One of my less glorious roles in life is to be the Czar of Plagiarism in the Honors College—technically what is known as the First Hearing Officer. This isn’t a large part of what I do, since in an Honors College we have, well, honor. But it’s important to follow through on the isolated cases of academic dishonesty that we do see. It’s nothing I would talk much about normally…but then this isn’t a normal year.
So when Melania Trump cribbed a paragraph of her speech at the Republican National Convention, suddenly the whole world began to talk about plagiarism. This led to my sudden appearance on KHOU News:
I’m hoping at least this discussion will have a good effect on entering freshmen this fall. It really pays to do your own writing, particularly when you are talking about the values you learned as a child, how your word is your bond, etc. On the other hand, I fear some students will take this example the other way, and think plagiarism has no consequences. Come to think of it, I better get ready for a busy year…
Richard H Armstrong 