Oops:
Portions of essays on water submitted for publication by gubernatorial candidate Scott McInnis are identical or nearly identical to work published years earlier by now-State Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs.
A side-by-side comparison of McInnis' work for the Hasan Foundation and an essay by Hobbs on Green Mountain Reservoir finds numerous examples of sentences, and even whole paragraphs, that are identical.
"There are definite similarities," Hobbs said in a statement released through the court after he reviewed examples provided by The Denver Post. "I would expect there would be some attribution."
The Denver Post reports that McInnis made $300,000 over two years for writing the articles and other work for the Hasan Foundation. McInnis declined to comment to the paper. His campaign blamed a researcher. This is not what usually counts as a unified response.
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NYT op-ed today ... on plagiarism:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/13/opinion/13tue4.html
Many colleges and univerisites impose stringent sanctions on students that plagiarize, for example Duke University imposes sanctions that may include failing the course and suspension from the school. http://library.duke.edu/research/citing/plagiarism.html
I am hopeful that McInnis will suffer consequences as well; even if he employed someone to do the work for him, McInnis was paid for the work and is ultimately responsible for it. Plagiarism is theft, plain and simple.
Yes, many colleges and universities have policies for plagiarism and cheating. However, proving that a student has plagiarized/cheated is the challenging thing. Unfortunately, it is usually the professor who has the burden of proof and is put on the defensive in these situations. (speaking as a professor)
chemgirl, thanks for your response. I agree that it is the professor or instructor who has the burden of bringing the charge for a student's plagiarism. However, it is my understanding that there are a number of computer-based tools using databases, the internet and searching methodologies that can be automated when written work is submitted electronically, thus making the "proof" of plagiarism much easier.
I am a student member of the ethics committee at my graduate school and we deal with many plagiarism cases -- in most instances, the situation is fairly apparent. It makes me angry, as a student I work very hard on my papers and other assignments and am diligent with attribution. It also makes me sad, because in many cases the students being brought before the committee on plagiarism charges have obviously gotten away with plagiarism for years and are finally getting caught; they seem to have no idea how to generate original thought.