Poor Melania Trump. A formidable dresser, but public speaking? Mrs. Donald may be a former model and fluent in five languages, but her orating skills need a bit of polish.
On Monday night, Melania addressed roughly 50,000 people at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
While her speech amassed an undulation of applause, whoops and whistles, it undeniably mirrored Michelle Obama’s speech from eight years ago at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.
Out of a 2,000-word oration, approximately 70 words/three passages matched the first lady’s speech. In Melania's defense, both speeches were pretty generic. They covered all the points everyone wants to hear: family, values, working hard to achieve your dreams, treating people with respect, passing values onto the next generation, and so forth.
Melania also surreptitiously slipped in a Rickroll and accidently echoed Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony, but unfortunately her nod to Michelle overshadowed her other references. For nearly a day, the campaign denied Melania “cribbed” her speech from Obama, claiming she used common words and values.
But the speechwriter and longtime Trump employee has since taken full responsibility for the “lifted remarks” and turned in her resignation. But somehow, she has skirted Trump’s famous catchphrase. The Donald is merciful.
In all honesty, it probably was an innocent mistake... or an artful publicity stunt.
I can't pass too much judgment. I may have snagged a couple of words here and there from Rory Gilmore’s high school valedictorian speech for my own salutatorian address, but who can blame me? It’s Rory Gilmore #icon!
Ask any college professor, and they will tell you plagiarism is inexcusable and 99% of the time will result in a big fat F.
If you’re on a public stage with hundreds of journalists and Redditors ready to dissect your every word, you’re going to get caught. And eagle-eyed journalist, Jarrett Hill, quickly spied Melania's mistake(s) and instantly shared it with the Twitterverse.
I doubt Melania and the Trump campaign will make the same gaffe twice, but surely some of you other folks out there still think you can get away will ransacking someone else’s work.
As a marketer, former journalist and writer, I know that plagiarism is unethical and it does not do you any favors. The story of disgraced New York Times journalist Jayson Blair may ring a bell. And Google certainly won't reward you for stealing someone else's content.
Before you get conflagrated in front of the whole world, or just disciplined by your professor, we suggest using these handy plagiarism checker tools and tactics.
1. Do check your work.
There are countless free online plagiarism detectors and proofreading software for you to use. Here are just a few:
Grammarly: I personally love Grammarly, especially when I’m typing up a quick email response to a client and am in such a mad rush I mix up “here” and “hear.” In addition to proofreading for grammatical errors, Grammarly also detects copied text.
Copyscape: Another plagiarism detection tool, Copyscape allows users to simply copy and paste online text or URLs into a search. Copyscape then returns results highlighting identical strings of text.
TurnItIn: This checker is popular with students and teachers alike. Professors use TurnItIn to check for potential plagiarism, improper citations and more. Students use it cover their asses.
2. Don’t procrastinate.
Time is not your friend. Therefore, do you not ignore it. Take your time when writing an article, paper, web page content or speech.
3. Do research.
If you want to write a solid, A+ paper or entertaining article, research. Writing is a process that requires tremendous diligence.
4. Do properly reference other works.
If you really can’t come up with a way to paraphrase someone else’s work, then quote it and cite it. All Melania had to do was give a shout out to her girl, Michelle, exalting her for her inspiration.
5. Don’t cheat.
At the end of the day, plagiarizing is cheating. Even if your speech garners millions of YouTube views and attracts unprecedented publicity to your husband’s campaign, it’s dishonest and potentially damaging to the person you stole from.
Want more writing tips?
