A front page article in the Chicago Tribune was about a plagiarism incident in the University of Illinois-Chicago's PhD nursing program. Mind you, this is one of the top graduate nursing programs in the country, so this is big news in nursing. In the hard copy newspaper article (it doesn't seem to be in the online version) they showed all the phrases that came straight from other sources - there were lots. It's embarrassing to nursing - and really disgusting.

One interesting discussion that came up was that in another similar accusation at another university, the board of trustees called it "inadvertent plagiarism," and the Tribune called that "an oxymoron if ever there was one." When I look up plagiarism, most of the definitions do indicate that you "pass off other ideas as your own." In other words, you know what you are doing. If plagiarism is always a purposeful act, what is it called when people inadvertently copy? I do think that happens, too, particularly with cut and pasting. What do you think?

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what is it called when people inadvertently copy? I do think that happens, too, particularly with cut and pasting.

How can you inadvertently cut and paste something?

If we didn't use the ideas of others, we wouldn't know much, would we? If we present someone else's original ideas as our own, we've plagiarized.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
One interesting discussion that came up was that in another similar accusation at another university, the board of trustees called it "inadvertent plagiarism," and the Tribune called that "an oxymoron if ever there was one." When I look up plagiarism, most of the definitions do indicate that you "pass off other ideas as your own."

This is what happens when we use one word to modify another. We change the meaning.

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you "pass off other ideas as your own."

Management

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How can you inadvertently cut and paste something?

Well, that's a good point. Sometimes people find an article, cut and paste the relevant parts and then forget it's not theirs? That doesn't sound very logical, does it? I guess copying can't be inadvertent.

I think that too often writers just forget how easy it is to simply place "As (the author's name) said" before the pasted section. Then there is no question of plagiarism and the idea the second person wants is given added emphasis but not origination.

Unconscious plagiarism is perfectly possible. Many times I've written things and then looked at them and said "That's pretty good but it looks so familiar... I wonder if I've remembered it rather than created it."

One of my most popular performance pieces is this poem...

Alice In The Underpass

Alice waking, Alice sleeping,
Alice laughing, Alice weeping,
Alice singing, Alice dancing,
Alice fleeing and advancing,
Alice trying, Alice failing,
Alice healthy, Alice ailing,
Alice wanting, Alice needing,
Alice broken, Alice bleeding,
Alice falling, Alice flying,
Alice living, Alice dying.
Alice through the looking glass.
Alice in the underpass.

Every single time I look at it or perform it I am seized by the idea that I have stolen it from somewhere. I have googled and asked other people and all the indications are that it is my own original work but I can't shake the feeling.

If it turned out that I did that would be unconscious plagiarism. If you write something that you think is your own work but in reality you are unwittingly remembering something you read that seems like a good description to me.

And I just discovered a new word.

Wow - that's a good word, too. Shu and I were just talking about a friend of ours who mistakenly believes he had a fantastic idea, though it was someone else's idea. We are 99% sure he really thinks he came up with it, but clearly he didn't.

It sounds like it can be used for inadvertent plagiarism, too. You've convinced me that it is possible.