Plagiarism

We were all students once. We all wrote papers. We did the research. We all plagiarized a bit here and there. I know the biggest problem fro me when writing is that my memory will queue up a nice phrase to use for my paper/article and I will think it is a great phrase. Only after rereading my source will I realize why it was so perfect for what I was reporting on. It was perfect because it came from the source. So I would have to go back and change my 'perfect' sentence. While writing these little blog entries I often find myself having to paraphrase what I read. Of course I get around this by throwing in a link at the end so that people can check out the original for them selves. This, hopefully, absolves me from any guilt of plagiarism. It might not, I do not know. I am not hesitant to through quotes around something if I feel I want to quote it. I often do grab a sentence or two from an article rearrange it and modify it to fit into one sentence to suit my needs, but I don't feel it is misuse.

I think most people do not know definitively what is plagiarism. The internet is not helping either. Emails get passed around and sometimes interesting bits of speeches are passed around in e-mails. People will take these and use them but not know from whence they came so they do not properly attribute them to anyone. This of course becomes a problem when someone uses them in an article or speech and they get called out. Maybe the borrowed phrase came form a famous book or speech that the borrower did not know about. The troubles with these e-mails is boundless. Remember that next time you quote one of the 'inspirational' e-mails you have received.

For the most part however I feel we are wasting our time looking for plagiarism. There are few times when it is really important. Anything in a commercial environment is important. Newspaper reporters should not be selling ideas as their own when they are not. Nor should authors of any kind. High school students doing a science report and they fail to properly quote a sentence or two should not be met with expulsion, suspension or even a failure. This is of course assuming that the source was credited somewhere (bibliography?). We should worry more about teaching these children that its easier to get away with in lower education, but if you plagiarize in the real world or even in upper education (thesis, or doctorate) you will get caught and you will be punished. The punishment will be more severe as well, perhaps ruing your career and/or life. Its not that had to credit a source for their hard work and original thoughts.

Just remember that someone out there has enough time on their hands to check your work. Throw credit around and you won't seem unoriginal, you will seem educated and knowledgeable about others work.