I just wanted to send you an email to say that your page made my day...but this may be somewhat of a backhanded compliment...
One of my students handed in a paper comparing Heart of Darkness and Apocalypse Now. The paper was good, but used odd phrases that didn't sound like "him" (such as "in this monograph I will..." and "loveable, addle-headed harlequin/fool figure"). The paper contained a random-looking reference (to a page where no Conrad info was to be found in our text -- [1] -- and with no accompanying footnote)
So, as a curious professor, I ran an AltaVista search: "Where can I find a paper comparing Heart of Darkness with Apocalypse Now?" and happened upon your page. And then, as luck would have it, I happened upon the very essay my student had turned in as his own!! A cut-and-paste job. He turned in LITERALLY the exact paper you have posted on your page.
You should feel honored (maybe) that a random student in Pennsylvania found your paper worth plagiarizing -- so much so that he didn't change even one word! (he didn't even adjust the spelling of Marlowe to Marlow, as it occurs in our book)! But he didn't give you credit, Pat, and that's not right, so I failed him.
Anyway, I was happy because I had proof of this student's dishonesty, and it came in the form of your paper. So I guess I need to thank you for having an accessible website, although it would be nice if students didn't spend their time looking for someone else's work to pass off as their own. Both the movie and the book are great (I wrote part of my Master's thesis on H. of D.), so it disappointed me that this kid took the easy way out and didn't try to work out his own views, but, alas...you can lead a horse to water, if you know what I mean.
Instructor of English
Bloomsburg University
