Looks like a third plagiarism allegation against Harper

[daleo]

At what point does a series of isolated incidents constitute a pattern?
By Kady O'Malley | Email | October 6th, 2008 at 7:26 am
Posted to: Capital Read, Inside the Queensway | 61 | Comment on post

Filed Under: Capital Read • Inside the QueenswayTags: 2 looks like carelessness; 3: all bets are off • all bets are off • Plagiarism • Stephen Harper • synchronized speechwriting • the wheat board no less
Because we now have a third allegation of prime ministerial pre-prime ministerial plagiarism

http://blog.macleans.ca/category/blogs/national/inside-the-queensway/

[daleo]

1. The speechwriter claims he plagiarized himself

The fellow who wrote the speech (or claims he did) says that he cribbed from one of his own earlier writings. He says it was the only speech he ever wrote for Harper. Personally, I would like to see an invoice.

On edit - I am not sure if this would be permissible anyway. I think if someone was ghostwriting, he would still be expected to attribute his earlier work. Otherwise it gives the impression that the person delivering the speech was the author of thoughts that weren't really his own.

On further edit:

"So let’s start with a definition—plagiarism is the use of someone else’s words or ideas as your own without giving appropriate credit or without the person’s consent to use his or her words or ideas without acknowledgment. This can be somewhat confusing, because at its core, plagiarism isn’t just about stealing someone else’s words or ideas, but also about claiming to have done work you actually haven’t. Thus, many professors, me included, would see using a paper or research you have done for one course in fulfillment of an assignment in another as plagiarism, even though you are the paper’s author. You can plagiarize yourself!

There are several factors at work here, but primarily the thing you need to remember is that you have been given an assignment in order to further your education in a particular way. Turning in a paper you wrote for a high school English course, for example, to fulfill an assignment in EN 110: First-Year Composition would not help you further your education. This does not mean that you can’t use your time in EN 110 (or especially EN 111) to work on assignments from other classes. It does mean that you need the permission of instructors from both instructors before you do it."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=edit&forum=190&topic_id=25373&mesg_id=25380