"Stealing Words" (Editorial, July) was right on target. It's sad that plagiarism has become so prevalent and that writers are offended when confronted with their wrongdoing. I'm a retired teacher who witnessed plagiarizing students (both graduate and undergraduate) bemoan the time spent writing assignments without comprehending the seriousness of their offense.

All nurse writers must be rigid in their honesty and integrity. Students should be held to this same high standard. Perhaps your editorial and others like it (such as "Integrity in the Advancement of Nursing Knowledge" by Rosemarie Rizzo Parse, PhD, RN, FAAN, in Nursing Science Quarterly, July 1999) will inspire nurse authors to be more careful when representing another person's ideas as their own.

As you stated, nursing is developing a growing body of knowledge available to other professionals and the public, and our written words should stand on their own.

Mary H. Huch, PhD, APRN,BC