Plagarism is culturally relative

Saturday, January 21, 2006

Did you know?


Did you know that plagarism is a cultural concept? Wondering what the heck I mean by that???

Plagarism is directly related to capitalism and the capitalistic concept of intellectual property. Many students from other cultures struggle with our Western concept of plagarism. In their cultures, to use anothers work is complementary. Readers are expected to be well-versed in the writing that preceeded and would immediately recognize the source of the borrowed matieral. In fact, for much of history, Western literature treated borrowing the works of others in the same way.

So am I advocating plagarism? NO! Why? Because we do live in a capitalist society, and intellectual property is a important part of that. Part of writing is recognizing the needs and expectations of your audience. Recognizing the importance of intellectual property in a capitalist society is a fact of life for writers in Western cultures. I am, however, advocating the recogniztion that not everyone sees the world--or writing--in the same way.


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