Notions (Plagiarism)

First off, I've been both a plagiarist and a victim. When I graduated from Secondary school, I was a fresh fish on Facebook: accepting friends requests upandan fro. People that I don't know and would probably never know.

I was bored, Ignorant (damn You) and of course, was bound to fall prey to all of these them Broadcast messages, "If you don't forward, you'll die or your family will die".

I was rebroadcasting till it escalated to just forwarding posts that I found in groups that I belonged to. Most times, it was stories to keep my class group chat busy. Sometimes, I wrote "Copied".

One day, a Facebooker was complaining about Plagiarism and I asked my sister a stupid question, "Why is she angry though, the person is just helping to spread the message naa"

Then, I didn't know what Plagiarism is, I've never heard the word. I didn't even know that it was a crime and when my sister pointed that out to me, I was scared. Someone might just dig out my WhatsApp Comments and put me in jail.

Then, I didn't know the pain of those that their works were plagarised till this year. 

My first Plagiarism experience was in an Online class for a course, where one can be awarded extra marks for contribution during the class.  I had been awarded extra marks before and thus it seemed that my coursemates were awaiting my comments.

I replied and someone copied same thing with little additions. I saw "red", and went at her in private. She apologized, saying that she didn't know. I understood, cos I was her before.

The second time, it was "Verbatim". The only difference was that the name was changed to the Plagiarist.

I exchanged words with him that night. I saw red, blue and black. My annoyance was that the guy was even denying that he copied my work word to word. This one pain me pass, gan!  cos the lecturer commended him on top work wey commot on top my head.

Well, I don't know if that was a Payback for me to eat my words years ago, but I've experienced being plagarised and I tell you, it's not proper at all.

If because of a couple of marks, I was hurt, I can't speak for authors and other writers whose works are constantly plagarised without due referencing.

If you like a person's post enough to share, duly acknowledge the person. Merely writing "Copied", doesn't count. Give the writer his/her due recognition.

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