My humble little blog has been getting a fair amount of traffic lately by people who are directed towards my anti-cosmetics rant after employing search terms like “cosmetic testing: the against argument” and “people against cosmetics” (just two recent examples). I wrote the anti-cosmetics post because it’s an issue I’ve been thinking about recently and I wanted a venue in which to develop and express my opinions. I didn’t think of it as categorically different than any of my other blog posts, but now I wonder if I didn’t produce an infinitely plagiarize-able piece of writing.

Could it be that freshman English students across the country who have been assigned one of those standard PRO/CON controversial social issue paper on, say, animal testing or cosmetics, are turning to my blog as an ideal source for “borrowing” from?

I know that my own students, who are plagiarizers of the first degree, will steal language from any source on the web, from published academic books and articles to “buy your own paper” sites to some random dude’s homepage. So, personal opinion blog posts are fair game — more fodder for the “I don’t have to think if I can find it on the web” generation.

Having spent many hours of my life googling my students’ papers over the past few years, I’ve often stumbled across web pages put up by other academics, clearly for the use and benefit of their own students, but employed for nefarious ends by my own. I’ve wondered whether these academics are aware of how their websites are being used and even considered contacting them to let them know.

Here’s a mock email I might send:

—

Dear XXX,

Recently I discovered that one of my students had plagiarized from your website on [major author / text / historical period]. My student copied [a great deal / a small amount / the entirety] of the information provided on your site. It appears that you created the website for the use of your own students, perhaps to share your notes, to provide helpful contextual information, to direct their reading or research, or even to summarize the insights they developed during class discussion. These are all laudable pedagogical uses of the web. However, your site is now being misused by my students and, while the responsibility clearly rests upon my students to comply with academic standards and upon me to teach them how to locate and cite appropriate sources, it might also be worthwhile for you to either take down the site, if it is no longer in use, or, at the very least, remove it from internet indexes so it cannot be found by students like mine who simply google [major author / text / historical period] and easily find your site.

Sincerely, The Bittersweet Girl

—

What do you think? Too hostile? The hostility is generated by my cheatin’ students but eventually it tends to spill over onto anyone associated with their plagiarism, even the unknowing, innocent source.

But, come on, all those website academics put up a few years ago when the web seem so new and fresh, and then walked away and forgot about … leaving them as fair game for cheaters … it does piss me off. We don’t need to make it any easier for them.

Which leads me back to my blog post on cosmetics. I like that post. I spent a lot of time on it. It reflects my thinking process, the slow crystallization of my opinions. But, I’m very tempted to “poof” it, in the fear that there is some professor out there who’s unknowingly grading my blog.

Damn lazy students. As if the world isn’t going to hell already.