For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted plagiary.
John Milton
From US News opinion piece. Apparently not all were wowed by the SOTUS speech.
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, what can be said of plagiarism? President Obama’s second State of the Union address contained enough recycled ideas and lines lifted from speeches of others to make historians wince. I suppose this is what one does when one not only has nothing new to say, but is required by custom and Constitution to come forth with a report of some kind by a certain time and day.
After quoting Robert Kennedy early on, Obama tried to have his listeners believe that everything else he said that we might remember were his or his writers’ creations. Had the president submitted the text of his second State of the Union Address in the form of a college term paper, he would have been sent forthwith to the nearest academic dean. Once again, our public affairs are such that we have one standard for presidents and another for undergraduates.
Read On http://www.usnews.com/ for the rest of the story (Paul Harvey).
How can a quotefish post an article on lifting others quotes?
It has come to be practically a sort of rule in literature, that a man, having once shown himself capable of original writing, is entitled thenceforth to steal from the writings of others at discretion.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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"How can a quotefish post an article on lifting others quotes?"
ReplyDeleteThe English major's reply: Because, Mr. Fish, you cite your sources, as is taught by Strunk & White. Perhaps the more recent editions of the Chicago Manual of Style has dropped the section on how to cite sources.
But, then Bre'er President may be too young to have learned the art of 'phonectic punctuation' from Victor Borge, whereby his footnotes might have been more audible.
You are absolved ("Domino Nabisco Cogito Ergo Sum.")