Meeting the ‘Plagiarists’: Dr. Carolyn Bergquist Puts Faith in Students’ Voices

Each year, about 6,000 UO undergraduates take required courses in ethical written argumentation through the Composition Program. The program’s director, Dr. Carolyn Bergquist, meets personally with every student facing an academic misconduct charge for plagiarism in a Writing 121, 122, or 123 class. “It seems to surprise many of the students that someone notices and cares that the words and ideas they’ve handed in aren’t their own,” she says. “I show them their paper, I show them the source, and I ask ‘What happened?’”

The answer to that question is at once simple and complex. She says lots of students feel the pressure of deadlines and, in tough moments, simply make a bad choice without considering the consequences. Beyond that, many student writers undervalue the distinctive power of their own voices and perspectives—and undervalue, too, the arduous process of learning to be truly good at something.

Becoming a sophisticated writer is “a process of hope, possibility and disappointment, and we improve over years—we all have to accept that process when we’re learning,” she says.  Bergqust can relate. She’s learning to play the pipe organ—“trying to get my head and hands around this new thing.” And, she points out, there’s nothing louder than a missed note on a pipe organ. “But the mistakes are part of it,” she reflects.

“I tell the 40 new writing teachers we train every year, ‘Remember what it’s like to be a beginner. Be very, very kind to your writers. And very, very honest. If the paper is awful, well it’s awful. Tell them why, but talk about that in a way that makes the student want to keep writing,” Bergquist insists.

She says that during misconduct meetings, she tells students that what they go on to develop, think about, write, create, discover, and learn will make things better for their communities—for her, for the county, for all of us.

“We often tell students: ‘Don’t plagiarize because you shouldn’t. Because it’s stealing. Because it’s wrong. Because it will hurt your academic record. Because if you keep doing it you could get kicked out of the university. Because people who do it are bad.’”

But Bergquist wonders: “How about ‘Don’t plagiarize because you are too important. Don’t plagiarize because what you have to offer the world is too valuable to take the quick, bad solution to difficulty with an assignment. Don’t plagiarize because when you do, it’s a lost opportunity to practice. Don’t plagiarize because when you do, the world loses something precious.’”

—Eugene, Oregon, April 2013