High profile plagiarism

Thanks to my colleague Mark Sanderson for alerting me to this story today, which is a nice example of how plagiarism can threaten your career. The title of the BBC news story says it all:
BBC (2008) "Canada PM faces plagiarism claim." BBC News, 1 October. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
world/americas/7645593.stm

It is not the Prime Minister, but rather the writer of this 2003 speech, who has now resigned.

Whilst searching for an Australian reaction to this, I came across a current plagiarism accusation: namely the Australian shadow Treasurer is accused of lifting direct quotes from the Wall Street Journal

Franklin, M. and Maiden, S. (2008) "Swan slams Bishop's 'plagiarism'" The Australian, 24 September.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/
story/0,25197,24393932-5013871,00.html

The accused seems to be asserting that she was using some direct quotes made within the article, and so she feels that was OK ... hmmmm .... this makes it even more relevant to tricky questions that you get with coursework! I'll be using these examples with my students.

Photo by Sheila Webber: Trees in Guelph, Canada, May 2005