re: #177 Sol Berdinowitz

It is not plagiarism, it is just intellectual laziness and a total disregard for the audience in assuming they will be too dense to double-check where he lifted his quotes.

It is plagiarism. I offered the operational definition elsewhere in a comment to a page. Anytime you use someone else’s words without attribution you have plagiarized the other author. Paul could have just said, “according to a well-known online encyclopedia, blah blah blah.” Or he could have taken a few minutes and offered his own summary … assuming he’s even seen the movie.

I’m an English teacher now. I read my students the riot act before every writing assignment. And I make it clear I will fail with a zero any assignment that violates the rules.

Rand would have failed that assignment, at least if I were his public speaking instructor.