Plagiarism In Literature - 795 Words

In modern society, does originality truly exist in literature? Humans have been on Earth for about 200,000 years and there are roughly 7 billion of us today; that’s a lot of time and people. Surely most, if not all, ideas have been thought of and written down. Plagiarism is seen in writing because it is inevitable. This is due to the fact that most ideas already exist, however, intentional plagiarism should not be excused for any reason. When an author’s work is consciously copied by another author, this is where the line is drawn. Some might say that if the plagiarist improves the original text, then he/she should get credit for the work. Others see it as a form of editing. But Fadiman realizes that plagiarism is corrupting literature,†¦show more content†¦Nor did Shakespeare really need to swipe several speeches in Anthony and Cleopatra from Plutarch, or 4,144 of the 6,033 lines in Parts I, II, and III of Henry IV, either verbatim or in paraphrase, from other authors. Milton didn’t need to crib from Masenius, Sterne from Burton, or Poe from Benjamin Morrell. (106) Clearly, Fadiman does not support plagiarism as she exposed many of the most renowned writers in the history of literature for being huge plagiarists. She wants society to realize that anyone, no matter his/her status, can be a plagiarist and that all cases of plagiarism should be taken seriously. By using examples of highly regarded people plagiarizing, Fadiman highlights the idea that plagiarism is quite plentiful in literature, even where one would not expect it to be. One might expect a grade school student to plagiarize because he/she was too lazy to finish the assignment, but certainly not from high-status writers that have written classicals. Even if it might improve the original work, Fadiman gives sympathy to original authors because she has first-hand experience on being the victim of plagiarism. She states â€Å"I take issue with these placable attitudes because I know, from an experience within my own family, how much plagiarism can hurt† (109). There is a continue d feeling of animosity as Fadiman elaborates on her personal story of plagiarism. She concludes that plagiarists should feel guilty because the credit of theShow MoreRelatedThe Problem of Plagiarism Literature Review2696 Words   |  11 PagesThe Problem of Plagiarism: Literature Review Selection Melinda â€Å"Mindy† L. Boucher Lower Columbia College The Problem Students routinely hand in papers in which the writing is so complex and the vocabulary so sophisticated that there is doubt that they were written in the students’ own words. When samples of the writing are typed into a Google search engine, sentences and whole paragraphs are found to be a match. 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