In the piece "Something Borrowed" by Malcolm Gladwell poses the question, "Should an act of plagiarism ruin a person's career?" Throughout his piece, it becomes evident that Gladwell believes the answer to the question should be no, but in the case of literature, the answer is more and more often no. He gives specific examples of situations where someone has plagiarized and their career has been ruined. Although the laws are getting more strict about what can be accountable plagiarism, Gladwell believes that they should not be as strict. When a play writer plagiarized his work, he was flattered, but did not feel as if he was stolen from. He also gives many examples of how plagiarism laws are much stricter in literature than they are in the music industry. Throughout the piece, he shows how plagiarism is hard to define.
Personally, I have never thought about plagiarism further than citing sources in my papers so this piece was very interesting. I agree with Gladwell's opinions, that the reasons for a person plagiarizing should determine the case. I thought that the piece was well written because it brought the reader through clear examples that further backed up his point with each example.
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