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| Illustration from Canterbury Tales |
Copyright
Everything I write is copyrighted by me, but that's no more than basic law.
Students
If you are a student—any sort of student, at any school anywhere—and you are working on an assignment, you are welcome to read and study the materials at any of my web sites. What you cannot do is plagiarize. If you have any doubts about what plagiarism is, ask your teacher.
I am forced to post this warning because far too many students, mostly middle school and high school students, are lifting parts of my essays and are trying to pass them off as their own work. This is intellectually dishonest and I will gladly assist any teacher in tracking down instances of plagiarism involving my sites.
Teachers
You are welcome to use my site for your own research; indeed, one reason why I make my site public is so school teachers can use it as a reference. My wife is a high school teacher, so I'm aware of the special constraints and challenges that face school teachers who can suddenly find themselves required to teach something that they've not really studied.
You are welcome to make assignments to your students involving this site. I ask, however, that you not make "interview" assignments. I do not have time to respond, unfortunately, and too many "interview" questions aren't really interview questions at all but are simply research topics, poorly formulated. I ask also that you not make my site the only source a student consults. The material here is no more than what can be found in any textbook on the subject, and it's important that students hear more than one voice on a research topic.
General Public
Anyone is welcome to read and study the materials at this site. I ask, however, that you not duplicate any of my materials. I do not want mirror sites and I do not want individual essays reproduced in any form elsewhere. I ask this because I revise essays from time to time, either to reflect changes in my own thinking or to correct factual mistakes. If material is copied elsewhere, that older copy will not reflect the changes. You are welcome to make all the links you wish, but no portion of my writings may be duplicated without my explicit consent.
If you have questions or comments about any aspect of the site, please read my inquiry page first.