Every semester at the start of a class where we’ll be doing a decent amount of writing the professor briefs us on the syllabus then gets to the part on plagiarism I promptly roll my eyes and stop paying attention there. That’s not to say I’m gonna plagiarize anyway, I haven’t as far as I know, I just don’t really take the warning seriously. Why? What’s really constitutes as plagiarism? I have had different professors tell me different things to point where the term plagiarism essentially means don’t get caught.
Plagiarism: a Lie of the Mind article puts things in perspective for me and clarified that the definition of plagiarism is not a chameleon; it doesn’t change to suit the professors interpretation of laziness. If you own your words then there should be no issue with plagiarism. Some one gave me a rather brilliant quote, “the key to creativity is hiding your influences” which relates some what to that.
It just feels good to know that I wont get blown up for using my favorite catch phrase or something in a paper.
