Ethics of Plagarism

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While I quote cheyenne1212 .. I am commenting in a broard manner.. While Math may be a subject that has a direct connection to your intended goal studied. the other subjects are needed by YOU. they were not throwen in to fill in the day and there for help keep a teacher occupied. English is like art it is for the linguistic creativity. History is to help kee[ things in perspective.. Bioligy..now that one is a bit hard to explain.. but you may understand how that mold growth on your desk near the month old pizza and dried fries, came into being.. ..

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I absolutely hate English. I do not see how it is an art for linguistic creativity. I think my word choices are fine as they are. I always like history, but the way this teacher teaches it, makes it so boring and hard.

Good news for history class though: Listen to this: when I was in my computer class, I had to get on the network to take a test from my teachers computer. Now to do this I had to access a server. So the teacher told us a username and password that gave me access to the server. Inside the server, I found my history teachers presentations that she does for class. I was so close to deleting them all, but my conscience took hold. Oh well Maybe later.

Everyone should do their own work or if they are going to borrow someone else's, they should credit them for their work.

A general complaint in this thread is the "well rounded student" excuse by institutions of higher education for making you waste your time taking general education courses. I didn't need Art Appreciation or Music Appreciation to appreciate the subject but had to take the courses anyway. Colleges have to keep you there for four years, the growing trend is five, to soak you or your parents for every cent.

MIT is now offering "Charm School" for engineering students. If they want to learn how to dance they should go to Arthur Murray after they graduate!

If the "Technology Estate" wants progress, we would move to specific certificate programs that focus on the actual need instead of fluff.

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Originally posted here by fourdc
MIT is now offering "Charm School" for engineering students. If they want to learn how to dance they should go to Arthur Murray after they graduate!

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Hehe... You know why that's being offered, eh? I've gotten this feedback from students, professors and employers: many people who graduate from computer programs are really talented but don't know how to interact with users. While BOFH is fun (and funny from an outside point of view) it isn't necessarily the best way to keep a job.

I think they are trying to create a "friendlier" engineer as it were. :)

I've had to deal with plagarism both as a journalist and as an instructor. There are things I've written in the past that have been taken and used by others, with no credit to the originator (me). Fortunately, I can show prior art to establish my authority on those items, if necessary.

Does it hurt? Yeah, that was hard work on my part and some creep just took it and passed it off as his or her own.

Who does it hurt? Me. But is also calls into question the credibility of the offender when the act is discovered. So, from my point of view, it hurts the offender more than it does me. I still have my honor, pride and integrity (and prior art). The offender has none of those things.

Would I do it? No. Have I been tempted? Yeah, back in high school. But I didn't do it then, either.

Granted, journalism isn't what it used to be. Today, the field is dominated by the broadcast media, where talking heads are not much more than shills for network or sponsors. Also, the recent events in major newspapers have cast the entire profession in a bad light--which should stand as a case in point. Anyway, when I was a working journalist, my reputation for providing solid, original and well crafted news, features and opinion was a source of pride and kept me employed (too bad it didn't pay better).

I think plagerism boils down to a character issue. If you take the shortcut, plagarize, cut-n-paste, you are exhibiting a weakness of character. You are also showing disrespect for your audience (the teacher, professor, peers). Some of the comments in this thread take potshots at curriculum and claim that irrelevant courses are justification for taking the shortcuts. My only response to that is there is no unimportant work. Any work you perform is important. Not just for the goal of the grade or degree, but for the whole person.

I once thought of art appreciation or music appreciation as being irrelevant. I managed to waive through an art course in college. But, not long ago, I found that bringing a creative, artistic activity into your life is refreshing and healing. I took a drum making course from a friend. I learned both a commercial style method and traditional method for hand drums.

So, maybe you don't like a course, don't want to do a paper. Making the effort to do the work, do the research, develop the ideas, may lead you into areas you never imagined before.