"The Way You Lie"

"With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise it's not acting. It's lying." Johnny Depp


Why be someone else when you can be yourself? This applies to all aspects of life as well as writing. Your writing is your voice, on paper. Last year in my history class, my teacher told us of a student that had plagiarized. He literally copied and pasted an entire paper! Why would anyone think they could get by with such cheating? The really sad part is, she said he was a great student with a solid "B" in her class. Good student or not, he had lost all credibility in her class and she had no choice but to fail and report him.

Tips for Avoiding plagiarism from our book, A practical Argument(p 353-354).

• Keep track of the sources you use while writing your paper
• Make sure your are using your ideas, not someone else's
• Never cut and paste
• Always include parenthetical citations and a works cited page

Being the youngest of eight children, I quickly learned if I wanted something I was going to have to work for it. Literally. I hope to teach my kids the same. Nobody said life was easy, but my friend, that is part of the journey.Hard work is gratifying and no one can take that away.