Something is wrong with the world.
Strike that. Many, many things are wrong with the world. I’m focusing on only one thing today.
It seems like accusations of plagiarism are filling the media these days, from Dan Brown’s trial to the Opal-Got-Kissed girl’s recent admissions. And more and more, we are seeing students google, copy, and paste their way to research papers. Do they know it’s wrong? Do you?
According to the gods of Webster, plagiarizing is defined as follows:
Main Entry: pla·gia·rize
Pronunciation: ‘plA-j&-”rIz also -jE-&-
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -rized; -riz·ing
Etymology: plagiary
transitive senses : to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own : use (another’s production) without crediting the source
intransitive senses : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source
- pla·gia·riz·er noun
In short, that means if it wasn’t your completely original, fully realized idea first, you can’t use it without permission or at least crediting the source. (Depends on the situation)
Believe me, I know how much writing essays on something as coma-inducing as Spandex’s Affect on Society in the 80s can suck, but you have to do your own work. Why? Well, 1) it’s illegal to plagiarize and 2) you might learn some pretty fascinating things about spandex if you do your own work. I doubt it, but hey, stranger things have happened.
Don’t steal. Bad monkeys. No banana.
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Silly Heather. Monkeys don’t steal bananas. They go for shiny things.
Why is it that we can’t, as a society, as a people, just do our own work? I just don’t get it.
What is up with these people? Do they not think someone is going to figure it out?
Maybe I’m too simple. Maybe I don’t see the magic in their plans. If you are goin gto lie/cheat/steal, keep it small or at least keep it hidden. Publishing a lie, or stolen words just invites the universe to beotch-slap (sp?) you all over the place.
ok, enough… end of rant disguised thinly as serious questions. I’ll go back to writing and creating something new, or at least not plagiarized.
Oh, sorry. Monkey faux-paus
It irritates me beyond belief, Ewoh. Isn’t the concept of plagiarism still taught in junior high? I remember learning it in the sixth grade…and it stuck with me.
Hi all:
However, that said, I find what James Frey did a million little times worse (can’t help myself, you can all groan together) that her errors. I am not 100% convinced of what is intentional and what is collective unconscious or subconcious mind. I guess I sort of want to give the benefit of the doubt to sometimes letting a retained turn of a phrase into writing. However the Frey insanity. Don’t get me started.
E
Ugh, the Frey thing…what a mess. It’s so hard to know who or what to believe. When did authors become so dishonest? Or have they always been this way and I’m just blind?
Heather:
I am sure dishonesty has always been here. I cannot say who, or I will be sued, but suffice it to say in one of my early books, I cited a major newspaper, which implied an affair a certain journalist had with a political figure that clearly colored the way she wrote about him. I had what I considered pretty hard supports and cites, and anyway, it doesn’t much matter because when my book was vetted, I discovered she and I had the same publisher and even though I phrased my statements in a legally correct manner, I was told as a “courtesy” to her I would have to remove it because of our shared pubbed. My point is in back room deals, handshakes, lawyers, and lies, it’s always been about dishonesty . . . and I think it’s just the power of the Internet that more of it is caught nowadays.
Yeesh, Erica, that incident had to leave you painting the air with all sorts of colorful words.
Heather:
Well . . . I wasn’t a Buddhist then. So let your imagination run wild.
E
LOL! Ahhh…so peace and serenity went out the window. Gotcha.
Unfortunately, ethics has become somewhat vague over the years, and many people seem to lack them completely. Honor seems to be missing too. Some of still believe in a personal code of honor, but we’re getting spread a bit thin nowadays.
Great blog, lover! Thou Shalt Not Plagiarize Heather Brewer – Blog is really something. We are introducing my very own before long and I will really copy parts of yours, legitimately obviously