It would be different if it happened to a student

I assume that my English class is like most everyone else’s English class who is at a normal college level. We students don’t have to worry about getting our papers published unless the teacher was to inform us. This, however, doesn’t mean that we are allowed to plagiarize. According to the committee that reviewed Poshard’s writing, he didn’t know that his paper was going to be published. So apparently he thought it was ok to not cite his sources. I also know that you have to cite sources and use quotation marks throughout you paper when using others work. I have known this since freshman year in HIGHSCHOOL, so however Mr. Glenn Poshard didn’t know to do this while he was writing his dissertation, which just so happens to be his final paper for his PHD in EDUCATION, is beyond me. Plagiarism has been clearly defined to everyone if not in high school then in their first year of college. It’s something that could be considered common sense.
Most college students have tons of work to do and they try having a job at the same time, because you need some sort of income to pay for college and activities so that you can relax. So when it comes time to write papers and study for tests we find ourselves staying up late to make time to do work or we do our best to throw papers together. Needless to say we our busy people, so I can agree with Poshard that he was busy and didn’t have a lot of time when writing his dissertation, especially considering the length. However, this doesn’t mean that just because he was short on time that it’s ok that he didn’t put the proper citations in his paper.
According to everything the committee said, involving Poshard and his missed citations and quotations, it should be ok for all of us to plagiarize. Every excuse he made up and that they made up for him can be used for each and every college student out there. No one can look at a paper and say that you purposely plagiarized this because they don’t know what was going on in your head when you wrote the paper. All I’m really trying to say is that no student would get off this easy if they plagiarized a paper.

N.H.