Today, I'm an English teacher. I really am teaching freshman composition five days a week this semester. One of my many tasks in that role is to explain what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. That's one reason Aaron Eisen's recent column ("No new ideas," Sept. 8 ) caught my attention.
I don't mean to pick on Eisen. As I tell my students, if you recognize a line from your work among my examples of how not to do things, it's not because you've provided a particularly horrid example. If I'm taking up the whole class's time with something, that means a number of class members apparently need to learn it.
So, while Eisen's words are the example, I mean to address anyone struggling in what he called "a world of pastiche culture, of music sampling, retro fashions, and movements that begin with 'neo.'" All the good thoughts and words are already taken, he seems to be saying, so how can a person possibly avoid plagiarism?
Actually, it's not all that difficult.
First off, let's clear up some terminology trouble. Eisen announces that he's going to paraphrase a document. Then he quotes from it. To quote means to reproduce the information exactly. When words are left out of a direct quote, you're supposed to put an ellipsis in their place, so people will know something's missing.
Paraphrasing means to express the same meaning using different words. For example, the King James version of the Bible expresses what's commonly called the Golden Rule this way in Luke 6:31: "And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." You could paraphrase that verse this way: Treat people the way you want to be treated.
See the difference?
Eisen also writes, "I would say, 'It's not so black and white,' but this is a borrowed phrase." That's not a borrowed phrase. It's a worn out phrase, a clich
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