“Immature plagiarists borrow, mature plagiarists steal.” - from T.S. Eliot’s speech to the jury at his trial for plagiarism
Believe it or not, I have already plagiarised almost 46% of this essay. I may have accredited the epigraph in the conventional fashion, with a pair of quotation marks, and a by-line nod to its origins, but as more and more students are discovering, this is simply not enough. Eliot himself was executed for several breaches of university plagiarism law including the comment above, in which he failed to source any of the six words he used. Happily, we live in more enlightened times, and the authorities such as they are, will not punish me for thus far in this piece of work. However, were I to submit it as part of my academic pursuits, it would certainly be a different story.
The term ‘plā’gĭar|ĭsm’ is an amalgamation of two ancient Greek words, plagion meaning ‘a kidnapping’, and ism meaning ‘soulless, purely self-interested, motivated by laziness’ depending on which internet encyclopaedia you are cribbing from. The history of plagiarism is lengthy and troubling, and there is not room on the page for me to copy and paste in everything I have uncovered on the topic. Problems with plagiarism go way back. Most historians now agree that the Crusades began after careless copying of ‘The Bible’. Prof. Ron Cage at the Metropolitan Polytechnic has spoken on the subject: “Well…it seems that several prophets…collaborated on their…books. They then handed them in without making the necessary alterations. Of course when the different…faiths got their hands on the material, the whole thing went to shit.” William Shakespeare was another notable plagiariser. He cribbed his plays from Sunday morning cartoons, cereal boxes, and Christopher Marlowe. Indeed, the whole thing may have gone undiscovered if Kellogg’s had not decided to reprint boxes from their back catalogue. If the question is ‘does plagiarism kill people?’, the answer is certainly ‘yes, yes it does’.
With the ‘Turnitin®’ system in place, UCL is more secure against the horrors of plagiarism than ever before. However, there is one form of plagiarism that this magnificent detection system cannot fight against: ‘selfplagiarism’. Before you hand in a piece of work, ask yourself; Have I written a similar sentence elsewhere? Have I already used this font-size? Have I printed my essay on white paper before? Have I used the conjunction ‘and’ in another piece of work? Only you can regulate the dangers of ‘self-plagiarism’. If you know of anyone who is contravening plagiarism regulations, or if you are worried that you may be plagiarising from your own work, don’t fail to report it - plagiarists erode and undercut the originality of society, they are the greatest threat to our way of life.
[This article first appeared in the last issue of The Cheese Grater -Ed]