Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a specific form of academic cheating, entailing passing off other people’s words or ideas as one’s own. We all like to believe that “cheating is cheating” – that is, some things don’t change! Nonetheless, copying-and-pasting, the physicals act at the centger of plagiarism, is also one of the first things we learn to do on a computer, and also (alas) one of the easiest.

Listen Up


• Here is an NPR report (9:13) drawn upon discussions with students and faculty at the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland.


• Here is a longer piece from Soundprint (28:39)

Write Now

• ”Cheating” is always wrong, but “borrowing” is sometimes less black-and-white. How does labeling something change how we feel about it?
• ”Modeling” is an even more ambiguous term: Learning to do something well often entails copying certain aspects of a master. Do you have any experience with modeling?

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• More from Wikipedia on plagiarism

Walt Whitman

Listen Up

"I lean and loafe at my ease... observing a spear of summer grass." The summer of 2005 saw the 150th anniversary of the publication of Walt Whitman Leaves of Grass, for many, the single most prototypical “American” book in our history.

• Here is an NPR piece on Whitman (7:04) noting the 150-year anniversary.
• Here is a longer piece from WNYC (58:43) that provides a broad overview of Whitman’s life.

Write Now

• What are some of your stereotypes of an artist or poet, and which of these, if any, does Whitman seem to meet?
• What aspects of Whitman’s life and work seem to make him quintessentially American?
• What importance, if any, should we or do you attach to the matter of Whitman’s sexuality? Is it largely irrelevant to hisw life as poet or absolutely crucial – or somewhere in between?

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• More from Wikipedia on Whitman