Sentence Fragments?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by murg

We don't call it plagiarism. We call it research.

It's fine to quote someone's work in an essay, but you have to attribute your sources. Eg, this is from one of my recent essays for my Egyptology degree and is talking about Egyptian ideas of the afterlife:

Re died a symbolic death at sunset as he re-entered the Akhet and returned to the Duat where he joined with Osiris, a process which rejuvenated both Re and Osiris, before Re was reborn with the next sunrise (Taylor 2010, p.20). As Allen expresses it: “from Osiris the sun received the power of new life, and through the sun Osiris was enabled to live again” (Allen 2014, p.121).

I can quote Allen, but I have to make clear that it is a quote, and I attribute the source. Proper referencing is key in academic writing. The idea is to allow the reader to check your sources. Every time you make a statement that's not your own idea, but someone else's, you have to say where that idea comes from.

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by murg

We don't call it plagiarism. We call it research.

Copying from one individual is plagiarism, copying from many is research

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

Copying from one individual is plagiarism, copying from many is research

No, it's not. See my previous post.

[pdurrant]

I think the reference is to Tom Lehrer's song, Lobachevsky:

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, it's not. See my previous post.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I think the reference is to Tom Lehrer's song, Lobachevsky:

I was paraphrasing Wilson Mizner

[Apache]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

In this case it seems that the plagiarism carried its own punishment.

Apache

[JwkOKC]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Did your college not have a prohibition on plagiarism? Most colleges and universities are pretty clear that it's not permitted.

Of course they did, but what sophomore filled with raging hormones is prepared to follow the rules when the freshman light of his life smiles sweetly and coos, "pretty please?"

Surely all of were once young and stupid.

It's a crying shame that we grow so soon old und so late schmart....

[JwkOKC]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I think the reference is to Tom Lehrer's song, Lobachevsky:

Matter of fact, back in 1965 after starting a new job as a senior tech writer for G-E, I built myself a desk nameplate that read 'Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevski -- Mangling Editor and Insulting Engineer' but only my partner in crime appreciated the allusion....

Lehrer had been one of my favorite people since first hearing "Poisoning Pigeons In The Park" in the mid-1950s, and "Pollution" still ranks as one of my best-loved compositions....