LImericks on plagiarism
During my first semester as a doctoral student, Professor Michelle Cloonan ran a seminar on plagiarism and one assignment was to write about the topic in any literarary format. I chose limericks:
The words are not mine I have cheated
Those thoughts are already well-treated
Yes, a writer before
Said it better what's more
Her career is intact, mine's depleted
Child, you must include a citation
Quoted works deserve enumeration
So says my advisor
Who think it not wiser
For ethics to take a vacation
That idea seemed unquestionably mine
After all, what an original opine
Then the truth appeared
And just as I'd feared
I was neither the fruit nor the vine
The computer helps writers make haste
In a second they can cut and paste
As words are flying
The editor's crying
The poor author's words get defaced
A rose is a rose is a rose
A keen botanist might compose
But wait! It's been said
By someone who's dead
Be careful, don't step on her toes
I once knew an idea kidnapper
Whose writing seemed wonderfully dapper
Then a close inspection
Caused the detection
That he was a sham, worse, a sapper
The words are not mine I have cheated
Those thoughts are already well-treated
Yes, a writer before
Said it better what's more
Her career is intact, mine's depleted
Child, you must include a citation
Quoted works deserve enumeration
So says my advisor
Who think it not wiser
For ethics to take a vacation
That idea seemed unquestionably mine
After all, what an original opine
Then the truth appeared
And just as I'd feared
I was neither the fruit nor the vine
The computer helps writers make haste
In a second they can cut and paste
As words are flying
The editor's crying
The poor author's words get defaced
A rose is a rose is a rose
A keen botanist might compose
But wait! It's been said
By someone who's dead
Be careful, don't step on her toes
I once knew an idea kidnapper
Whose writing seemed wonderfully dapper
Then a close inspection
Caused the detection
That he was a sham, worse, a sapper
