REWIND: Playing by the rules means just saying "no" to plagiarism, doesn't it?

All this anonymous talk of late comparing me with Reverend Jeremiah Wright is worrisome.

What if folks begin to think that I'm religious? I'd never be able to live that one down.

Meanwhile, on the recurring topic of attribution and intellectual dishonesty, it should be noted that permission to publish someone else's words is meaningless if attribution is not provided.

Let's go back to September, 2007, and consider anew what it means to pretend ... and to be a very bad actor.

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Playing by the rules means just saying "no" to plagiarism, doesn't it? (9/11/07)

I’m always amused when people who “play by the rules” aren’t able to follow them.

Yes, it’s time to revisit Vicki Ann Denschak’s bilious Freedom to Screech blog and read “Professor Erik’s” original thoughts about … wait … it now seems that they’re not exactly original.

As the noted noted linguist Gomer Pyle once observed, "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise."

09. 11. 01

The imaginary lecturer’s first two paragraphs are cribbed in their entirety (sans attribution, which is the faux academic’s longstanding, loathsome habit) from an essay by John Peters.

Poignantly, Ms. Denschak inserts her own leadoff sentence into the second paragraph. Not only is it grammatically incorrect, but she misspells singer Shania Twain’s name.

Further along, there’s another whole paragraph stolen from an article by Stacey Colino published in 2002.

And, the sentence following the paragraph originally written by Colino can be found here.

What was that about rules? Consider this random definition from the Northwestern University website:

Northwestern's "Principles Regarding Academic Integrity" defines plagiarism as "submitting material that in part or whole is not entirely one's own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source."

Gee, you’d think a college professor would know that.

(thanks RS)