plagiarize: (verb) to steal and pass off the ideas or words of another as one's own
Times change. Back in the day, I thought the best evidence of the gulf between baby boomers like me and whatever we’re calling the younger generation these days was the ridiculous “pants falling off the ass to expose colorfully striped boxer shorts” look.
More recently, I’ve been leaning toward the ubiquitous, utterly baffling, tattoo craze as proof that I should make the move into the Old Farts’ Home and be done with it.
But now comes stronger, even more convincing, evidence that I am hopelessly, permanently, undeniably, irretrievably out of the loop.
The New York Times reported recently that plagiarism, once frowned upon as the paper-writing equivalent of a felony, is viewed by more and more students as acceptable. Many students, the Times reports, “simply do not grasp that using words they did not write is a serious misdeed.”
The Center for Academic Integrity has found that “about 40 percent of 14,000 undergraduates admitted to copying a few sentences in written assignments.” And only 29 percent of students believe copying from the Web constitutes serious cheating, down from 34 percent a few years ago, according to the newspaper.
Chalk it up to my high-school and college days, back when we actually had to consult three-dimensional objects (papyrus scrolls, mostly) to do research. Or maybe it's my ingrained habit, as a former newspaper reporter, of always attributing information to its source. Either way, the latest statistics are frightening. They suggest that many students live in a world where copyright and intellectual property have little meaning, honesty is an archaic concept and theft is the painless way to a good grade.
I’m still no fan of droopy drawers and “body art.” But if I run into a heavily tattooed kid decked out in pants with a crotch that’s sagging down around his knees, I’ll invite him in for tea as long as he believes stealing what other people have written is dastardly.
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