Thaindian News

New York, May 27 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Valedictorian Brian Corman of the Columbia School of General Studies plagiarized a part of his graduation speech, and was also unlucky enough to be found out. He copied a portion of his speech from the noted comedian Patton Oswalt’s ‘Physics for Poets’ and was under the impression that no one would be alert and agile enough to spot it out. But this was not to be. Patton Oswalt complained about the plagiarized speech on the popular social networking and micro blogging site Twitter and also on his blog.

After Brian Corman realized that his plan had fallen apart, then he did the next best thing and that was to accept the folly, and to apologize to the comedian. Later Paul Patton wrote on his blog that, “Brian Corman apologized to me. Flat-out admitted his thievery, his stupidity. Owned it all. Good man. Still makes me wonder what he might have done to become valedictorian — I mean, if he’s willing to steal material for something as inconsequential as a speech, how rubbery did his boundaries become when his GPA and future career were on the line? Oh well.”

Later the Columbia School of General Studies Dean Peter Awn, also issued a statement in which he said that the institution was shocked to learn that one of their students had engaged in plagiarism. They said that they do not approve of such practices without proper attribution. The statement also added that Brian had apologized to his classmates as well as to Paul also.