About two years ago I wrote a piece for First Things about the perils to human exceptionalism. It must have been a good piece, because it was copied verbatim and published today over at a site called Living Text of Sociology, under what appears to be the name of one Thad Reisen Edison. At the very least, it was not attributed to me, which to understate the matter, is poor etiquette.
Here’s the link to my original piece, dated July 5, 2007. And here’s the link to the copycat piece, dated June 16, 2009.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I know: But come on!
June 17th, 2009 | 12:43 am
Oh, dear, Wesley. Are you going to do something about it?
June 17th, 2009 | 1:02 am
First Things has written a letter. It’s a sociology teacher at a community college, can you believe it? Sociologist. Hmmm. I’m not quite sure what the point was, but why am I not surprised?
June 17th, 2009 | 1:07 am
That’s very disapointing, particularly because I would otherwise be thrilled to see that your work was being used in a college course, as it’s extremely valuable for anyone studying sociological issues. I guess the prof should at the very least excuse every student he has ever caught plagarizing a paper, since he has gone and done it. It also strikes me as a very ridiculous thing to do: regardless of whether one lacks the moral conscience to forgo plagarism, someone in academia in particular should be aware that is extraordinarily easy to pick out plagarism in this day and age. There are even computer programs to pick out plagarized phrases, let alone papers.
June 17th, 2009 | 5:45 pm
I am in that sociologist teacher’s class and it was not the sociologist teacher who COPIED that post, it was one of his ignorant, foolish students. Thad Reisen at Edison College copied one of your (Wesley) other posts too. It was titled “Montana doctors refusing to be complicit in assisted suicide”. Look it up! GET HIM! We can’t stand him anyway!!!
June 17th, 2009 | 8:16 pm
I poked around a bit and it looks like the blog is for students taking a sociology class. If you go back around the 17th there is a note that ‘all posts from here down have been graded’. Looks like one of the students thought he could get away with submitting someone else’s work as his own.
Also – I think the (edison) isn’t his surname but something else as many of the authors had that after their name.
Anyway, hope you got an official apology from the teacher.
June 17th, 2009 | 9:10 pm
Today a Mr. Joe Carter, from this website, contacted me with regard to an article copied verbatim from Firstthings.com and posted on the Living Text of Sociology. When I confirmed the posting I immediately deleted it from the blog. The blog is a learning tool for my class and the student obviously used a cut and paste on the post.
This evening, two students approached me and pointed out some other blogs by this student that have been plagiarized. These posts will be deleted immediately after I offer my apology here.
Please let me clarify to Firstthings.com and to all of its contributors that it is not my position, as the teacher of this class, to promote or to condone plagiarism. This student’s lack of responsibility does not represent this class nor Edison State College, which has very specific rules regarding plagiarism.
As the teacher and administrator of the blog I do take full responsibility for everything that is posted. I am sincerely sorry that this peculiar form of theft can be connected to what is otherwise a noble experiment.
Sincerely,
Michael Andoscia
June 17th, 2009 | 9:59 pm
Thank you Professor Andoscia. I appreciate that. As I said, the perils of the Internet.
June 18th, 2009 | 12:13 pm
There are perils, but there are tremendous benefits. Had this student plagiarized before the internet he may very well have not been caught. The immediacy of the data makes it possible to create a check and balance system better than we’ve ever had.
June 19th, 2009 | 1:52 am
I sympathize, Prof. Andoscia. I’m sure that everyone at SHS can feel for the difficulty inherent in using the internet to teach a class. Good luck in the future! God bless.
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