April 24, 2012

On Plagiarism

I am a communication major (graduate almost!). As you might now, in comm, plagiarism is death. It is a crime, shameful and unacceptable. With the internet, this has become very hard to track and find, and lines have seemed to blur.

When someone decides to have a blog, it's because they have things to say. They intend to write and share what they are writing. It's an unbelievably amazing opportunity to be able to live in an era where you can have a voice, if you so choose. A time where people might read what you write even if you are no one.

Taking what someone else has written is stealing. Whether you did it with good intentions or bad, it's still stealing. You are taking someone else's intellectual property, i.e. ideas, words, creative process even, and passing it as your own. This should never be done. NEVER.

Please, YA community, do not think plagiarism is okay in any of its forms. Do not ever believe it is okay because others have done it.

We support friends even when they make terrible mistakes. I support mine. But as a blogger, I want to be very clear that this is NOT to be done under any circumstances.

Think for a second of the hours you spend blogging. Of how much of your life revolves around your blog. Then think of finding your post, your words, under someone else's name. Not cool at all.

Learn from the mistakes of others. Never repeat them.

10 comments:

  1. Great post, Sab! It's a bit mind boggling especially with the the internet as a source why people copy. Obviously, as it's been shown this week, you can easily be tracked down so just don't do it. The end.

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  2. Wonderful post! I would be extremely pissed if I were to find myself in such a situation. I think it's sad that some people are that unable to think for themselves.

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  3. I just don't even understand why a blogger would do this! I know I'm not very good with words, but my blog is about my opinion on books. If I copied someone else, it wouldn't be mine. Good post.

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  4. Great post, well said and straight to the point.

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  5. Thanks for this. I admit I was surprised to find something had occurred, but it effects all of us when someone in the blogging community plagiarizes. Your post here was very clear and to the point, I appreciate it. We all need a reminder sometimes to play by the rules.

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  6. Big, big fan of this post. Very nicely put. People are losing sight of one VERY important fact in all of this- plagiarism is NEVER OK. End of story.

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  7. Great post. Very straight to the point and you are right, it's SO important. Plagiarism is so, so wrong.

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  8. I really enjoyed reading this post! I feel bad for the blogger in a way because now they're probably getting a lot of back lash but at the same time, they're one of, if not the biggest book bloggers around. It's not a good example to set for others just starting up which is why I think everyone should read this post.

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