I recently had the opportunity to read an article by Jennifer A. Mott-Smith with the title “Plagiarism deserves to be punished”, that title is the narrative that is heard time and time again from the media, professors and even parents. But when we look into plagiarism and its effects on students, we notice that it actually helps many writers who may be struggling with coming up with ideas for a paper.

She quotes author Lawrence Lessig from his book “Free Culture”, “what it can possibly mean to steal an idea: I understand what I am taking when I take the picnic table you put in your backyard. I am taking a thing, the picnic table, and after I take it, you don’t have it. But what am I taking when I take the good idea you had to put a picnic table in the backyard— by, for example, going to Sears, buying a table, and putting it in my backyard? What is the thing that I am taking then? Lessig was getting at the idea that when a person borrows an idea no harm is done to the party from whom it was taken” (Smith 247). The author is understanding what it could possibly mean to steal someone’s work while explaining the reality of how students use other writers’ ideas to create new ideas of their own. An idea may have been created by someone else but that does not mean that someone cannot use that idea to make new or improve that persons work.

Something Borrowed: Should a charge of plagiarism ruin your life? by Malcolm Gladwell talks about hearing a play from many of his friends that he needs to see. Finally, when he checks out the script, he soon realizes that the play was completely plagiarized from his work. At first, he was upset about it, but months went by then eventually he considered it a compliment. she used his work in a way that helped her become a better writer. He states “I am happy to be the source of inspiration for other writers, and had you asked for my permission to quote—even liberally—from my piece, I would have been delighted to oblige. But to lift material, without my approval, is theft.” (Gladwell, 2004). The idea of taking a writer’s piece is brazen and in the sense of that writer spending time and time on that piece of writing and just to have it stolen and use the writing as their own is very merciless. On the other hand, he negates his stance on plagiarism by saying “I considered Lavery’s borrowing to be a compliment. A savvier writer would have changed all those references to Lewis, and rewritten the quotes from me, so that their origin was no longer recognizable. But how would I have been better off if Lavery had disguised the source of her inspiration?” (Gladwell, 2004). Therefore, if his work had never been plagiarized then it would have never been recognized by so many people. Because of Gladwell’s work being used and getting so much recognition without it being modified or changed into something new he is appreciative of the writer. The fact that his work made it onto the stage that people actually enjoyed watching was a great feeling for him.

Mott-Smith verbalizes “There are at least three important things to understand about the complexity of using sources. First, ideas are often a mixture of one’s own ideas, those we read, and those we discuss with friends, making it hard, or even impossible, to sort out who owns what. Second, writers who are learning a new field often try out ideas and phrases from other writers in order to master the field. This process allows them to learn and is a far cry from steal- ing. Third, expectations for citing sources vary among contexts and readers, making it not only confusing to learn the rules, but impos- sible to satisfy them all.” (Mott-Smith, 248). This is very important to realize when citing sources, students who patch write or plagiarize majority of the time use sources as a guide to come up with ideas to further explicate their topic. When in a new field a student tends to look to experts for answers and understanding instead of studying and developing ideas independently. Furthermore, as a new writer adjusting to the rules in place for citing sources and giving credit where it is needed can be a difficult thing to do. Consequently, causing the writer to go to a source and use that source to make it sound like detailed statements about the topic but really isn’t. Instead of using that source as a way to come up with new ideas that will guide an essay in the correct direction.

 Patchwriting should not be looked at as a bad way of writing but as a process of collaborative writing in which the writer contributes to the other writer. Where the writer selects parts of the sources to use in order to make this essay effective rather than focus on giving credit or citing properly. This allowed writers to have a sense of confidence in what the writers are writing about. Utilizing patchwriting as a way to find proper sources to help the essay are positive effects.

Ideas are shared thoughts that are utilized ways The strategy of patchwriting for writers is to pick the word or phrases that are the most useful so that the writer can understand how to construct the paper for the essay that the student is writing.  The use of plagiarism is being accepted in a new way for writers whether that is being appreciative of someone acknowledging your work in theirs or in ways that are helpful for a writer to start somewhere and help the writer expound on an idea that the writer was not sure about.