Friday, December 01, 2006

It might get you fired, unless of course the job wasn't yours from the start.

Seeing as the professorial poseur over at Freedom to Screech seldom sees any need to attribute the scattershot snippets from the hard work of others that she routinely purloins from the Internet (which in itself would lead to her dismissal from any responsible teaching position in the reality-based world, as opposed to her native habitat of Fantasy Island), kindly permit NAC to provide the sources for her posting today.

We’re happy to do it.

The borrowing begins with a poem called “I Own All of Me,” written by David Kearney. It can be found in its original form here.

The next lines, “Here (sic) essence was that of Love, Her inspiration was that of hope!,” comes from another poem by Brandon Ross Abernathy entitled “Cathy,” which also can be read at thebody.com.

And finally, completing a fruitful nocturnal session of plagiarism from the very same web site, Doc Erika’s final thought is lifted from an essay by Walter Holland, PhD: "A Poetry of Crisis, A Poetry of Witness," except that in typical fashion, she omits the word “poetry,” without which the passage makes no sense whatsoever.

The FOS posting’s title, “The Value of Her Insight,” undoubtedly refers to the fact that all three filched sources were written by men.

If one ventures into the casino and begin throwing money at those nice men dealing cards, he or she is advised to take a brief stab at learning the rules of the game – or risk taking a bath. In like fashion, blogosphere or not, proper attribution of sources is not an option – it’s a requirement, at least for any writer wishing to be taken seriously.

Halloween has come and gone, doc. How about changing back into civvies?

(Photo credit: www.amazon.com)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to teach Ethics at a small business college in Ohio. I did that adjunct thing. I was stunned in reading, one day, a very fine paper loaded with quotes and nothing cited. Not one footnote, not one citation.

I have posted my sermons on the Internet for years, both in Ohio and here. I once googled some of the sermons and found a couple of them on other church's websites, completely intact, exactly what I wrote, with the preacher of that church taking total credit for it.

Some people write very well and have wonderful, brilliant thoughts which we all love to share. Citing them, giving the actual authors credit is a simple, decent gesture.

Anonymous said...

A very nice use of the word "filch". One of my personal favorites and one not used often enough in the English language.

And, another amusing post as well!