Anorexia: The Cheating Disorder, by Richard Murphy

“Anorexia: The Cheating Disorder” by Richard Murphy discusses two instances the author was suspicious of students plagiarizing their work, as well as the damage plagiarism can cause to everyone involved. Murphy was an associate English professor at Radford University (898) and has experienced many attempts at plagiarism, describing it as “a thin wood splinter in the edge of one’s thumb” (899). That feeling is irritating and can’t be ignored until it is removed, so the author is obsessive about discovering the sources of plagiarism. While his thesis that when plagiarism occurs there is a disconnect in the relationship between student and professor is true, his incessant drive to unearth the truth at the expense of understanding every case individually is concerning.

The first story that Murphy mentions is where the title of his essay comes from. A young woman turns in a paper about her experience with Anorexia Nervosa that the author felt was plagiarized. After searching through various magazines and finding a handful articles about that topic, he called a meeting with the student. At first he claims “I did not accuse the student of plagiarism on the evidence of this search.” (898) but after dancing around his suspicions he outright asks “ “Did you write this?” ” (901). It is clear that the professor has no idea or training on how to handle the matter of plagiarism with his students because he accused her without any concrete evidence, just from a hunch. It is no wonder he is unsatisfied with the student’s confession. Murphy discovers the truth, that it had been her own experience, after reading her journal entries on the subject at the end of the semester, after he had interrogated and failed her on the assignment. Righ...

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... to support the claim of plagiarism. But the woman who wrote of her experience with Anorexia was confronted with no evidence at all, just a suspicion. Professors are not taught how to approach these situations. If sales associates in retail stores are not allowed to confront suspected shoplifters without consulting loss prevention staff and real evidence, professors should not be able to do the same with suspected plagiarizing students. Students are likely always going to find some way to cheat because there is too much importance put on grades from a very young age, and not enough on the importance of actual learning.

Works Cited

Richard Murphy. “Anorexia: The Cheating Disorder” College English, Vol. 52, No. 8 (Dec., 1990), pp. 898-903. National Council of Teachers of English. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/377394