Plagiarism

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

I dunno talk_politics community standards but plagiarism shouldn't be acceptable.

I'm not going to call anyone out, not directly. But it was pointed out that an entry with over 100 comments is a lightly edited version of one by a profession pundit. Frankly I agree.


In a private conversation, another opinion stated that, It's more than "lightly edited," it's the same story rephrased completely differently using the same videos. and later explained, We consistently have long posts that ipaste liberally from news reports and such, so there'd be no issue even then. Perhaps this is true, but I don't like it.

Let me tell you an story. We used to have a great reporter here who used to climb up into the rafters of CityHall to eavesdrop in on the closed door sessions and reported what was going on. Later this reporter was elected Mayor and eventually Premier of the Province. People didn't always like what he did or what he had to say, but he was never caught in a lie. Ralph Klein was perhaps one of the only honest politicians. This not only made him a great Premier, loved by many, but also made him hated and the target of much criticism.

Well shortly before Ralph Klein retired as Premier an investigative journalist accused him of plagiarizing an essay on Chile for his degree in communications. It wasn't so much that he copy/pasted whole paragraphs, but that he failed to cite his internet sources. The university cleared him, saying the infraction was relatively minor, but still his critics, never willing to let a grudge go, never fail to bring this up whenever he makes the news.

This community is just for fun. I don't mean to place too much importance on it's importance, if you catch my drift. But really, how hard is it to cite a source? I mean if somebody is going to copy/paste/lightly edit somebody else's work, the only reason to do so it to disguise the origin and pass it off as your own. It's probably better find something so completely obscure that it can't be found in a simple google search of the text you used.

Better yet, why not just write your own piece? For myself it's often amazing to discover my own opinions that are only revealed to myself through my writing. I have learned that the process of writing is the process of forming my perspectives on subjects.

Comments

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

Which is the exact post I've been warned by the moderator to not name. Apparently, according to a mod of this community, it was edited enough to not be considered plagiarism, but "ipasted liberally". I call foul be he says it's ok.

[lordtwinkie.livejournal.com]

No one warned me! Will my comments be censored? I think by now the cat is out of the bag.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Thanks for highlighting the fact I forgot to fix my typos numerous times, by the way, much appreciated.

Your entire original post had nothing to do with plagiarism, but was simply complaining about the point that you felt, incorrectly, that it was plagiarism and we shouldn't accept that sort of thing. No other commentary, no nothing. As I said - I pulled the trigger faster than I should have and that was wrong, I should have let you edit it into something more similar to this point, but that's beside the point now. What is your definition of plagiarism, anyway?

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I honestly wasn't highlighting a typo. I honestly thought it was an techy apple shortform for copy/paste.

I accept it was deleted in haste. While it pissed me off, it's understandable.

I disagree. My original post was short and to the point. While it was a complaint, my post included commentary meant to inspire (incite) discussion regarding issues of plagiarism. It ran as follows...

Hey, I dunno talk_politics community standards but plagiarism shouldn't be acceptable.

This entry (http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/483411.html?nc=143) now with 143 comments, is a lightly edited version of of this one by profession pundit Michelle Malkin (http://michellemalkin.com/2010/04/09/alan-grayson-goes-nuts-at-a-perkins-family-restaurant/) including the videos she linked to.

I mean if you're going to copy/paste/lightly edit somebody else's work, at least provide a link. Or really find something completely obscure that can't be found in a simple google search.

There are full sentences completely lifted without edit or citing the origin. If this doesn't fit your definition of plagiarism, then perhaps the euphemism of "deeply inspired by..." fits the bill. Still such inspiration should cite the source.

Apology accepted. Enuff said.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

I had skimmed it and couldn't see where, beyond the direct quotes, anything appeared lifted. That's no excuse, but I'm not sure it would fit mine. This is LiveJournal, not a term paper - a link is a courtesy, not a requirement, but I'd never have pegged Malkin as the source. This story hit a number of my Google Reader blogs.

Apology accepted. Enuff said.

I'm genuinely glad to hear that, and I'll try harder not to be a douche next time.

[allhatnocattle.livejournal.com]

As I said before, I don't mean to place too much importance on this community's importance. You're right, this isn't a term paper. But like it or not, we are educating each other.

Personally I learn about people, places and issues I would not seek out on my own. And it's not just that. I mean I'm a high school drop out. Probably not the best place to learn but through LJ I've greatly improved my grammar, spelling and clarity of thoughts expressed.

mividaloca99 said somewhere in that post that she was a college graduate. Somehow in that education of hers she failed to learn to cite her sources (inspiration) either as a courtesy or as a legal responsibility. No matter if you agree or not if this was an example of plagiarism (direct or indirect) my anger was over the fact we nearly failed to educate a few people that might not be aware of this simple courtesy of showing sources. Perhaps I didn't do the best job.

talk_politics lightly moderates 9 rather simple rules. I would strongly encourage you and the other mods to consider a 10th rule regarding citations. As it stands now, it would be perfectly be within the rules to copy-paste anything, no quotes or source, but with perhaps a few comments of my own opinion.