From: Will Jennings Date: Fri, 6 Sep 1996 05:40:43 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Copy is as copy does
I'm with Winslow on this one. As a writer who lives in a community of writers, I'm sympathetic to John G's uncomfortable consequence. And while not to be accusatory in the slightest, I'll suggest that the unattributed quoting or citation of text or ideas as well as the representation of same as being one's own is plagiarism. And that's wrong.
Clearly, it is possible for one to obtain enlightenment from such a variety of sources spread out over a period of time, and perhaps the 'enlightenment' is actually the summary result of these bits and not the singular result of any one source. Still, the responsibility is that of the author to represent this process in as complete a fashion as possible.
My first year college students are continually running afoul of these sorts of things because they tend to view scholarship as some sort of collective pool that they gain free access to by way of tuition checks.
John G is an honorable, trusted and talented writer and I say the above without any reference to his situation or experience.
wjj (form of signature line should be attributed to 'fjm')
