Can I first just say if a student doesn't know what plagiarism is by now, they deserve to accidentally plagiarize and get an F, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.
The thesis of this article is "Being called out in plagiarism can blast a politicians career, earn a college student expulsion and destroy writer's, scholar's, or journalist's reputation." The author, Richard A. Posner, does a great job of summarizing many popular novels and plays, and even the bible and how they have been plagiarized many times. He even stretches the limit to songs. But then he adds a twist. He believes, that "copying an idea" shouldn't be "condemned" so heavily. He brings attention to the word dissemination: another word for copying ideas, or as distinct from the form of which it is expressed. He also believes that yes, credit should be given, when it is due, thus literal copying. He makes a point at the end to say that yes, plagiarism is fraud, but it should not be confused with theft.
The author argued his point considerably well. He gave many examples, and then explained why they got away with it, and why they deserved to get away with it. This article is a breath of fresh air compared to other articles about plagiarism Not lying. When I read the title I thought about skipping this reading response all together. The author does asume that his audience doesn't agree with him, which actually works in his favor because it makes his argument stronger. I'm left with no holes, or even any questions because he put a perspective on plagiarism most others dont have.
I do agree with everything this author has to say. I think it is ridiculous the consequences people go through when they accidentally plagiarize. However, when it comes to writing a paper, rules and citing are easy, and you should not give up your grade because you oblivious to them.
The golden line that sticks out to me is "Resorting to plagiarism to get a good grade or a promotion is fraud and should be punished, though it should not be confused with 'theft.'" This line almost works as a make shift thesis and I almost wish it were more towards the beginning of my article because it would have brought my attention to this article sooner. Had I not had to do this review for homework, I would probably not have realized the authors true point to it, because I would have stopped reading.
I don't think there is such things as "accidental" plagiarism. With the power to search for anything at the touch of our finger tips, it's hard to imagine that you couldn't find any shred of previous queries when you do get caught. I find that those who plagiarize tend to be mostly lazy and lack creativity.
ReplyDeleteIf there were an infinate number of monkeys... I think you know the rest. The point is, given enough time and space, people who do ligitemate work might end up plagiarizing someone else. Should they be punished simply because the work they did is extremely similar, despite the fact that they had no knowledge of such? Calculus was, if I remember my history correctly, created independantly by two people within years of each other. Newton may get the credit, but he wasn't the only one working on it.
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