Is it OK to plagiarize other people's essays

[prolesunited]

Poll question: Is it OK to plagiarize other people's essays

and say "thank you" when people compliment you on somebody else's work?

[antigone382]

1. No, and it's much more interesting and satisfying to write your own.

[no name no slogan]

2. Never. It's intellectually dishonest (nt)

[GOPisEvil]

3. Plagiarism is theft.

It is never acceptable.

[StopTheMorans]

6. I agree

[DancingBear]

4. You hit the "google" button too??

I thought it was only a select few of us PM'ers. :) :)

[blondeatlast]

53. Pretty surprising, huh?

Somehow I knew he didn't come up with "Right to convenience" on his own.

[DancingBear]

57. I'm shocked, I tell ya - just shocked

:) :)

[redqueen]

5. Never! And whoever said only when you can get away with it - fess up!

x(

[7th_Sephiroth]

7. every thing written

is plagerization of the dictionary

[redqueen]

10. hardeee har har n/t

[Blue-Jay]

8. I was just trying to figure out which of the 7 deadly sins it falls under.

I'm thinking about.....

40% Pride
30% Sloth
25% Envy
5% Wrath

Time for a few Hail Marys, I believe.

[Susang]

12. Don't forget the Act of Contrition

There's no forgiveness without that, you know. ;-)

[Blue-Jay]

15. Oh yeah...

As a practicing heretic, I sometimes forget how that stuff works.

[Susang]

18. You have to practice?

I had no idea! :P

[kick-ass-bob]

9. I said "Of course".

But of course, I am joking!
:D

[RagingInMiami]

11. Hell no

Throughout my journalism career, I've seen people get fired for that. And this kid back in J-school was expelled for it.

[Mizmoon]

13. Let me guess

This is about Ward Churchill

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7156384/ :eyes:

[blondeatlast]

54. Nope--it's about GD Politics yesterday evening, I suspect.

Admin and the Mods are discussing it.

[Demit]

14. It's cheating. And lying. Are you really unsure about whether it's "OK"?

[Lars39]

16. It's stealing, plain and simple.

Honesty has never meant much to the "end justifies the means" crowd.

[Susang]

17. Never

It's cowardly and intellectually dishonest.

[madison2000]

19. only if they're as good as you are!

kidding :silly:

[XNASA]

20. Plagiarism is Art.

If it's done right.

[Blue-Jay]

21. "Art" in the sense that Bob Ross paintings are "art"?

He didn't look like he put much effort into those either.

[XNASA]

25. I was thinking more....

Or the fact that a lot of good music is just made up of ideas that were nicked from other pieces of music. Let's face it, there's nothing new under sun. And there's only 12 notes.

[Ellen Forradalom]

49. or something like this

A reworked illustration:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=2834768&mesg_id=2836830

[Susang]

23. Only if you do something interesting with the work

;-)

[XNASA]

26. Well then, there's the caveat.

It's OK, if it doesn't suck. :hi:

[Bouncy Ball]

22. NEVER. Very dishonest.

Ug, yuck, blech.

[yvr girl]

You can get in trouble recycling your own essays for different classes

Using other people's stuff is wrong.

[ScreamingMeemie]

24. I believe there is no problem when the congratulations are "thank you for

posting this" or "Excellent essay". If the post is something along the lines of, "this is a great essay! When did you write it?" and the original poster calls it their own, then I'd call foul. :shrug:


And, on further thought, it also depends on what it's being used for etc... I've seen professors do this in college to get students to think.

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. I think we're talking about a situation where the original poster

discusses the essay by saying "I wrote this:", and then quoting from the plagiarised essay. That definitely looks like calling it their own to me.

[ScreamingMeemie]

29. If that's what we're talking about, then it would be wrong. If it isn't

then I don't see a problem.

[sniffa]

27. quite humerous

:D

[all.of.me]

30. it's illegal!

and ignorance of the law will not get you off.

you can use a line or two from a source and give credit. to use more than that, you must have written permission. otherwise, you're using it illegally.

like somebody said, it's more rewarding to write your own!

[Zuni]

31. absolutely not. It is like stealing someone's invention

getting a patent before they can and making money off of it.

Plagarism is theft, and in my opinion worse than stealing a TV or a DVD player---it is stealing someone's thoughts and reasearch.

[greatauntoftriplets]

32. A student of my niece turned in a plagiarized paper.

This was in a university English lit class. The student got an F on the paper and was disciplined by the university. It was an extremely ugly situation, because the student was hostile at being caught.

[Dastard Stepchild]

33. Have friends that teach at the college level...

One student printed an essay off the internet, but failed to remove the HTML tags and the date retrieved from the bottom of the sheet. Need I say that the student failed and was placed on academic probation? Oh, I guess I just did! :)

[greatauntoftriplets]

34. That was really stupid!

At least my niece's student made an attempt to make her paper look real. Verifying that it was plagiarized took a bit of time, but something about it smelled wrong, my niece investigated and was able to prove it was copied from another source.

[Dastard Stepchild]

35. beyond stupid! :)

Google has made things fairly easy for professors now - a few lines from an essay, and they can generally nail a source.

[redqueen]

38. How awful.

I've been accused of plagiarism twice - once in 6th grade, once in high school. It really stung both times. It's made me distrustful of teachers in general, sad to say.

[terrya]

36. It most certainly is NOT ok.

Only a person with a questionable sense of morality would plagarize another person's essay and then claim it as their own.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

37. Sure. Just don't lecture others about ethics while you steal.

[arwalden]

45. Heh-heh.

:hi:

[DancingBear]

50. What an interesting concept...

:) :) :hi:

[Susang]

51. You owe my boss a new keyboard

This one has just been sprayed with Diet Coke! :D

[blondeatlast]

55. True that. Gotta admit, it took chutzpah. nt

[Kathy in Cambridge]

56. *snort*

:D

[Magrittes Pipe]

39. Well, it's never okay, BUT....

It's just bullshit if done in a personal setting. It's cheating if it's done in an academic setting. And it's out-and-out theft if it's done in a published, for-profit work.

There are levels of plagiarism, I suppose. ;)

[RagingInMiami]

40. But it's all lying

And even if it's done on a personal setting, it is far more extreme than a simple "white lie".

[Magrittes Pipe]

41. Agreed.

I'm just saying that plagiarizing something in order to make money is worse than plagiarizing something in order to feed your ego.

[Donkeyboy75]

42. But my ego is hungry.

:cry:

[6000eliot]

43. I don't see the point of the essay

if you don't write it yourself.

[arwalden]

44. Only For HYPOCRITES...

because once someone is outed as a hypocrite or plagiarist, then everything else will always be suspect.

[ronzo]

46. Certainly not.

Why, that's simply dishonest...

[RPM]

47. Hell - cite it, footnotes are fun!!!

Not to mention footnotes take up considerable space.

Now, putting things in block quotes is the best - eats up insane amounts of space AND when properly attributed saves a lot of your own writing.

:-)

[Misunderestimator]

48. plagiarism sucks... let's ask Gannon about that...

lots of integrity there too... :hi:

[NNadir]

52. It's stealing, pure and simple.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

58. It's ALWAYS stealing

Did anyone tell the mods?

[blondeatlast]

59. Someone posted about it in AtA and it is being discussed.

I Googled a phrase from it and was pretty startled, I must say.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

60. Well, do the rules state that the person should be banned?

[Moderator]

61. Locking......

This thread is calling out another DU
member which is a rule violation. If
you have any other questions about this
situation, please ask them in the Ask
the Administrators Forum.


Thank you.

DU Moderator