Tuesday, 03 June 2008

Proof The World, Much Like Our Students, Has Absolutely No Clue What The Word "Plagiarism" Means

Via:

McEwan was accused of plagiarism over his 2001 novel Atonement for relying on the diaries of a wartime nurse for descriptions of World War II hospitals, an allegation that was widely dismissed because McEwan had clearly attributed that information to its proper source.

To coin a phrase, accurate and transparent citation of source material is that than which something more disprobative cannot be imagined.

Jun 3, 2008 1:18:10 PM | Teaching

4 Comments

Vance Maverick

It's as if he had wanted to be caught!

Posted by: Vance Maverick | Tuesday, 03 June 2008 at 02:35 PM

human

Um... huh??

Posted by: human | Tuesday, 03 June 2008 at 02:47 PM

Vance Maverick

More seriously, this is just Bad Journalism 101. They can't bring themselves to state clearly that anyone is wrong about anything, even a simple matter of fact. Some say Obama is Muslim; some say otherwise. Some say McEwan plagiarized; some dismiss this for reasons whose soundness we are contractually forbidden to assess.

Posted by: Vance Maverick | Tuesday, 03 June 2008 at 02:57 PM

SEK

human, what Vance said.

Posted by: SEK | Tuesday, 03 June 2008 at 03:12 PM

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Don't Mock, Don't Mock, Don't Mock, Don't Mock ... Normally such pleas are made via email, but this brave soul decided on another route. (I've removed identifying information because I'm not that cruel.) Since I'm already writing about nothing, I thought I'd add that since becoming Supreme Leader of that other place I've received a remarkable number of emails that read something like this: Dear Madam, I see you have a very popular blog according to the Technorati which measures what are the popular blogs. I have a message the world needs to hear and most desperately the sooner the better and believe your platform would provide me the platform I need to bullhorn my message to your world. If you would like to please help enlighten the world into saving grant me access to the administrative privileges of your blog so I can begin my messaging of the world to the importance of Live Nude Barely Asian Women. Sincerely, This Is Not a Fake Name And yes, I have been addressed as "Madam." Despite all the flack I've taken for identifying myself by my full name, I wonder if I shouldn't throw a couple more masculine cues in there. "Scott Eric Beer Football John Wayne Loves Guns Kaufman" has a nice ring to it, no?
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