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I find the whole subject of sourcing information a minefield. Yes, many writers may take information from a website and as such source it but what of those taking information from books. This too needs sourcing but, as it is usually harder for people to discover, tends to go unnoticed.

Often we have a smattering of a subject, which has remained in our memories from our schooldays. Firstly, should we source the teacher and her books?. Secondly, people often need to look things up to check dates and details and refresh their memory. They still know the subject but by checking things out should they source their article?.

I often find, as in the case recently of the thyroid subject, that when I personally know a great deal about a subject it does not fair well against a sourced one. Having suffered with various stages of this condition for thirty odd years I know the subject inside out. I have had it explained by various doctors, read masses of information and leaflets about it and, having worked in a hospital for nine years, learned even more. However all my articles flopped against sourced ones.

I am no Charlotte Bronte but I know that my standard of writing in these articles was not appalling. I must only conclude that people prefer articles taken from websites as long as the sourced is recognised and given credit. I have personally read articles which are parrot fashion copied from the Internet. To me, these articles are a complete rip off, whether the source is admitted or not.

I agree that we should not have cheating but I think it is probably more difficult to discover and sort out than one may initially think. Who's to say a member is not reading the contest list each week, trundling of to the library, borrowing the relevant books and just copying them or using them for reference.

I also feel that the ethics about sourcing comes in to whether the information is in a more general public field or a personal and specific book or site. If it is a person's information then the plagiarism is just plain stealing. Despite the debate I think that plagiarism will never be totally eradicated but that members may become more deceptive. I also feel that, if this site has no cheats, in any other shape or form, I will be very much surprised. Still one can only hope to be wrong on this point.

Learn more about this author, Ethel Smith.
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