Why plagiarism is a bad thing for everyone, including Monica Crowley
This January, CNN, Politico, Fox News, and other press sources published reports on Monica Crowley plagiarism, president-elect Donald Trump’s for a high-profile position in National Security Council (senior director of communications). The story is about a member of the political administration team in Washington. It proves that plagiarism is a bad thing for everyone in the country.
The story of Monica Crowley
The report on Monica Crowley plagiarism stated that she plagiarized over 50 passages in her PhD dissertation in international relations at New York Columbia University. There are earlier examples of her plagiarism, including her work titled What the Bleep Just Happened, based on the article that Andrew Kaczynski wrote (he is a well-known CNN author and editor in the United States). The publisher stopped selling this book after this comment.
In its review, Politico uncovered that her PhD dissertation contained multiple sections that Monica Crowley simply copied from other sources. Some instances lack the necessary contribution, while other sources in footnotes were with no quotation marks to determine a relevant part of text.
How could this person get into White House? How can her transition into one of government politics be explained? Many American people asked whether this campaign was motivated politically or had an opinion that it was a major hit job of CNN, but it turned out that Money Crowley has a long story of plagiarism, so it wasn’t just a single plagiarized piece.
The first accusation of plagiarism was in 1999. This is when a random reader noticed obvious syntactic and structural similarities in her magazine column and Paul Johnsons piece. Monica Crowley was a candidate for a press secretary in White House and a conservative pundit, and she decided to pursue other opportunities and refuse from a position this April (regardless of Trump’s support), after a clear attempt of media sources to ruin her political reputation.
Why is plagiarism a serious mistake?
The policy states that it is a serious academic offense with harsh negative consequences because it infringes the rights of other authors. It’s all about using other people’s works without giving them credit for it. Plagiarism is an unethical practice similar to stealing:
- Using ideas and words from others sources without crediting them;
- Mentioning unique ideas that aren’t common knowledge;
- Paraphrasing and quoting without proper citations;
- Submitting existing works without their authors’ permission.
How can you avoid it?
Don’t repeat the mistake of Monica Crowley because it can cost you a lot. There are many effective ways to avoid plagiarism, including:
- Crediting original sources of information;
- Using your own words;
- Using special quotation marks when incorporating any text from original sources;
- Double checking your work to ensure that you cite everything properly;
- Paraphrasing without just changing a few phrases or words.
Some people end up with plagiarism because of their messy research process or rush. They don’t intend to plagiarize materials because they want to rephrase and rewrite after going back or simply forget to put the necessary quotation marks and give credit when needed (that’s not the case with Monica Crowley).
Harsh consequences
They can be ethical, legal, professional, and personal. Plagiarists are among not only students, but academics, authors, journalists, professionals, and others, so this problem is quite common. What problems will plagiarism bring? Think about possible:
- Destroyed student reputation because universities and colleges expel or suspect students who plagiarize because the academic world takes it very seriously;
- Destroyed academic reputation and career (publishing is a major part of any prestigious academic career);
- Ruined professional reputation because politicians (such as Monica Crowley), business owners, or public figures may find that plagiarism issues follow them for the entire career;
- Monetary repercussions (plagiarists may have to pay monetary penalties to compensate authors when others expose them);
- Legal repercussions (copyright laws are absolute and people can’t use the materials that belong to others without proper references and citations).
Severe consequences are far-reaching, and that’s why you must avoid it in your work. Before you start any writing project, learn more about it and how to avoid it because rules are easy to follow and understand. If you experience any relevant problems, use the services of our qualified specialists. They know how to cite and references sources to avoid plagiarism issues and help you earn good grades easily.
