The plagiarist looks at the empty page
intensely searching for some words
to share with their fans.
Their head is filled with ideas;
joys, anguish, grief
all mingling into an indistinguishable mass.
Unable to sort out the words
and tired of imitating their favorite musical performers,
they turn to an inspirational tape;
a little mind food.
The words come at them in rapid succession.
The plagiarist writes them down
frantically stopping the tape, time and after time,
trying to make sure they get it all onto the page.
When the plagiarist finds a word they do not understand
they substitute for one that sounds almost the same,
but has an entirely different meaning.
No matter, the empty page is now full;
the item posted to their fans;
and the crowd cheers.
All are happy,
right?


Copyright © 2004 Sara Coslett

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According to the Indiana University website (www.indiana.edu) on plagiarism they write;

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use

·         another person's idea, opinion, or theory;

·         any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings--any pieces of information--that are not common knowledge;

·         quotations of another person's actual spoken or written words; or

·         paraphrase of another person's spoken or written words.

* Graphic image courtesy of www.projecttell.net