Plagiarism

If students feel beleaguered as they hear their lecturers speak again and again of the evils of plagiarism, here is some Emerson to sustain them.

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. Thought is the property of him who can entertain it and of him who can adequately place it. A certain awkwardness marks the use of borrowed thoughts; but as soon as we have learned what to do with them they become our own.

I suspect that the notion of "intellectual property" would not have overly impressed Emerson. I will talk more about plagiarism later, as this is an area where the Writing Centre can play a valuable role.