Timeline for Why is plagiarising words such a big deal?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
5 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 11, 2019 at 18:53 | comment | added | supercat | @Thomas: That is generally true, but in cases where one is describing things using standardized terminology and phraseology, even a fairly long piece of text might be the standard way of expressing the concepts involved What matters is not the length of the text, but the probability of coincidence. | |
| Feb 11, 2019 at 18:38 | comment | added | Thomas Steinke | @supercat The probability of coincidence rapidly declines the longer the copied text is. | |
| Feb 11, 2019 at 16:19 | comment | added | supercat | In some cases, if one were to offer a dozen people an awkward paraphrase of a sentence and ask them if they can write it more clearly, one might find that all twelve write the exact same sentence as the original author, even though it would be impossible for them to plagiarize something they'd never seen. The fact that words match precisely is hardly proof of anything absent evidence that someone trying to express the same ideas as the original would be unlikely to match it by coincidence. | |
| Feb 7, 2019 at 23:43 | comment | added | JonathanReez | This is the best answer. As an example's - Zimbardo's famous prison experiment has been teared into shreds in recent years and there is a strong likelihood that he faked the whole thing. But its not irrefutable, so Zimbardo can keep going on talkshows and denying everything. But outright copying something is impossible to disprove, so its easy to call out people on it. | |
| Feb 7, 2019 at 22:04 | history | answered | Thomas Steinke | CC BY-SA 4.0 |