Excuses for Plagiarists
8. Diss the author.
“But the author wasn’t stating an original idea anyway. I just happened to restate her unoriginal idea using the exact same words and punctuation marks. There being a finite number of words, phrases and punctuation marks that may be used to express the same thought. What an amazing coincidence!
“The author is a nobody so I’m doing her a favor by bringing her work to a wider public than she could ever reach. Seriously, did you know she even existed before I said something she wrote, using the exact same words she used, and conveniently forgot to mention her?”
11. I am the Kwisatz Haderach!
Only makes sense if you’ve read Dune.
12. The English Major Defense
“Who is Sarah Pope? Oh I thought that stuff was written by Alexander Pope! You know, like, The Rape of the Lock? The Dunciad? Cause Alexander Pope is in the Western canon and his words should be instantly familiar to all literate, erudite persons. “And all who told it added something new, and all who heard it made enlargements too…” You’ve never heard that? God, you illiterates.
“Anyway, when words are universally familiar, it’s silly to even attribute them. You don’t have to say, “Fourscore and seven years ago, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter,” that’s just showing off.
In case you’re not sick of the topic, read our column at InterAksyon.com.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
November 19th, 2012 at 13:03
xcuse meh — Tito Sotto is “not a plagiarist because he merely copied the text and never claimed it as his own.”
is this reason technically sound / sane? does this make him legally ‘lusot’?
November 19th, 2012 at 13:42
I remember a columnist from a major daily using the #4 excuse.
November 20th, 2012 at 06:22
it’s really tragic for our country that the people that be have no inkling of honor, integrity and honesty. i hope the electorate really vote wisely next time around.
November 20th, 2012 at 08:16
Plagiarism. Bah. I just stop writing when I run out of material to blog about.
Us common folk have it easy.
We common folk have it easy.
See, I wouldn’t know how to write that proper, but who cares? Ha ha, this life is good.