In this article the author brings up some points on plagiarism and how it has been defined. He also explains how the notion of plagiarism has some gray areas in which he claims that there is no way that anyone can write an original work. Expanding on this argument the author claims that through the notion of intertextuality that no one can write an original piece. What this means is that writers as individuals are influenced by other texts and will pull from other writer's styles as well as wording. The romanticized version of the writer as an individual creating original works is slightly skewed. According to the author even documents such as the Declaration of Independence hold some slightness of plagiarism within its writing and if Jefferson was to submit the Declaration of Independence for a college writing class he might be charged with plagiarism.
Aside from the influence of former writings having their effect on the individuals writing the community discourse also influences writing. Every discourse has some sort of community in which they have their own styles and expectations. In this case not only are the individual's writing influenced by other writers but also among the community and forum of which they belong to. If a writer wants to submit an article to the Journal of Applied Psychology, that writer must not only write their piece in an organization compliant with that communities writing norms they must also use a certain style. In this case the accepted style would be APA. What the main point that the author is trying to make is that writers are not truly individuals but are limited to their discourse as well as previous writings with which the associate themselves.
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