What We'd Like To Teach Melania Trump About Plagiarism

Trump’s campaign just hit another bump in the long, treacherous road to governing America, with Melania Trump’s seemingly similar speech to that of Michelle Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech she gave in 2008. After reading the transcripts side by side, it’s definitely evident that Melania’s speech writers turned to Michelle Obama’s speech for, um, “inspiration.”

But what exactly is plagiarism and what happens to those who plagiarize material from others when they’re not Melania Trump? Melania was backed by several people, including Chris Christie who felt that she did not plagiarize at all and that there was no considerable similarity between her speech and Michelle Obama’s.

Plagiarism refers to the practice of taking the words of others and passing them off as your own. Colleges and universities have strict guidelines against this, and most of the time it will result in expulsion or another serious consequence. When a journalist chooses to partake in plagiarism, it often results in them losing their job.

Two prominent journalists who faced repercussions for plagiarism include Jayson Blair and Kaavya Viswanathan. Blair was a reporter for The New York Times that was investigated for a column he had written that was eerily close to one written earlier by Macarena Hernandez. The Times found that 36 of the 73 articles he had written were either plagiarized, fabricated, or showed signs of other aspects of unethical behavior.

Blair resigned from the Times and has not taken up a job as a journalist since the investigation broke. As for Viswanathan, a Harvard student who wrote a book titled How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, her book was pulled after allegations it was composed of copied portions of other books from authors in the “chick lit” field.

After some time, she was able to graduate from Harvard and be accepted into Georgetown Law, as well as score an internship at the New York office of Sullivan & Cromwell.

You can avoid plagiarism by paraphrasing a section of some research you have done. Never use more than two words in a row from a section of text you found, and if you want to use a section longer than two words, put quotation marks around it.

You can also opt to cite your work, which signals to the reader that the text comes from certain author(s) and from a certain publication, which is included either beside the text or as a footnote. You can also do a similar practice called “referencing,” in which you reference the page or pages from a work at the end of your research paper that allows the reader to know the text is not your own words and came from a different original source.

The lesson here? It's ok to take inspiration from Michelle Obama, but next time at least reference her as your source of inspo.