Say It Isn’t So
I’ve written in the past about my English Romanticism professor, James Twitchell, and how brilliant–if a bit monster-obsessed–he is. His class isn’t easy, and he doesn’t shy away from giving Ds and Fs if that’s what a student deserves. Grade inflation is not his style. Indeed, my marks have been disappointing, but not undeserved. When I conferred with him recently after doing especially poorly on a test, he was remarkably understanding and sympathetic, but the grade was fair.
Imagine my horror when, upon arriving at work this morning, I was presented with a copy of today’s Gainesville Sun, the cover of which featured this above-the-fold headline:
UF Professor Admits He Plagiarized in Several Books
Below these bold letters was a photo of James Twitchell and a damning article. I was astonished and dismayed. Twitchell has been a professor at the University since the 1970s, and has written many, many books. He is a frequent guest on a call-in show here at my work, and some of my colleagues, substantially older than me, had him as a teacher during their college years. That he could even be accused of plagiarism is shocking to me considering how serious a charge that is in a college setting. It is spoken of in the same tone used to describe genocide.
To tell the truth, I’m giving Professor Twitchell the benefit of the doubt. Someone as apparently gifted as he wouldn’t need to steal another’s ideas. If he says it was a note-taking error I believe it.
Filed under: Literature and Books, School on April 26th, 2008
Did you read the article?? He didn’t just copy Virginia Postrel’s words, he changed the names of the two stores she discussed. Why would anyone do that? It sounds deliberate, not sloppy.
[...] http://danajohnhill.com/dana/2008/04/26/say-it-isnt-so/I’ve written in the past about my English Romanticism professor, James Twitchell, and how brilliant–if a bit monster-obsessed–he is. His class isn’t easy, and he doesn’t shy away from giving Ds and Fs if that’s what a student deserves. … [...]
You’re right that Twitchell certainly has the brains to do his own work, but it’s a lot faster to swipe other people’s work without credit if you’re trying to churn out a book a year. See my blog, http://www.dynamist.com/weblog, for more details, and do follow the Google Books link on his truly egregious “borrowing” from Grant McCracken, who is a much more brilliant thinker.
[...] year I wrote about one of my literature professors who was implicated in a plagiarism scandal. Professor [...]