I have to say, I don’t really worry too much about plagiarism. In part, it’s because I assign papers that are hard to plagiarize — I always have fairly unique requirements, or assign texts that cannot easily be found discussed on the web. But I think, also, that some of the discussion about plagiarism is overblown. Buying or copying an entire paper: yes, that’s bad. But I know some people who freak out if one sentence, or even a phrase, is incorporated without attribution. This, I think, it disproportionate. In fact, I might go so far as to say that at least the plagiarizing student looked at some material, rather than going for the total bullshit-artist approach of students who seem to randomly open the assigned reading, quote a passage from it, then add a bunch of crap that has nothing to do with anything. The plagiarizer probably learned more.

Lastly, I can’t help but note that medieval sources plagiarize, proudly and confidently, all the time. The conservative nature of the tradition is to repeat, not to innovate. Perhaps my low-key attitude towards modern-day plagiarism has something to do with that… I think one can be engaging with the material, and thinking deeply about it, even when repeating someone else.

It sucks to think people are stealing your stuff, particularly a nonacademic post which is just you thinking and having beliefs (at least, I would be even more angry if people stole my opinions about why I loved Shaun of the Dead than if they took my argument about why Midsummer Night’s Dream is a tragicomedy (for example.))

I guess you could try writing in such a way that large chunks of your rants are unusable, and they would at least have to cut and paste your stuff more selectively? Gah.

Is anyone in your department a real hardass about plagiarism? I tell my students horror stories about this one prof’s Javert-like persecutions of students, and come in throughout the quarter with periodic updates, and that seems to freak the hell out of them. (or maybe they’re just good enough to get by me all the time.)

Although it is absurd, I am so frustrated by my attempts to get my students to use sources correctly and NOT PLAGIARIZE that sometime it does seem like the only solution is to put them in a sound-proof box with a pencil and sheet of paper to write. Telling my students that they cannot simply copy materials from the web and call them their own, warning about the consequences and even following through with failing many of them, is simply not working. I cannot stem the tide of cheating. But, that’s a rant for another day.

Some essays on blogs have citations and research in them, and they are perfectly appropriate for citation in another paper. Other blogs are good places to start understanding a concept or idea.

Following your argument, one could say that all published essays and books should be destroyed, because they provide a source for cheaters. It just doesn’t make sense.

If I got your email, I would be utterly confused. I would tell you to tell your students that citation from a website is unacceptable for your papers, and that you will find out if they crib their materials from websites and fail them.