Plagiarized - Poem About Plagiarism

Plagiarized - A Children's Poem

By R. Renée Bembry
Students copying someone else's work and claiming it as their own not only robs themselves of opportunities to strengthen their writing abilities but they break school rules and perhaps the law as well. This is why it is important for teachers to enact consequences for plagiarism whenever such acts occur. See what happens in this poem when detecting plagiarism plays a role in a classroom writing assignment. Can you guess what will happen when a poetry problem presents itself to a student?

I had to write a poem for school

I wrote one but it was not cool

I could not get my lines to rhyme

I tried free verse but it was worse

Searching—I found a poetry site

In the midst of the starry night

I "borrowed" from an author who

Writes poems plus other prose too

How easy I had searched the site

Finding a verse 'bout hate and spite

Copied it with a huge wide smile

Frown absent though my act was vile

Once finished I fell fast asleep

In spite of having been a creep

Dreams sailed me high up like a kite

As if my deed had been all right

In class I waited for my turn

To read this brilliant poem I burned

Once done I heard the teacher say

"I wrote those stanzas yesterday."

I was so shocked—wholly surprised

At teacher knowing I'd plagiarized

Yet, I knew not how to be true

You see—my name is Liar Lou

While cheating led to gauche demise

My shameful hands covered my eyes

April 29, 2011 – Revised

Now that you have read the poem, think about
how the student could have handled the problem differently. Usually more than one solution to
problems exist in most situations and often
times answers can come about simply
by discussing difficulties with parents,
siblings, or even with teachers.

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