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March 03, 2005
Plagiarists = assholes?
Blogging plagiarism, Atrios follows the customary procedure of placing the source and plagiarized texts in contiguity with each other: first an extended passage from the plagiarized text, and then the corresponding passage from the source text. Some plagiarism-revealers go a step further, working back and forth between the two texts. Even more analytic are the accounts that reproduce only the plagiarized sentences. And then there are those that highlight, draw diagrams, and what not. Atrios holds the texts at arm's length, invading and engaging them as little as possible. Moreover, he offers the most minimal commentary: his title, "An Asshole AND a Plagiarist"; the ironic transitional phrase "Apparently our fine Congressman is a plagiarist"; and that's about it. Which places him, in my estimation, on the other end of the continuum from the hysteric blogged on Digitalpenny. Both, however, participate in the cultural trope calculus in which plagiarism functions as an indicator of low character.
Posted by senioritis at March 3, 2005 07:24 PM
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