# of Words: 396

About two weeks ago I got an article submissionthat instantly attracted my attention. The wasidentical to the name of an article I wrote and whichwas published in.ebProNews in May 1999. "Probably just a coincidence", I thought to myself, and kept reading. Nevertheless, the very first paragraph stopped mein my paths. It was quite clearly differentiated from myarticle.

As I kept reading I realized sentence aftersentence that had been lifted from my article and thenmodified slightly. The whole article was plagiarized. I really could hardlybelieve it. As the English say, I was.ob-smacked'.

------------------------------What Is Plagiarism? ------------------------------.lagiarism comes from the Latin word.lagiarius'. Akidnapper. Below are two dictionary definitions ofplagiarism.' [to] take (the work or thought of someone else). And pass it off as one's own' (Concise Oxford. Dictionary, Third Edition.o appropriate ideas, passages etc. From another.work or writer' (Collins Dictionary of the English. Language, ed. P. Hanks . Plagiarism may be done in a number of ways, but the mostcommon technique would be to paraphrase someone else's words. Here's an example. First. "And when you've matched the ezine to the product you'reselling, you've reached your target audience." . Plagiarized version. "When you have correctly matched the ezine or newsletterto the product you're selling, then you will havereached your target audience." .

----------------------------------------What Can You Do About It? ----------------------------------------. The Internet is so vast, odds are you wouldn't knowif someone had plagiarized your work. I only discoveredthat my work had been plagiarized because the.riter'delivered his article to me for inmy own publication. But if you do discover that someone has plagiarizedone of your articles, you can do what I did. I contacted the writer of the.rticle'and asked that he email everyone to whom he hadsent the article, explaining that it was plagiarized, and that they should on no account print it. I addedthat when he didn't withdraw the article fromcirculation I would contact his internet server and themoderators of any lists that distributed the article.

The writer replied within a few hours and admittedthat the correlation between the 2 articles was "VERYuncanny". He explained that he had no idea "how they may be sosimilar". However, after a few emails, he did withdraw thearticle. It's a compliment when someone plagiarizesyour work: it implies you're writing good stuff. Butthat consolation. If you make your livingfrom writing on the Internet, plagiarism could be thegreatest risk to your livelihood.

Related Papers

Scott Bowler's View of Plagiarism in the Electronic Age

At "Leisure Theory from the Information Age" from Wes Cooper and "Reflections on Recreation, Park, and Leisure Studies" by Daniel L. Dustin and Thomas L. Goodale, the authors raise two very important Concerns about the growth and Effect of an increasingly symbolically constructed culture.

What is Plagiarism - Explanation and Examples from Dudley Erskine Devlin's Article Plagiarism in America

And afterwards, towards the end of the lifetime, from the late Mr. William Blackwood in his magazine. For the rest I have to say that during his sojourn in England he had the misfortune to be, as the French say, mal entour. He was beset by people who understood not the quality of his genius and were antagonistic to the deeper fineness of the nature. A number of them have died since, but dead or alive they are not worth speaking about now. I don't think that he had any illusions about them......Read More

Causes of Plagiarism

How do professors assess for plagiarism in essays and dissertations? . With the expansion of the internet and access to information, the chances for students to plagiarize are eternally increasing. There is just so much information that can be found on wide web nowadays that anyone can discover anything they need on the web, which includes entire essays on examination or coursework titles. Virtually, all a student has to do in this day and age is sort the important words or indeed their entire......Read More

Related Topics