More Medical Plagiarism

"By Tammy Jones" at the top of a newspaper story means Tammy Jones wrote everything you are about to read with the exception of the parts in quotation marks.

But maybe Tammy Jones of Peace River Medical didn't get the word in high school: If she copies chunks of sentences and paragraphs that others wrote and slaps her byline on top of them without quotation marks, she is plagiarizing. If she writes a newspaper article and fails to attribute paraphrased sources in a fair and honest way, she's plagiarizing. When she copies the order of ideas, pattern of development and structure of the discussion, she's plagiarizing.

Tammy Jones apparently missed English class the day her nice teachers explained that if she changes out a couple of words and flips the sequence of a couple of sentences, it's evidence she may be deliberately attempting to disguise her plagiarism.

And finally, Tammy Jones gleans her facts from one website but directs readers to another -- one more credible than "About.com" -- for more information.  Most readers expect to be referred to the same authority she used. But telling readers to visit the Skin Cancer Foundation when Tammy Jones visited About.com is a dishonesty she works on readers and the newspaper editors -- not to mention her employer who probably endorsed the use of its name, never dreaming Tammy Jones would lie about her sources, steal the writing of others, and cheat readers of a fairly reported feature article.