I just popped into work today to clear up some issues that came up over Christmas and to grab some other work to take home.
It’s a tomb here, very still and quiet. In fact, I think I am the only person in the whole building.
An open letter to plagiarisers:
Dear Plagiarists,
I don’t think you are bad people, just sneaky, ill-prepared, sloppy, lazy timewasters. You are wasting your time and you are wasting my time as well. First off, you might think you are being clever, but just as a hint, when you are citing something that is apparently about Egyptian mummies and the journal article you are citing is called “Mummification of the Infarcted Myocardium with high doses of Corticosteroids” chances are I am going to be a little angry, as that article has nothing to do with Egypt, mummies, or archaeology. It does deal with rats, and mummified heart tissue, but you are willfully mis-representing someone’s research and trying to hide it. Too bad you were so dumb.
Including random quotations from television shows because you think they are “deep” and “meaningful” and “artistic” is none of the above. It is plagiarism as well and does nothing to help your essay. Come on, there are a million sources about bipedalism out there.
For all of you ripping things off Wikipedia, stop now, take your hands away from the keyboard. Wikipedia is not an academic source. It is a good starting point, and I heartily recommend you check it out when you are trying to discover something about a topic you might know nothing about. However, it is a tool with a particular purpose and that does not include pasting in big whacks of stuff that sound good into your essay.
Finally, for those people who think they are being ultra-clever and have never been found out. We know. We know when you plagiarise, and if you’ve “gotten off” chances are it’s because your poor TA or prof simply didn’t have the time or resources to document and track it, so you got off with a warning. One day this will bite you in the ass, just you see.
I don’t think you realise exactly what you are doing. You think it is just helping you get your ass in the clear because you were too busy partying or screwing around to go do proper research. Instead you are hurting yourself, your research and writing skills, polluting your discipline, and making your TA very sad, because she knows you are smart and capable of so much more and you are letting it slip through your fingers.
Sincerely,
a very frustrated TA