Preview

The Copycat Syndrome: Plagiarists At Work

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
296 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Copycat Syndrome: Plagiarists At Work
As reviewed in her essay “The Copycat Syndrome: Plagiarists at Work,” Meghan O’Rourke investigates the multiple reasons and different factors that make people consider plagiarism a huge issue. One of the main things that bothers people about plagiarism is that it lacks originality. As Robert McCrum wrote in the Observer, “We prize originality above everything and place a high value on novelty of expression” (O’Rourke 338). Thus, a partial answer to the question why people consider plagiarism such a serious offense is because using another author’s work shows a lack of originality from the writer. However, the main reason why people are so disturbed by plagiarism is because they are concerned about “the just distribution of labor”.
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Plagiarism In Michael Lewis My Ames Is True
    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Plagiarism In Michael Lewis My Ames Is True

    Each person differently views the concept of plagiarism, such as is a view of Lewis’s first experience in 7th grade. As Lewis copies a text from a book for his school book report, he has no idea what plagiarism is and declares the concept strange to him. People restate and copy what other people say all the time. Ironically, as a…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Discussion Question Week2
    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Discussion Question Week2

    Bowden, D. (1996) ‘Coming to terms: plagiarism,’ English Journal,85 (4), pp. 82-84, ProQuest Central [Online]. DOI: 9477482 (Accessed: 9 March 2009).By Wednesday, post 3–5 responses to your colleagues by: * Asking insightful questions * Offering contributions based upon the literature and your prior experience * Extending the discussion into new but relevant areas * Modelling or promoting critical reflection Remember to cite ideas from the readings for this week, using Harvard style. Please submit your initial response through the Turnitin submission links below in addition to posting it to the Discussion Board.…

    • 632 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    A Plague Of Plagiarists In A Cut And Paste World Analysis
    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages

    A Plague Of Plagiarists In A Cut And Paste World Analysis

    In Russell Smith's insightful piece “A Plague of Plagiarists in a Cut and Paste World” he explores the possibilities of both opinions that could be perceived with the topic of the increasingly pressing issue of plagiarism arising within today's culture. Whilst understanding the reasoning, justified by the advancing technology flooding society, Smith feels that the process of filtering students' essay's through turnitin.com or others is necessary in order to preserve originality and honest education.…

    • 564 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Something Borrowed Malcolm Gladwell Analysis
    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Something Borrowed Malcolm Gladwell Analysis

    In this world there are several features that are undefined; such as mathematical variables, ethics, and even aspects of day to day activities. Encased in these undefined aspects is plagiarism, or at least it is per Malcom Gladwell. Gladwell, in “Something Borrowed”, expresses his views on, what he considers, three central issues with plagiarism. His first issue is that when it comes to academics or literature it has become never acceptable to copy another’s work. Gladwell’s second concern centers around the question of what does and does not hinder creativeness. Finally, his last dispute with plagiarism is that people have been encouraged to believe “that a writer’s words have a virgin birth and eternal life” which is simply not true. Over all, Gladwell’s key argument is the question of where is the line between borrowing another’s work tolerable and transformative, and when is it blatantly stealing? By examining Gladwell’s three central issues, it can become apparent there is almost no line amongst borrowing and stealing another’s work because plagiarism is quite undefined, in a generalistic sense.…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    W100
    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages

    W100

    In order to avoid plagiarism, and therefore side-step inadequate preparation for any academic work under-taken, it is important to understand how and when plagiarism comes into effect. There are numerous reasons why students plagiarise, whether intentionally or not and some examples of the reasons and also when it is evident in sub-standard work is described below:…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary of Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age
    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Summary of Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age

    Surveys conducted by Donald McCabe (2006-2010) have shown the moral decline on plagiarism. This prevalent phenomenon can be explained through many reasons. Sarah Brookover has powerfully stated that the new concept of intangible texts should take the blame for high rated plagiarism as reading webpages – a non-physical action – will increase a false sensation of “this [belongs] to me”. The challenge of authorship (Blum, 2009) is another visible reason: the glorious idea of individualism developed in Enlightenment Age and the awareness of intellectual property rights are both fading away. Criticisms over Helene Hegemann’s first novel, Axolotl Roadkil, have generated the public concern that young adults tend to regard the mixture of old and new sources as “art of cut and paste” (Zeitung, 2010) rather than misdeed of copying. Last but not least, the strict academic writing standards (Wilensky), and the unwillingness to create compositions (Dudley) share the responsibilities for reported college plagiarism cases.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Analysis: The Ecstasy Of Plagiarism
    • 1603 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Analysis: The Ecstasy Of Plagiarism

    Ideas are neither created nor destroyed, therefore the notion of originality is false. Originality cannot exist if every thought and idea are preexisting, because it is proven that as human beings, we are naturally inclined to copy one another. Specifically in art, it comes to no surprise that artists can become heavily influenced by another’s artwork and unconsciously copy them. In some instances, this would be considered plagiarism and or copyright infringement, but to Jonathan Lethem, it is a gift. In his piece, “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism” he discusses the obscenities of privatizing ideas and opinions, because it restricts creativity.…

    • 1603 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Salem Telephone Company
    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Salem Telephone Company

    In Scott Jaschiks’ book titled “Winning Hearts and Minds in War on Plagiarism,” Jaschik describes the issue of first-year English students plagiarizing work and the numerous faculty members’ solutions to solve plagiarizing. Teachers, like North Carolina State University professor Kate Hagopian, are working with first-year English students to teach students academic integrity and to understand why students plagiarize. Teachers have researched the issue by performing student evaluations. These evaluations have given teachers better insight to why students would choose to plagiarize. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale professor R. Gerald Nelms explains that some students have an internal behavior that students inherit when they try and imitate writing styles instead of proposing an emotional reaction or response. Without understanding how to express a response to a paper, students try to, instead, rewrite the paper with minimal changes. A full understanding of how to called “patch writing,” Other teachers, like Roy Stamper, have observed through anonymous blogs with students that students will replace quantity with efficiency if not given enough time. Plagiarism is an issue that can be solved among students, only if teachers grasp the issue and keep practicing with solutions to instill academic integrity while diminishing plagiarism.…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Annotated Bibliography
    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Annotated Bibliography

