A recent article from Canadian Press highlighted how even many professional persons expose themselves to ridicule and even worse by "poaching" the words from somebody else and there is no reason for it.
The story, June 13, carried by CTV.ca said: The dean of medicine at the University of Alberta has apologized for using somebody else's words without credit in a speech.
"Dr. Philip Baker says in a letter to medical students that the original text was so inspiring he used it in his own convocation speech last Friday.
"some of the students recognized sections of his speech matched a convocation address delivered last year by Dr. Atul Gawande at Stanford University in California.
"The speech has personal family stories centred around overcoming adversity. Students complained that the copied speech showed a lack of respect for ceremony."
With this type of thing there is little wonder that many students in universities and other schools thing little of stealing somebody else's words.
And there is no reason for this. The professor's speech would have been much more effective and memorable if he had attributed the words to Dr. Gawande as he legally and morally should have.
