“Populist piracy in the Age of the Quick Fix”, a friend of mine called it during our conversation on the topic. He was at the kitchen table. “Mindless, mass manipulation and duplication of internet content. If educational institutions are supposed to develop and nurture original thinking, they’re suffering a decimating defeat these days. At least you and I went to school at a time when originality mattered.”
I was standing at the counter making coffee. “Plagiarism was just more difficult then,” I argued. “Cut-and-paste didn’t exist. There was no open resource like the Web.”
He sat thinking for a moment. “What makes matters worse is that the fires of fabrication are fanned by online agencies that employ freelance writers to churn out anything from term papers to weblogs. Haven’t you just been employed by one?”
“I’m being considered,” I admitted, evasively. “But you get agencies and agencies. I did a comprehensive search. Legitimate agencies deal with plagiarism resolutely. They have to: their good name depends on it; their conditions of service absolutely demand it.”
“If it’s all about servicing a need and making money, what value does reputation have?” he asked, watching me closely.
I smiled. “Reputation does have value; quality has value; what I do has value and the agency I intend writing for clearly subscribes to those values. Besides, you know me: I obsess about quality and the value of originality. I hate what plagiarism stands for.”
Essay No Plagiarism
... by the suspect paper or news agency. Plagiarism continues to be a growing challenge. ... as can properly citing those sources. Incidences of plagiarism can range from the inadvertent omission of ... writers are first introduced to the rules concerning plagiarism as college or university freshmen. It is ... credit to the material source. The penalties for plagiarism by students can range from being assigned ...
“Have they asked you to submit something yet?”
“A simple, albeit precise brief for the purposes of qualification, I guess: to write a short essay on why the company cannot provide their clients with plagiarized papers.”
“What did you write?” he asked with surprising urgency.
I laughed. “I only got the brief this morning. I’ll start writing when you leave,” I said.
