Johnson-Eilola and Selber (2007) "Plagiarism, Originality, Assemblage"

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan, and Stewart Selber. "Plagiarism, Originality, Assemblage." Computers and Composition 24.4 (2007): 375-403.

Summary

In their article titled, “Plagiarism, originality, assemblance,” published in Communication and Composition in 2007, authors Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber propose a new approach to composition instruction, one that complicates traditional views of plagiarism and originality. They construct their argument by first criticizing the common practice in composition instruction where assessment of student writing is based on students’ ability to produce original ideas as inspired by their reading of other texts—projects where students are asked to illustrate their new and unique perspectives, using sources in their arguments or analyses only as secondary background information or supporting evidence. The authors criticize this traditional method for maintaining hierarchical assessment practices, where exceedingly more value is placed on the students’ unique contributions and originality, rather than the student’s practices of consulting, framing, modeling, and/or quoting texts during the composition process.

It is suggested that the traditional approach assumes that students’ ideas and writing are the intellectual property of students and not the product of social, cultural, and historical contexts—contexts where writing is inherently shaped by discursive practices and the intertextual nature of texts. The authors demonstrate that traditional practices, therefore, reinforce notions of the “lone, creative genius” and ultimately weaken other scholars’ recent attempts for reimagining complicated concepts such as plagiarism, authority, and creativity (Howard, 2000; Porter, 2006; Price, 2002; and Spigelman, 2000 are cited as examples). The authors further explain that placing such value on student originality is counterproductive since it results in students being more likely to plagiarize: if teachers value most students’ unique creativity, students may be more inclined to hide their borrowing and appropriation of texts in order to appear as the original authors of ideas or sentences.

In response to their criticism of the traditional approach, Johnson-Eilola and Selber argue that instructors should design projects where students problem-solve through “assemblance”—a practice where writers borrow, remix, and reformulate texts into new texts. Instead of instructors valuing most a students’ unique originality and fresh contributions, this approach recognizes that all writing is an assemblance of ideas, words, and discursive practices and that students can find creativity in reconstructing this information in new ways. Since the authors claim that such borrowing and sharing of practices have been accepted and widely adopted in other disciplines and contexts, they support their argument for this new approach with examples of “remix” and “assemblage” found in web design, music, films, and architecture.

Ultimately, their examples work to illustrate a number of qualities apparent in this new approach: how originality is accomplished through assemblance of other texts, discourses, and formats; how authors and creators borrowed are still cited or otherwise acknowledged when remixed; how assemblance requires substantial rhetorical sophistication and should not be viewed as mindless copying and pasting; how plagiarism likely decreases with approaches such as assemblance since writers are less inclined to hide their borrowing of sources; and how common creativity is promoted through the remixing of others’ ideas and texts. While it is not their goal to have remixing practices replace all approaches to teaching composition, the authors ask that instructors at the very least include new practices in hopes of deconstructing hierarchies that limit the value of remix, collage, and assemblance in composition.