This particular assignment is about plagiarism laws as well as mine and others opinions and laws describing copyright

law and how/why it could be changed or stay the same. This is an Argumentative Essay written to express opinions and thoughts on plagiarism. This is my final draft after I using others help and comments to improve this from previous drafts. These comments and questions raised when writing this have helped me focus my paper into this as the result.

Jare !ettinghouse "irst #ear $omposition $ollin %udlow&'attson (ovember )*th +,).hen is /lagiarism Acceptable0 In 1ladwell2s article3 4iswanathan&1ate3 he argues about the use of plagiarism laws and how it can be critical on some sections of literature. 5ome examples he brings up are among comparing the general structure from one author to another and different literature and how they should react to plagiarism. 6n one hand 1ladwell believes a certain amount of plagiarism is o if it in genre fiction rather than more distinguished writing from the academic literature world. I agree that a certain amount of originality is expected at all times in an academic environment while building off of ideas. 6n the other hand 1ladwell states that he buys and en7oys reading spy novels because the conform to a model. 1ladwell argues3 8These are novels based on novels based on novels3 in which every convention of character and plot has been trotted out a thousand times before. If I wrote a detective story3 set in )9-,2s %os Angeles3 about a cynical3 hard&bitten private eye3 with a drop dead gorgeous secretary and a series of lonely housewife clients3 would anyone bat an eye0:

I have always believed that plagiarism should be punishable for any genre especially for ones that are in quality or quantity. Although a certain bac ground is acceptable for a spy genre novel3 why would you want to read the same boo twice and why is it o to ta e another person2s boo and pass it off as your own. ;uilding off ideas should be encouraged as it is for science and most art forms. 1ladwell insists3 8...thin how many serial& iller novels have been cloned from 2The 5ilence of the %ambs.2 #et3 when <athy Ac er incorporated parts of a =arold !obbins sex scene verbatim in a satiric novel3 she was denounced as a plagiarist >and threatened with a lawsuit?.: .hile 1ladwell argues that this is plagiarism and we accept it3 I believe that this is building off of another persons idea and these two examples cannot be compared. Although a group of performers or artists will do a dance routine or ma e a painting3 but that does not mean that another person should be able to ta e the same dance routine and give it another name. ;uilding off of another persons ideas is what creativity is and how the standard for each genre is raised for all art forms. In 7ournalism and in classrooms3 in my experiences3 it is considered acceptable in the community to ta e another persons writing to write paper and change the words around so it is unrecogni@able and indistinguishable but with any obvious similarities. Just as I have 7ust done with the last statement while at the same time being my own statement and opinion. .hile the last statement has been independently thought of and was my opinion before even thin ing about writing this paper3 I still need to be careful about plagiarism. 1ladwell explains that3 8.hen I wor ed at a newspaper3 we were routinely dispatched to AmatchA a story from the TimesB to do a new version of someone else2s idea. ;ut had we AmatchedA any of the Times2 wordsCeven the most banal of phrasesCit could have been a firing offense.: 1ladwell is reflecting on one of his past 7obs and how ta ing another persons ideas and not plagiari@ing was the goal. I agree with 1ladwell in that when ta ing a sentence and switching it around can be viewed as an often 1rey

area but heavily borrowed material from another writer which some would consider as plagiarism. /lagiarism is full of grey areas with laws to be interpretive but supposed to be easy and obvious to apply so an act of plagiarism would be easily agreed upon rather than lawfully definite. To me3 as long as credit goes where credit is do and people are allowed to build off of each others ideas without stealing from them3 that is what will wor best for both parties. These problems come from those who now they are ta ing the easy way out and it is up to them to avoid these issues. #ou will get caught eventually. .or s $itedB httpB//gladwell.typepad.com/gladwellcom/+,,D/,E/viswanathangate.html