plagiarism

Tom Lehman TLEHMAN at lor.net
Wed Dec 23 18:01:53 PST 1998


Dear JKS,

Once many years ago I wrote an essay on Sinclair Lewis. When it came time to get the essay back from the instructor, across the top of the essay was written that dreaded note: See Me.

To make a long story short, when I met with the instructor she told me, "I know you plagiarized this, but, I just don't now where you plagiarized it from."

Rather than being upset, I took this as a compliment.

In Doug's case, which is what I think you are interested in, its more like economic pro-wrestling. Can you fault a midget wrestler for trying a big guys moves.

Some of my best friends are attorneys.

Your email pal, Tom L.

JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:


> In a message dated 98-12-22 21:21:41 EST, you write:
>
> << Now I realize that there is a big
> difference between a big name Ph.D who plagiarizes and a millwright who
> writes for the cause,but, I don't think it hurts anything to remind them
> about it. >>
>
> Standards differ in different disciplines. A friend of mine from law school is
> a PhD engineer--he' goung to be a patent lawyer. His adviser published my
> friend's Ph/D dissertation as a book with "joint" authorship, his own (the
> adviser's) name first,a lthough he contribured nothing but the introduction to
> the book. My fruend was amused that I was appalled. That's the way it's done
> in engineering, he said; he wasn't bothered. I should say that his PhD was
> from the top department in his field. In philosophy, anyway, and I am pretty
> sure in political science and law, that sort of thing would be misconduct of
> the sort that could lose you tenure. --jks



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