VOA慢速英语20060824a

EDUCATION REPORT - Ohio University Accuses Engineering Graduates of PlagiarismBy Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: Thursday, August 24, 2006

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.


Ohio University

Ohio University has written to forty engineering graduates about copied material in the research papers for their master's degrees.

This action is a result of an investigation² by a former student at the university in Athens, Ohio. In two thousand four, Thomas Matrka was a graduate student in engineering. Mister Matrka was having trouble getting approval for his master's thesis³. So he started to read the papers of graduates to get ideas.

He found that some papers included words or even pages that had been copied from other research work or published books. Some of the papers were written as long as twenty years ago. A number of the graduates now work as engineers and professors.

The former students are being accused of plagiarism¹. Plagiarism is making it appear that someone else's words or ideas are your own.

Where material came from must be made clear unless the information is common knowledge. Material copied exactly is supposed to appear within quotation⁴ marks. Rules can differ about how to note sources in papers. But if copied material appears without credit, it could be considered plagiarized⁶ even if you rewrote it in your own words.

All but a few of the graduates in the Ohio University investigation came from other countries. International students can arrive with limited English and limited knowledge of the rules for writing at American universities.

But some of the graduates say they do not think what they did was plagiarism at all because they included the names of the authors. The copied material appeared in the literature review, the part of the paper where students discuss research done by others.

Yet some of the same material appeared again and again. Critics say professors should have recognized the copying and put a stop to it.

A university committee has called for the dismissal of two engineering professors. One of them is now taking legal action. He says statements by university officials have ruined him professionally.

Ohio University says the graduates in many cases have agreed to rewrite their papers. That means they could possibly have to defend their research again before a committee of professors. Others can try to show that they did not plagiarize⁵.

And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Nancy Steinbach and available online at www.unsv.com. I'm Doug Johnson.

1 plagiarism   

n.剽窃，抄袭

参考例句：

• Teachers in America fight to control cheating and plagiarism.美国老师们努力对付欺骗和剽窃的问题。
• Now he's in real trouble.He's accused of plagiarism.现在他是真遇到麻烦了。他被指控剽窃。

2 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

3 thesis   

n.论题，论点，论文

参考例句：

• His thesis is being finished off.他的论文快写完了。
• He argued his thesis well.他为他的论点进行了有力的辩论。

4 quotation   

n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情

参考例句：

• He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare.他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
• The quotation is omitted here.此处引文从略。

5 plagiarize   

v.剽窃，抄袭（别人学说、著作）

参考例句：

• Never plagiarize your paper.课程论文千万不要抄袭。
• It's not a viable option to plagiarize someone else's work.剽窃他人作品的行为是不可取的。

6 plagiarized   

v.剽窃，抄袭( plagiarize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The poem employs as its first lines a verse plagiarized from a billboard. 这首诗开头的几行抄袭了一个广告牌上的一节诗。 来自辞典例句
• Whole passages of the work are plagiarized. 那作品整段整段都是剽窃的。 来自辞典例句