese history, Sowden¶s

claim---plagiarism is acceptable in Far East, especially in China is wrong. Moreover,


as memorization is a method to improve writing skills, not a tool for copying others¶

ideas, it is unjustifiable that memorization leads to plagiarism, as Sowden argues.

However, I would like to point out that I agree with the claim that we cannot be

original writers or speakers for learning from others and limit words at hands. With

regard to good methods to avoid plagiarism, I appreciate Sowden¶s arguments,

because oral presentation and EA¦ programme force students to learn how to present

others¶ thoughts in their own words.

á
 

Liu. (2005). ³¦lagiarism in ESOL students: is cultural conditioning truly the major

culprit?´ º
 †ol.59, pp. 234-240.

Sowden. (2005). ³¦lagiarism and the culture of multilingual students in higher

education abroad.´ º
 †Ol.59, pp. 226-232.