    Dames explains in detail his views and actual definitions of plagiarism and copyright infringement. His comparisons of plagiarism to a “rumor mill” and “the scarlet letter” demonstrate his views on plagiarism’s lack of standards that create an unfair system to those accused of committing plagiarism. In the end, Dames advice to his audience is to be careful and cite all references used when writing.…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Hidden Side of Academic Plagiarism
    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Hidden Side of Academic Plagiarism

    In the paper "Anorexia The Cheating Disorder," Richard Murphy argues that less known yet more troublesome aspect of plagiarism is the undermining effect that it has on the relationship between a professor and his students. This rapport that initially was considered one of trust and teamwork, becomes one of hunter/prey, where he and the students become opponents, no longer working towards a common goal. Murphy reveals his emotional struggle when faced with a suspicion, due to the difficulty involved in assessing its accuracy.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Redefining Plagiarism: Martin Luther King's Use Of An Oral Tradition
    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Redefining Plagiarism: Martin Luther King's Use Of An Oral Tradition

    The two articles “A Plagiarism Pentimento” and “Redefining Plagiarism: Martin Luther King’s Use of an Oral Tradition” by Rebecca Moore Howard and Keith D. Miller discusses exclusively about plagiarism. While as Miller’s article mainly focuses on oral plagiarism, Howard’s article focuses on both oral and written plagiarism while giving more emphasis on the written plagiarism.…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Critique Of - Applying Ethical Theories: Interpreting and Responding to Student Plagiarism, Journal of Business Ethics
    • 1295 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Critique Of - Applying Ethical Theories: Interpreting and Responding to Student Plagiarism, Journal of Business Ethics

    Plagiarism in today's “copy and paste generation” is an unremitting, complex issue that is not yet fully understood.…

    • 1295 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    THE IMPORTANCE OF TEXT MATCHING TOOLS IN DEVELOPING GOOD SCHOLARLY PRACTICE
    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages

    THE IMPORTANCE OF TEXT MATCHING TOOLS IN DEVELOPING GOOD SCHOLARLY PRACTICE

    Plagiarism according to Perrin, Larkham, and Culwin (see Okoro 2011, p.174) is simply explained as the use of someone else’s intellectual property without proper acknowledgement of that source. It is in its own way a form of ‘theft’. According to Okoro (2011), plagiarism is known to occur for various reasons, carelessness being in the forefront. His research shows that 90% of students know they are plagiarizing but do so anyway because they consider it to be a lesser ethical crime than other high profile instances of dishonesty. Other causes may include ignorance of students who are not completely aware of what plagiarism constitutes and have not really been educated on the proper ways of acknowledging their sources. Research by Scanlon and Neumann (see Okoro (2011), p. 176) Shows that majority of students actually know that plagiarism in all its forms is wrong. When asked, Over 80% of them responded positively against plagiarism, saying that it is completely unacceptable. In practice however (Walker 2010) majority of these students are found to plagiarize. The majorities of such groups are found to be international students whom English is not their first language and therefore find it difficult to express themselves in English and result to the easy way out: copying. Text matching software to some extent is quite good at pointing out instances of plagiarism but at the same time it is highly limited by the extent to which it can enter into databases such as…

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Plagiarism
    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Plagiarism

    Plagiarism can be defined as using others published ideas or words and representing them as original (Bird, Sivilotti, 2008).Although plagiarism is not a new issue it has grown it the past few years due the increase use of technology. Plagiarism is one of the most challenging problems facing education (Shenton, 2010). This being due to the escalated amount of material found on the internet with ease and quickly implement into one’s own document (Shenton, 2010). In today’s age plagiarism is more accepted in between students. Most students fail to grasp the concept of properly acknowledging the information from its original source; which they also tend to believe any information found on the internet is free to use (Shenton, 2010). One can argue that there’s has been a value shift which can be questioned, due to the increase in the legitimacy of cheating and plagiarism among college students (Gross, 2011). Research recently done in 2009 states that a shift justifying cheating and plagiarism has been replacing the traditional view of cheating and plagiarism being unethical (Gross, 2011). It seems as university administration are not as aware in this shift as some researchers, although the attention is focused on how to solve this problem cheating continues to increase (Gross, 2011).In another case several students were questioned about their decision making when it comes to plagiarizing: Some said it easy to do; they are confident they won’t get caught or just out of laziness; or they view the assignment as a waste of time or even if they don’t understand the class or topic (Power, 2009). While most students had been told by a professor not to plagiarize; most students themselves did not know how to apply it (Power, 2009). Some students view plagiarizing as a minor offense (Power, 2009). Plagiarism can be explored through many avenues with more students viewing plagiarism and cheating as more acceptable maybe this…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Why Plagiarism Is Bad
    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Why Plagiarism Is Bad

    Plagiarism comes from a Latin word meaning “kidnap”. Many people have given different meanings to the term plagiarism. Plagiarism is the worst form of fraud a student can be involved in. All students are advised to avoid this at all times. Plagiarism is caused by unfamiliarity with what they are supposed to be writing about or what they are learning about students are advised to familiarize themselves with the topics they are supposed to write about in advance. In my case I did not copy but I let people copy my paper and I did not make the right decision because not only did I cheat them out of their education but I put myself in a situation where I could get in trouble.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics