School Teachers from here and there have informed me that on several occasions a few of my Essays had been turned in as Student work. Well, that was naughty. You know, it would not have taken much work in order to turn them into an honest effort. Firstly, since it is so usual for people to disagree with me, I really can’t see that even the most blithely ignorant student would actually agree with me to such an extent that he could not imagine any area of dispute. But once a person is able to decide that he disagrees with me, then he basically has his own Essay. He can use my essay as a structural basis for his own, bringing up my points, even in the same order as they are presented, and then all he has to do himself is indicate how stupid they are.
But in a few instances the plagiarism of these students was uncovered because the subject matter of the Essay they had ‘borrowed’ was only tangentially related to their Assignment. This aroused the suspicion of the Teachers, enough for them to do a web search and to find me out. Really, the students involved could have side-stepped such trouble if they had only had the foresight to email me, or leave a Comment that they would appreciate it if I would take another shot at approximately the same Subject Matter, but from such and such a Point of View, that is, they should have given me their Assignment and then laid back to see what I would do with it. Once I was finished with it, then they could jump in themselves and disagree with everything I had to say. It would be as honest as the day is long. Many a Legitimate Paper has been written around a disagreement with other Scholarship.
And allow me to offer this hint, that the Facts of anything are always in flux. If you don’t like the other guy’s facts, then find facts of your own. In the Modern World lists of facts are collected in order to support various Agendas. If some argument seems too extreme or too convenient, but is supported by the “facts”, well, simply assume that the facts used to support it were rather specifically combed for and specially selected for their utility. There are likely other facts out there – shaded out, being hid behind some statistical corner, like the way they talk about the ‘Unemployment Rate’ instead of talking about the percentage of unemployed workers… they are really not the same thing at all. Anyway, simply use a few intelligent Computer Searches and you should be able to get your own list of argument friendly facts.
Yes, it is beginning to sound like some real work needs to go into your own Paper, no matter how much you honestly borrow from me or others. But it is all better than being flunked out for plagiarism. Teachers really have no other choice. Plagiarism is the High Crime in the Intellectual Scholarly World. Flunking you out for plagiarism is really the least they can do.
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