How Not to Plagiarize

This post is in solidarity for my tree-buddy Keeva.

Plagiarism is defined as "the wrongful appropriation, close imitation, or purloining and publication, of another author's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions, and the representation of them as one's own original work."

Example:

I wrote this all by myself. It is entirely my own work. Though, to cover my ass, I might claim there is some tiny chance someone somewhere in the world might have written this before me, verbatim. Just like monkeys with a type writer pummeling out Shakespeare. Great excuses to use if you are caught stealing 1. It was meant to be private but I made it public by accident. 2. It was meant as placeholder text, it was a draft, I was going to change it (I don’t know why it said “I wrote this guide”). 3. Who’s to say what’s original on the internet, anyway? We all use the same words, it’s inevitable that we will accidentally use the same ones sometimes. 4. We came up with exactly the same idea, with exactly the same wording. Weird huh??? 5. Someone else did something bad so why am I in trouble for this? 6. English isn’t my first language, I copied because I am not good at writing things from scratch. 7. Someone sent this to me, I didn’t know it was someone else’s work! 8. I was going to give credit, you just didn’t give me a chance!

That is plagiarism. I copy-pasted it from Keeva's site and then claimed I wrote it myself.
That is also what is known as a LIE.

Now, if I wanted to use her content in an honest manner without having to re-write the concepts in my own words, I would do it like this:

The following is from Keeva at TBJ: Great excuses to use if you are caught stealing 1. It was meant to be private but I made it public by accident. 2. It was meant as placeholder text, it was a draft, I was going to change it (I don’t know why it said “I wrote this guide”). 3. Who’s to say what’s original on the internet, anyway? We all use the same words, it’s inevitable that we will accidentally use the same ones sometimes. 4. We came up with exactly the same idea, with exactly the same wording. Weird huh??? 5. Someone else did something bad so why am I in trouble for this? 6. English isn’t my first language, I copied because I am not good at writing things from scratch. 7. Someone sent this to me, I didn’t know it was someone else’s work! 8. I was going to give credit, you just didn’t give me a chance!

That was copying another's work, but not claiming it as your own. It even helpfully linked the source to give proper credit. That is okay.

See the difference?

I'm sure most of you do. Because most people reading this blog aren't thieving idiots with no concept of what "your own words" means. If you want to claim something is your own work, then it better be your own work. People are more likely to respect you if you just say "hey, I got this content from this source," than to discover you're a liar and a thief. Sources. Cite them. Link them. Don't claim it your own if it's not.

/end rant.






Hey look, a puppy.