plagiarism and writing

Heh, I just wrote a quick blog post about that a few days ago :) Generally speaking, you are, of course, right, there's no excuse for copying sentences or even pages from what other people have written. But I have to admit, I don't know how many of the ideas I write about are actually mine - I'm beginning to think none. For instance, when I write an academic paper, of course I quote all my sources. But in a quick blog post, which is supposed to be personal and funny, I very rarely use references and citations - even if, naturally, I took my info from somewhere. What's your take on this? Do you always quote your sources? (and I don't mean when you take a picture or an entire paragraph, I mean, for basic information, such as dates, years, measurements and so on)

I truly believe that plagiarism is a poor form of imitation. The "plagiarist" is hoping to have the same style/skill as the original, and often, those who plagiarize don't credit their source, hence the stolen ideas. As I read the previous comments, I totally agree with the fact that if you believe yourself a true writer, you wouldn't think of plagiarizing something. And about getting ideas from other people: as long as you add other info or develop the idea into something else, it's not plagiarism. It's still originality. :D

The people before me have stated that a true writer doesn't plagiarize. I wholeheartedly agree. A true writer come up with their own words instead of copying someone else's. I think people misunderstand plagiarism a lot of the time. Plagiarism means you've taken someone else's words and tried to pass them off as your own. It doesn't really apply to ideas. Copyright law period doesn't apply to ideas. Since the publication of Harry Potter, every smaller series that involves a boy wizard has been accused of trying to rip off Harry Potter. I think that's absurd. J.K. Rowling didn't invent the young boy wizard, and even if she had then she wouldn't own it. You can have ideas similar to the writers who came before you, but if you embellish them and add your own personal spice to them then it's not even remotely similar to plagiarism.

If one considers himself as a writer, plagiarism should never be an option for him. Ever since I was small, back in elementary years, we were already taught that cheating is bad and plagiarism is tantamount to cheating. I hope people stop doing this because they are hurting other people when they do this.

I think that if you resort to plagiarism you are just a lazy person. It just means you don't want to put any real effort into your own work. It's especially bad if you're posting for something money. I despise plagiarists and someone tried to post a plagiarizing review on my Review Stream account, it wa for something I never reviewed and don't even own. I had to email them and tell them that I didn't write it.