psychology dector

Photo courtesy of J. Scott Applewhite, AP “Derived from the Latin word plagiarius (‘kidnapper’), to plagiarize means ‘to commit literary theft’ and to ‘present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source’” ( Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary [11 th ed.; 2003; print]).   “Plagiarism involves two kinds of wrongs.   Using another person’s ideas, information, or expressions without acknowledging that person’s work constitutes intellectual theft.   Passing off another person’s ideas, information, or expressions as your own to get a better grade or gain some other advantage constitutes fraud.   Plagiarism is also a moral and ethical offense” ( MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, [Seventh Edition]). So Melania Trump is a kidnapper. As America wakes up to Day 2 of the big show in Cleveland, everyone will be talking about Melania cribbing her speech from Michelle Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.   In the ope...

We were the only two people in the darkened theater.   One entire row of seats had been roped off because they were damaged when part of the ceiling fell.   The place smelled of stale popcorn and body odor, and we had to wipe the accumulated buttery grease off of the vinyl seats before gingerly sitting down to await the show.   The film was Genius (Lionsgate, 2016), starring Jude Law and Colin Firth and directed by Michael Grandage.   I knew of Max Perkins and his editing work with most of the major writers of the early 20 th century:   Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe.   I knew he had performed more than just editing tasks for his writers, including being a surrogate father-figure.   But what unfolded in front of me over the next 104 minutes was something I had not seen before.   Grandage had managed to illustrate and dramatize what was not considered all that interesting:   a person editing a manuscript.   Gran...

After 61 years of making music and defining the age of folk music as well as world music, pop music, and top-40 music, Paul Simon is looking at retiring, The New York Times reported last week.   This is a musician who started his career at the tender age of thirteen and has not stopped at 74 years young. “It’s an act of courage to let go,” he says in the article.   “I am going to see what happens if I let go.   Then I’m going to see, who am I?   Or am I just this person that was defined by what I did?   And if that’s gone, if you have to make up yourself, who are you?” He seems a bit long in the tooth to be questioning himself or his vital importance to musical history.   Simon is a consummate musician, songwriter, lyricist, poet.   I remember walking into a freshmen literature class during my undergraduate years and picking up the course anthology to see not only the usual fare of poets and writers, but there, in the midst of Robert Frost, Emily Dic...