Ben Sargent on the 2003 State of the Union Message

Ben Sargent, 7/12/03 says it all.

Plagiarism

After Day One in HIST 1302-004, an anxious student sent me an e-mail message about plagiarism. I list theft of intellectual property as one of the Deadly Sins in my Pet Peeves page in WebCT. I replied to the student that the most common form of plagiarism at Amarillo College is copying answers on a test. I have had students submit identical written work (outline, bibliography, and annotation) for class presentations of outside information. I don't mind an overlap of a few sources, but 100% duplication is too much. My students must present information to the class in answer to a question like - Was Christopher Columbus An Imperialist? Yes or No. Identical bibliographies are a prima facie case of plagiarism. However, plagiarism is not confined to lazy students. Check out the

Historian Hall of Shame

for the latest listing of the prolific historians in our midst. It's pretty sobering.