Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Circular Plagiarism

So blog posts have been few and far between as I prepare for teaching. Classes begin in a week and the expected panic is beginning to set in.

Last night there was the orientation for new faculty. Over dinner, a couple of adjuncts spoke about the Adjunct Council, a newly formed group that advocates on the behalf of and provides support for adjuncts. During the informal Q and A session, the topic of plagiarism came up and that there should be some statement in our syllabus addressing the matter. Someone asked if the college had a formal statement that we could use. One of the moderators replied something to the effect of "No, I just used a statement that I copied from somewhere else".

Thank goodness I didn't have any food or drink in my mouth as I just lost it, bursting out in laughter and saying in a tone just loud enough for the people at my table to hear: "That's plagiarism!". They all started laughing, breaking the rather somber mood and drawing the attention of the entire room. I then felt obligated to repeat my remark out loud so that everyone could hear it. The speaker blushed as red as an apple. I tried adding "...as long as you don't provide attribution" but I think that was lost in the noise.

Sheesh, classes haven't even started and I'm already causing trouble.



Previous Years

August 26, 2014 - The Ebola outbreak would be so much worse without plastics

August 26, 2011 - Diary of a Summer Intern

August 26, 2010 - Scanning Plastic Films for Defects

August 26, 2010 - Grammar

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you want to know the word I just created? "Plagiarism"

Ben said...

Completely off topic, but if you haven't read it yet, John, you should head over to reason.com for their story on HDPE bags.
http://reason.com/archives/2015/09/01/plastic-bags-are-good-for-you