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| Academic dishonesty is a major issue today. |
I have noticed lately that McCain's blog is mostly copied, so he should call it Re-Tweet rather than Cyberbrethren.
The latest example is his post on Cyril and Methodius, which is copied verbatim from Aardvark Alley.
Some will immediately absolve him of the sin of plagiarism, saying, "He actually named the source this time."
Perhaps he is in a Twelve-Step program right now, and taking steps toward overcoming his addiction to plagiarism. A few leaps ahead would be better than baby steps.
McCain claims to be a pastor (no call) and a publisher. He earns his princely salary from Concordia Publishing House, so he cannot claim ignorance of APA or MLA standards.
Listing the source at the bottom merely indicates that he got the basic concept from that source. He did not even bother to include the link, which would send traffic to Aadvark Alley, prompting the reader to say, "Oh my, another verbatim copy."
At the very least, McCain the CPH Editor should start with the link at the top followed by a colon.
Thus - Aadvark Alley:
That would be giving credit where credit is due. The current MO, as his friend likes to call it, is blatantly dishonest.
In formal English essays or in books, the entire section would be indented instead of using quotation marks to set it off. Blogging is more informal, but that does not give the blogger the right to copy an entire post and make it appear to be his. If one particular style is misleading the readers, it should be abandoned for something offering precision rather than smoke and mirrors.
I use a plagiarism checker at two universities. They consider excess copying to be wrong and dishonest. A score of 20% is considered the maximum total of quotation material in the entire essay.
Pope Paul likes to order others not to quote me or link my blog. He is only following the template of Missouri's founder, Bishop Martin Stephan, STD, who demanded total obedience while exemplifying Antinomianism.
Editor and Publisher McCain should spend more time writing his own words, less time denouncing everyone.
