Point One: When a particular instance is discovered, there’s almost always more from the same person. Plagiarism is a career choice.
Point Two: The panicked plagiarist almost always responds like a complete idiot to the discovery, as with the War College’s finest, Senator John Walsh, whose thirteen and a half page MA thesis…
Wait. Thirteen and a half page MA thesis…? Oy.
Anyway, back to the main event. Point Three:
The university that passed the plagiarized thesis now comes under heavy scrutiny. As in: Does the War College specialize in awarding MAs to thirteen and a half page pastiches of other people’s writing? Who pays for the War College? Zat my taxes?? Hold on, lemme check.
I don’t have to check! It’s the effing army! The Army!
So… okay… I saved on paper. What if he’d written a standard 50 to 100 page thesis? But beyond that…
July 24th, 2014 at 5:27PM
I applied for the War College when I was in the Army Reserve but didn’t get accepted. I guess I wasn’t a good enough cheater?
July 24th, 2014 at 5:29PM
JND: Your cheating lacked leadership qualities.
July 24th, 2014 at 7:08PM
This was even stupider because the Army War College puts student papers produced in its programs in an online archive (well, at least some of them; I’m pretty sure M.A. theses would be part of the program). I’ve noticed this because my writing-in-the-disciplines students in certain majors have a tendency to come up with them as potential sources. And I can say from helping multiple students look over these possible sources that the quality is, um, uneven to questionable (maybe military education doesn’t encourage originality, but most, even if they aren’t plagiarized, could be kindly described as syntheses of readily-available — as in available in the NYT — ideas, without much in the way of critical thinking, or original content. Not what I’d call M.A.-level, or even advanced-undergrad-level, work).
July 25th, 2014 at 6:34AM
contingent cassandra, thanks for saying what I was too scared to say. I read the links. Walsh’s thesis looked to me like Big Ideas Lite. Very Lite.
July 25th, 2014 at 7:27AM
Ad misericordiam.
July 25th, 2014 at 8:50AM
FWIW-my military days are way behind me, but the late Col. David Hackworth was a strong critic of careerist “ticket-punching” (his term) within the Army. Example from Vietnam: artillery officers were promoted based on ordnance expended. Expend it they did, even without a military objective.
I’m not sure the NVA or Viet Cong archives are available, but one can imagine intelligence reports noting the bombardment of areas not occupied by NVA troops.