"I have a confession to make: Today I plagiarized multiple documents at work. I took the writing of others and presented it to my supervisor as if it were my own. It was an open secret that my entire report, written "by Jason Johnson," had been composed by others and that I had been merely an editor. Instead of a reprimand, I was rewarded with a post-briefing latte.
But on some level, it still felt wrong. Before coming to work at my current company, I spent most of the past 15 years as an educator, advising students from second-graders to college seniors that taking the work of others and presenting it as your own is morally wrong and intellectually dishonest. I've fretted over proper citations and labored with students over the highly subjective art of paraphrasing."
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6 comments:
If I am being honest here my first response to this blog is your human! We make mistakes and we are good at it. We fall so we learn to pick ourselves up. It is blatant that you feel much guilt about your plagiarized act, so guilty that it was enough to juggle the concept in your head but you felt the need to express your remorse through your blog. The blog is a fantastic concept because as I mentioned previously it caters as an outlet for me. It is a tranquil place where I can divulge emotions of anger, passion, irritable feelings, and perplexed thoughts. It is almost escapism for me and I know the class can reflect on my posts and writings, however I feel it is personal to a certain extent. Anyway back to your misdemeanor. Often it occurs that we preach but we don’t practice. We are not perfect and some far from it. Many times I have felt like a hypocrite and I am not calling you one Prof Marsh, I am gladly just relating to my own experiences. I’m definitely guilty of providing advice to hopeless acquaintances when challenged with a certain obstacle, although as soon as I experience the situation I act in the exact same manner as they did.
Can I ask you, did you feel guilty drinking the post-brief latte? How did it taste? I know how much emphasis you put on proper citations and the highly subjective art of paraphrasing, so much so that the word plagiarism almost sounds as quivering as dissertation. It all depends on the person. You display remorse, although the post-brief latte may feel like a form of reinforcement to some people and continued similar behavior increases. They do not learn from their mistakes until it is too late and find themselves in a tight predicament. External sources tend to reinforce our behavior; some want the medal so bad that they take drugs. However at the end of the day as you sit there in silence with only the noise of your thoughts causing you to question your actions you cannot help but feel guilty. The passing back like a tennis ball of the thoughts between justification and remorse is reinforced by the sight of the medal, the grade, the external source. The mind is a powerful entity that we cannot run from. Your post was very humorous indeed. I imagined a little child standing in front of his disappointed mother glaring down at his little body, head bowed, and feet turned inwards. The tapping foot of the mother makes the situation worse as she stands there in complete silence staring. I quite like “morally wrong and intellectually dishonest”, it is so true. If anything it makes you feel less incompetent. At least you know what you have done wrong as opposed to acting completely ignorant to the situation. This post reminds me that you are at the end of the day a normal person!
Ok wait, I'm confused. This isn't coming from you (Professor Marsh) right? It's an excerpt from Sunday's Washington Post. Sarah's response confused me a little.
But anyways, it's definatly easier to tell other people how to do things right, or live their lives right, then it is to do it yourself. Things always are easier in words then in action. That being said, plagerism is plagerism. I mean we as humans have the gift of knowing right from wrong. And if someone openly plagerized something after 15 years of experience, on one hand I can see it being brushed off as this person has plagerized one piece of material in their fifteen year tenure. On the other hand, what if this document was something more then just another blog entry? What if this was (from a students stand point) a midterm or final report. Or from a professional stand point, what if this person was a professional author and this, “one time plagerism,” was in fact an entire chapter in his book, or a front page article of The New York Times. Well then that would end their career.
There was a good example a couple years ago. A Washinton Post reporter wrote all about his, “exciting,” and, “amazing” experiences. They were a great read. Except the only problem was that it was uncovered that he never did any of them. Half of the experiences he made up, and the other half he stole writings from other people that they had written on their experiences. You’d think he could have atleast changed the name of the mountain he climbed, or who he did it with.
Anyways, it was in a matter of hours that The Washington Post had him cleaning out his desk. So I guess what I’m saying is it depends on the context in which it is in. But still in the end, plagerism is plagerism.
ah i never even noticed thanks for clearing that up Jon! i will pose my questions to the culprit now. there i was thinking Prof Marsh was NORMAL!
wishful thinking
haha, the funny thing is that when I read it the first time I thought it was about Professor Marsh as well! No biggie, glad I could help. Good comment though no matter who it was aimed to.
haha I thought this proffesor marsh wrote this for second as well. I agree with the article the term paper is dead!! R.I.P. term paper! I know tons of kids who plagarize and get away with it. I even know kids who wrote papers entirely on their own and have been accused of plagarizing. Just like the article said there are to many ways to get answers now a days so I guess professors can only really go by their students integrity because for eveyone one student they cath there are 2 kids who get away with plagarizing.
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