Have “free thought” and innovation crossed the line from poetic license… to plagiarism? It’s an old solution to a common challenge: grade schoolers, high schoolers, college students, even CEOs have been known to steal, misrepresent, and concoct histories and career events which astound. Because of social politeness, challengers to such theft remained few until recently.
1) Buy international standards. Don’t ask someone in an online forum for a free copy
to be emailed to you.
2) Don’t copy someone else’s work from the internet, and
then proclaim it as your own in a professional publication or office memo.
3) Check the content of a downloaded paper or “draft business
standard” with a plagiarism checker – the career you save might just be your
own!
4) Challenge outright theft of intellectual property. If you
don’t, who will?
5) Don’t download a free copy of an international
standard and then post it on your company intranet – alleging a “site license.”
If an auditor asks to see the purchase agreement, you’re nailed. If the auditor
notices the fine print in the margins of the standard – and the company name is
not that of the company being audited – you’re busted for more than a minor
nonconformance.
6) If you suspect that information was plagiarized,
confirm the material by using an online plagiarism checker. Many are available
for free –
7) In my MBA program, my e-classroom mates were
constantly being “busted” for submitting individual papers which were stolen
from the internet. Use your noggin, not the internet, for creating your
success.
In
closing…
It is easy to become caught up with cutting
corners during pressure situations and to offer another’s work in your place.
Sooner or later, the devil will catch you – and there’ll be hell to pay.
No comments:
Post a Comment