The English-language press has been a bit behind the continent in picking it up, but there's a new plagiarism scandal: the German defence minister has been charged with plagiarizing part of his PhD thesis.
While specifics are hard to come by, as they usual are in public episodes of plagiarism, it appears that it's patchwriting that's really involved.
What is striking about the response this case has generated is how very short the collective memory is. Joseph Biden—now a heartbeat away from the US presidency—was forced to withdraw from a bid for the presidency after allegations of plagiarism in one of his speeches turned up similar allegations regarding his student work. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. appears to have patchwritten parts of his thesis in theology. Here in Sweden, a Stockholm University professor widely known here in Sweden for her political activity was the recipient of vituperous public allegations of plagiarism after having adopted a patchwriting strategy in her published work. And so on and so on and so on.
My point isn't (of course) that the frequency with which plagiarism is identified in the writings of public figures somehow makes it conventional. Rather I'm a bit surprised that the media, and their consumers, can respond with shock and outrage again and again and again.
The journalistic adage goes 'Dog bites man—no news. Man bites dog—news.' Patchwriting in student writing should, on the evidence, fall into the former category.
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