Duke Commencement Speaker Is Mortified and Embarrassed After Similarities in Speech Spark Probe – WSJ

A Duke University student said she is taking full responsibility for parts of her commencement speech that included passages similar to those in a Harvard University graduation speech years ago, prompting a university probe.

Undergraduate commencement speaker Priya Parkash spoke to her fellow classmates at Duke s graduation ceremony on Sunday. The following day the Duke Chronicle the university s student newspaper reported that several passages of Ms. Parkash s speech were similar to that of a Harvard speech in 2014 given by then-student Sarah Abushaar.

Duke is investigating the matter, a spokesman said. Ms. Parkash said she would fully cooperate with the university s probe.

She said she incorporated ideas for passages provided by friends without researching if they had been used previously. Ms. Parkash said she didn t find out until the day after the speech that those passages had come from the speech given at Harvard, which she said she hadn t previously seen.

I was mortified and embarrassed to find out through a news article after I had already given the speech in front of thousands of people that parts of it were directly taken from [the Harvard] speech, Ms. Parkash, who majored in statistical science and economics, said in an interview. I sincerely regret this incident and I wish I could go back and undo it. I wish that I had been more diligent.

via www.wsj.com

One can easily see how this could happen. Just write everything yourself, no matter how lame it ends up sounding, I guess.