The Engineering Mind

I plagiarized a paper once.

But I did it in accordance with all proper rules of citation.  What I didn't do is any research or write a single thought of my own.

I remember asking the instructor, what percentage of our paper had to be our own work.  She indicated bafflement at the question and chided us that anything from other authors needed to be properly cited.

The paper was effectively graded by mass and I didn't really want to do it.

So I found a paper on the same topic online, wrote an introduction that took a paragraph to say, "look what this guy said", formatted his paper into quotation blocks and put in some connecting sentences of my own and had three pages of citation and references on the back.

The teacher was miffed.  All I could ask was, "is the stuff I didn't write properly cited?" We didn't discuss how I'd asked how much had to be original work, she sensed that trap.  I ended up with a B.

The funny thing is when I tell this story, engineering types are all, "good solution!" but science types are aghast!  Liberal arts types are, "what's a Citation?"

I tell them it's a Cessna.