As we go back to school, we can learn from Donald Trump’s wife, Melania Trump’s mistake of getting busted for having similarities in her speech to Michelle Obama’s speech in 2008. Words from the First Lady’s speech seemed to be mimicked by Melania in her speech at the Republican National Convention. In this video posted to CNN’s YouTube channel, the news network put the two speeches side by side.
At first, there were debates on whether Melania’s speech writer, Meredith Melver, meant to steal parts of the First Lady’s speech or if it was simply a coincidence. Whether Melania did it intentionally or unintentionally, it does not change the fact that some of those words were already previously spoken in a speech. However, Melver did release an apology in a statement regarding the writing of the speech, and Trump tweeted that statement on July 20. “I did not check Mrs. Obama’s speeches. This was my mistake, and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused…”
Plagiarism is when somebody uses somebody else’s work as if it’s their own. If you’re not sure if your work is considered plagiarism, use the chart below from the Poynter Institute for help.
It’s important to take responsibility of one’s own work. In school, plagiarism is taken seriously and can be detrimental to your high school and college career. It is really easy to copy and paste phrases off the internet, but it’s just as easy to catch when that is done. With the help of tools like turnitin.com, it is easier for teachers to recognize if a student has plagiarized. Turnitin.com is a tool that one of my teachers uses, and it scans your whole paper to see if it recognizes any similiraties between your paper and other written work online.
In school, plagiarism can be anything from as little to taking a quote and not putting quotations around it to copying and pasting an entire paper found online. Changing around sentences or replacing a couple of words out of a sentence does not mean it is not plagiarism. It is still considered plagiarism if a majority of it is somebody else’s work.
Different school have different policies and disciplinary actions regarding plagiarism and other honor code violations. According to the Fulton County Public Schools, plagiarism, cheating or any other honor code violation in middle and high school can lead to one day of in-school suspension to 10 days of out-of-school suspension.
Hard work pays off. Don’t take somebody else’s hard work because that’s not helping you in the future. Bottom line is, do your own work and it will help you in the future with school and your future career.
Dasia is a 17-year-old rising senior at Our Lady of Mercy.
