EXERCISE 18.2
Read the brief original passage that follows, and then look closely at the five attempts to quote or paraphrase it. Decide which attempts are acceptable and which plagiarize, prepare notes on what supports your decision in each case, and bring your notes to class for discussion.
The strange thing about plagiarism is that it’s almost always pointless. The writers who stand accused, from Laurence Sterne to Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Susan Sontag, tend to be more talented than the writers they lift from.
—Malcolm Jones, “Have You Read This Story Somewhere?”
According to Malcolm Jones, writers accused of plagiarism are always better writers than those they are supposed to have plagiarized.
According to Malcolm Jones, writers accused of plagiarism “tend to be more talented than the writers they lift from.”
Plagiarism is usually pointless, says writer Malcolm Jones.
Those who stand accused of plagiarism, such as Senator Joseph Biden, tend to be better writers than those whose work they use.
According to Malcolm Jones, “plagiarism is... almost always pointless.”