![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHzq7W4Fp7mmENflaDbO_TpuidB4lUa3dpzLt_BImlz6UKkET_KT3N1SSS6A5obo2odCS256i62tFQ_eWT9ffbS69JfNXqLtnfoZlyBzf1zeN2vF1nE2XEwNBAHdzAEnPNvvJy/s200/Sanzio_01_Plato_Aristotle.jpg)
A lot of the teachers I’ve been listening to lately have been distraught over plagiarism in their students’ writing. I try to sympathize, but I can’t relate. I’m not having those issues. When writing begins with inquiry, makes connections to the self’s place in the world, and sourcing is transparent, there doesn’t seem to be much of a problem.
At the same time I’ve been reading about Aristotle’s rhetorical triangle – the connections and interdependence of speaker, audience, subject; the appeals to logos, ethos, pathos; and the added elements of context and purpose. When we compose from that framework, plagiarism is an awfully alien concept.
Painting by Raffaello Sanzio from Wikimedia Commons and is a public domain image