(Source: http://info.library.unsw.edu.au/psl/skills/direct/itet_lilt/module3/images/plagiarism.GIF)
Let's discuss a very serious topic today: PLAGIARISM.
It's not a good thing. It's not even something that should be tolerated. It's not even something that is necessary because with the wonderful world of citations (and the many versions there are of citing things) you can take stuff and just throw in the citation and you're done.
Let me illustrate how I feel about plagiarism for you through images (which, ironically, we usually plagiarize, so today I'm citing its source):
(Source: http://sociology.camden.rutgers.edu/jfm/plagiarism/plagiari.jpg)
Why all the hoopla about plagiarism today? Well, let me tell you. As you all in the publishing business know, it's bad to plagiarize. As I, in the academic field know, plagiarizing is bad. Freshmen however, do not care if it's bad if it gets them a speech grade. As I listed to 22 more speeches today (because I listened to 22 on Monday and this was the continuation of that), I had to grade all 44 of these speeches this afternoon. While listening to speeches, I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, nor did I expect plagiarism to be a problem on a special occasion speech where EVERY SINGLE FACT COULD BE FABRICATED.
Yet as I sat in my office and started evaluating the speeches, I came across one with writing that just, struck me as being...different. The speech was on General George Patton, who I know nothing about, and yet, I KNEW there was something wrong.
So, thinking like a freshman, I immediately go to Wikipedia, source of all sources. What do I find right there, in the first paragraph? A DIRECT MATCH to my kid's speech. Ridiculous. I quickly type Ctrl+F to see what else I can uncover. Let's just say by the time I was done not only did i know about General Patton, but there was less written text (for a speech that could be completely made up) than there were plagiarized sections.
I am astonished that kids actually try to pass this off as being ok. I covered plagiarism and it being bad on the very first day of class, also known as National Syllabus Day. Am I ok with this? No. What am I going to do about this? He's failing the speech. Is that all that's going to happen? I don't know. Because I'm a TA I have to get in touch with my boss to figure out how to approach this. I want him to fail the class because honestly, plagiarisim is never acceptable, especially not on a speech that COULD HAVE BEEN COMPLETELY FAKE AND MADE UP and was only a 4 minute speech that they had three weeks to work on.
I'm not happy. I hate teaching.
(Source: http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/exhibitionist/25452BP~Angry-Posters.jpg)
Don't plagiarize.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Plagiarism
Posted by Fountain at 9:33 PM
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5 comments:
I am sorry Fountain, holy shit does that suck. I am totally with you, especially when you said the speech could be made up. Ughh is that kid retarded? Well, maybe he will learn his lesson early in his college career I guess.
But kudos for you for failing him, I am glad you did- I hate when punks got away with this shit.
And yes, the publishing world is all to familiar with plagiarism, I don't know about Tulls and Maria's companies but ours has software that run though the manuscript before it gets layed out.
So, to summarize, that boy is an EPIC FAIL.
Yeah, it's beyond epic fail. I am so angry! I just don't understand why there was a need to plagiarize a speech that is only 4 minutes and you can make up every single piece of information. Ugh. Kids. Ugh. Teaching.
Ugh kids is so right. Did I ever tell you that I actually had a student call me one day last week because he wanted to find out where he could get his book cheaper than at his bookstore (FYI - it was the first print of this ISBN, and only his bookstore had ordered it, so he was SOL). I mean honestly we've reached the point where kids call an f'ing publisher to try and find their book for less.
But yes, that kid is an epic fail. The fact that people still think it's ok to plagiarize is so beyond me. I second the kudos on failing him. Boy needs to understand that shit like this has serious consequences. It's a little funny that he stole it all from Wikipedia though since yesterday I introduced the girls at work to the wonder that is "Dave Bevans picking dandelions on the hillside path leading up to the Tinsley Center" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgewater_State_College).
Hahahah Oh Wikipedia, how i love thee. the amount of crap on there is amazing.
also reading dave bevans picking flowers on the tinsely hill makes me imagine him in a pink dress-actually it makes me think of "Heidi" --title role of course played by dbevans.
First, thank you for citing your source Tully! Second, I am actually using that exact reference when we cover the researching chapter to explain why they can't use Wikipedia as a source.
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