Is IGN responsible for their writer’s plagiarism?

No. Simply no. After teaching English for over twenty years, I am astounded that writers worldwide are not calling each other out on a daily basis. IGN’s experience with a writer plagiarizing is no different than the common misconceptions that the general public has regarding plagiarism.

I could survey thousands of high school or college students, and they would be unable to identify that article as plagiarism.

In 2001 I was teaching a 9th grade class, and my students were writing an MLA paper. I read a paper that seemed amazingly high level for the student in question.

Back in the day, turnitin.com was an essay site where students could buy papers. I bought a six month membership for around $20, so I could look at all the papers they had to offer. Why did I buy the membership? Because when I was searching for the paper online, I found the exact same first paragraph of my student’s paper on their site. Once I purchased it, I realized the paper was word for word from turnitin.com

(Not calling out turnitin.com—their newer business model makes more sense and more money, considering that most high schools and universities use it to spot plagiarism.)

But I digress.

I had to inform the principal that an honors’ student had plagiarized. He, of course, asked me what I planned to do. I am a very compassionate teacher, and I ultimately want for students to learn how to write their own original work. He liked my approach, and I had to go call the student’s parents.

When I called home the father listened to my findings, and he literally told me that he had instructed his child to re-write the paper in the student’s own words. Take note of that because that is an incredibly important distinction.

This honorable man, with an incredibly respectable position in the community, believed that re-writing the paper was not plagiarism.

He is not alone.

I have spent hours teaching students from high school to college what plagiarism is and isn’t.

I see major news companies’ writers plagiarizing other articles on a daily basis. It is always plagiarism if you do not give credit where credit is due. But here we are in a world that moves remarkably fast, and there is simply no way to vet that work.

I mean, I guess you could. But it would mean that you would have to have an anal retentive English teacher on staff. Most of us can sniff out that stuff in a hot minute.

But give the devil his due—IGN is not responsible for this writer’s plagiarism. Furthermore, based on the prevailing thought process of young writers today, I would bet that the writer in question is probably unaware that re-writing an article in your own words without proper citation is always plagiarism.

Hey, IGN, chill. All the people hating on them, chill. IGN simply needs to do what the rest of the publishers should do—make sure all your writers have a clear understanding of what plagiarism is.

Don’t assume that everyone has the same educational background. Don’t assume that all teachers are teaching those lessons. I have had colleagues who would assign the required research paper, and they never worked with students again on the subject. The due date would come and said teachers would be shocked that students plagiarized.

My favorite English professor, Paul Puccio, requires students to write all of their drafts in class because plagiarism became so rampant over the past two decades. Legit, old school, writing it by hand before it ever gets typed.

The older I get, the more I assume people do not understand the definition of plagiarism. As much as the internet wants to attribute some nefarious gamer plagiarizing others’ work, I would cut the writer some slack.

Honestly, @IGN should do what I did with that student who plagiarized.

I gave the worst possible punishment. Said student had to work with me at the butt crack of dawn for several mornings until the MLA paper was completed with correctly cited sources and proper paraphrasing/quoting. The lesson was learned. The student went off to college with excellent writing skills and a full understanding of how to avoid plagiarism.

I know all the internet folks with their holier than thou judgments want to roast this writer. But not me.

I say, have the writer play the game. Have the writer write a new original review. Make sure the writer knows proper citation and/or how to create unique material. Have said writer release the review and an apology together.

People are not to be thrown away. We are in an amazing country where we can reinvent ourselves. We can have do-overs. I guarantee you that this writer is mortified. Whether it was laziness or ignorance doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we teach the lesson, and make sure that we ask only of others to make all new mistakes tomorrow.

This writer is not the first, nor the last to have plagiarized text. The writing community will have better success by demonstrating complete transparency. Do interviews. Find out the writer’s thought process.

Most of all, chill. Writing is a process. If I excoriated all the students I have had that plagiarized, then I would have handicapped a whole slew of folks who became wildly successful adults.

And don’t think that I am defending the writer because I am culpable of the same thing. While I am positive that I never intentionally plagiarized, I am pretty sure that those reports I did in elementary school based on my fancy set of World Book Encyclopedias would be classified as unintentional plagiarism.

To err is human; to forgive, divine. Alexander Pope
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