Plagiarism, Revisited . . .

A Teacher's Education

I've not complained about plagiarism in a while, but I recently encountered a case of egregious plagiarism in a graduate student's paper that I was asked to proofread, and here is the worst paragraph that I noticed before stopping in annoyance:

However, with China playing the host, the first Six-Party Talks were launched in August 2003. The second and third Six-Party Talks were held in March and June 2004, respectively, giving momentum to the multilateral process. During the fourth Six-Party Talks, which were held from July to September 2005, the historic September 19 Joint Declaration was announced. In the Declaration, the six-parties unanimously reaffirmed that the goal of the Six-Party Talks is the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Here, the purpose of the Six-Party Talks was proclaimed. Also, North Korea and the U.S. undertook to respect each other's sovereignty, exist peacefully together and take steps to normalize their relations subject to their respective bilateral principles. Both states pledged to improve bilateral relations. The six parties also undertook to promote economic cooperation in the fields of energy, trade and investment, bilaterally and/or multilaterally. The talks have merged security factors and economic factors into a political deal. As a security regime in Northeast Asia, the six-parties agreed to explore ways and means for promoting security cooperation in the region. Above all, the Declaration proclaimed that the directly related parties will negotiate a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

It sounds good, but a bit too good, and it has some resonant echoes that roused my suspicions, so I Googled and found the quotes, which I've red-fonted:

However, with China playing the host, the first six-party talks were launched in August 2003. The second and third six-party talks were held in March and June 2004, respectively, giving momentum to the multilateral process. During the fourth six-party talks, which were held from July to September 2005, the historic September 19 Joint Declaration was announced. In the Declaration, "the six-parties unanimously reaffirmed that the goal of the six-party talks is the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." Here, the purpose of the six-party talks was proclaimed. Also, North Korea and the U.S. "undertook to respect each other's sovereignty, exist peacefully together, and take steps to normalize their relations subject to their respective bilateral" principles. Both states pledged to improve bilateral relations. "The six parties also undertook to promote economic cooperation in the fields of energy, trade and investment, bilaterally and/or multilaterally." The talks have merged security factors and economic factors into a political deal. As a security regime in Northeast Asia, the six-parties agreed to "explore ways and means for promoting security cooperation" in the region. Above all, the Declaration proclaimed that "the directly related parties will negotiate a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula."

I wrote, "Here, you are quoting without quotes and without even citations, rather egregious instances of plagiarism." I didn't accuse the student -- NOT an Ewha student, incidentally -- of intentional plagiarism, but I did make very clear the consequences of getting caught, namely, the ruination of one's scholarly reputation. Unfortunately, that seems to be less often true these days.

As for the sources of these borrowed quotes, I leave those as Googling homework for interested readers.