What is Prototypical Plagiarism

Plagiarism has been a sensitive issue in higher education in Sweden, as many cases were reported during the last years. It depends partly on resources that are devoted to have efficient detection systems, but it is deeply related to how students are prepared for academic exercises. Many freshmen and sophomores are not familiar with academic requirements and can get used to plagiarizing instead of developing critical thinking. The first step in academic writing is to present guidelines to search relevant sources. The chapter is based on an experimentation on sources made at the University of Stockholm with students enrolled in a course in “Culture and Society in France.” By inviting students to work with second hand sources such as Wikipedia and evaluate their validity, it is possible to analyze their learning strategies. The result of the study shows a paradox: if students acknowledge that Wikipedia sources are inappropriate in an academic context, they confirm that they use these sources to have access to other references. A reflection on the quick access to sources is then necessary.