Writers and Plagiarism

Published on May 3, 2006 By foreverserenity In Current Events

Lately I’ve seen in the news medium how some writers have seemly plagiarized in order to write their books. Either they have lifted paragraphs or bylines, or they write things as life-stories when it should be fiction.

Why, I wonder do these writers compromise in such a manner? Why, if being a writer as been their dream for so long and usually it is for most of them, would they mess up like that? Do they think they would never be found out or that the readers out there are not smart enough to realize that they’ve read a line somewhere before and might actually seek out where they read it?

It certainly does make the author look bad and thus loses the trust of the reading public. It hurts the writer even more if what he/she wrote is supposed to be real-life experiences with which the readers will identify. As in the case of James Frey and his book “A Million Little Pieces”.

Writing is not exactly an easy thing to do for most people. There are times too, that trying to “put two words together” can be mind-numbing because you have writer’s block. I guess this is probably when some people will ‘borrow’ from someone else.

But could this be done innocently? Sometimes someone could be writing and they can’t really put into words what they‘re trying to say. After reading something else, they suddenly get inspired. Could this inspiration be the reason why some people will plagiarize? Then, instead of putting their own thoughts down on paper, they might end up re-writing that which inspired them? I don’t know. This is a whole debatable topic.

There’s now a new word used when someone plagiarizes another writer, it’s called “internalized” as in the case of this 19 year old who received a six figure book deal and was about to have her first book published only to have everything taken away because what she wrote, was so familiar to her classmates who after checking it out, was the same as an established author’s work.

According to her, the author whose work she ‘borrowed’ from is one of her favorite writers and she must have ‘internalized’ what she read and somehow put the same thoughts in her book.

It’s also reported in this link, Link that she’s not the only one who does this ‘internalizing’. It’s been done by many other writers, mostly college professors who never get penalized for what they do.

I think that anyone who does plagiarize should be penalized for doing so. We’re talking the ‘blood, sweat and tears’ of someone who worked hard to put together something that others will want to read. Perhaps it took that writer many a long nights to be inspired to put his/her work out there. Then, to have someone else copy it and gain monetarily from it without consequences? That would definitely drive me crazy!

I’m all for inspiring anyone who might get an idea from something I wrote. I’ve done that too, been inspired by someone else’s writing. However when you write exactly what the author as in their work, that’s where the inspiration ends and plagiarism begins.

So be careful what you write my fellow bloggers, checking your facts and noting references when necessary is always good too. Because even what we do here can be called into question if we ‘internalize’ someone else’s work.

Here is another link which tells about this latest uproar in the publishing world.
Link

Comments (Page 1)

Moderateman

on May 03, 2006

some of us write life stories AS FICTION.

Ms Mitchell

on May 03, 2006

I learned an interesting thing tutoring international students. "Intellectual property" is an American idea.
I would be seriously livid if someone had plagiarized my work. An Asian scholar might be intensely flattered that a reader "got it".
I also had a friend in high school who had music running through his head. He stayed up all night getting it onto staff paper. He played it for his parents (both music teachers)they looked at him and said, "That's great honey, but Bach wrote it first."

Ms Mitchell

on May 03, 2006

some of us write life stories AS FICTION.

Protect the innocent, camouflage the guilty, avoid being sued and protect myself from memories that are a little too raw.

foreverserenity

on May 03, 2006

Reply By: ModeratemanPosted: Wednesday, May 03, 2006some of us write life stories AS FICTION.

That's interesting! I guess that would be the best thing to do so as not to copy from someone else.

Ms. Mitchell:

"Intellectual property" is an American idea.

Really?! I didn't realize that. I guess we had to come up with that to protect what is ours. I wonder though if someone from the outside did infringe on those rights, if a court in another country would uphold those rights?

Reply By: Ms. MitchellPosted: Wednesday, May 03, 2006some of us write life stories AS FICTION.Protect the innocent, camouflage the guilty, avoid being sued and protect myself from memories that are a little too raw.

I guess that is a good way of looking at it if one chose to do this. I guess this is where 'semi-autobiographical' comes in?

foreverserenity

on May 03, 2006

Reply By: little-whipPosted: Wednesday, May 03, 2006Preach it, woman! I despise plagiarism in all forms, and have been the victim of it several times in regards to my poetry.

Well that sucks! Did anything ever come of it after you found out?

I've caught a few people on JU doing it too, even to the point of accepting COMPLIMENTS for stuff they didn't write. When busted, they usually offer some lame-assed excuse like..."err, i forgot to include the byline."Yeah, right. Just like they also 'forgot' every time someone told 'em "kick ass article, dude!" (I'm not referring to poor ol' Lucas, either. You'd be surprised at the PROMINENT bloggers I've caught doing this.)If it were me, I'd have been so shamed I'd have never shown my face around here again. But nope, they just deleted the evidence and carried on, eventually most people forget about it.But I don't.

Yes, it can be easily done by anyone. I'm amazed at your sharp memory lady!

And now they have a new excuse, lmao @ "internalizing." Line for line? I don't think so. Grrrrr!

That's a good one isn't it?! Internalizing, what's next?!

"That's great honey, but Bach wrote it first

Oh yes, that was funny what Ms. Mitchell wrote, I forgot to mention that!

Dr Guy

on May 03, 2006

Plagarism is bad, but honest mistakes can and have been made. I am sure this is one of them.

foreverserenity

on May 03, 2006

Reply By: Dr. GuyPosted: Wednesday, May 03, 2006Plagarism is bad, but honest mistakes can and have been made.

True, honest mistakes have happened.

I am sure this is one of them.

What's this Doc?

Gideon MacLeish

on May 03, 2006

I wrote about this on another of my blog sites. When I was younger, I tended to borrow pretty heavily. The difference is, I didn't attempt to publish any of those works.

While I could equally claim to have "internalized" those passages, as I did not copy directly from the text at hand, I KNEW the sources of all of those borrowed passages. I believe in my case, those writing exercises made me a stronger and better writer. To that end they were immensely rewarding. But you will not find them among any of my currently archived works because, put simply, they were not mine.

The young lady in question HAD to have known she was plagiarizing. She's hiding behind the pretense of "internalizing", because, not only is a book deal at stake, but so is her academic career, as plagiarism is pretty near the only unforgivable sin in the academic community.

Trudygolightly

on May 03, 2006

Protect the innocent, camouflage the guilty, avoid being sued and protect myself from memories that are a little too raw

insightful! thank you! a lesson for the learning!

great article forever! and I'm lovin that game too!

foreverserenity

on May 03, 2006

I believe in my case, those writing exercises made me a stronger and better writer. To that end they were immensely rewarding.

This is good for you Gid but not many will say that they learned from it or will even admit that they did it. But that's great you did!

But you will not find them among any of my currently archived works because, put simply, they were not mine.

Honesty is good. You didn't use it for anyting else but your growth as you said.

Exactly! She seems to be a smart lady, I wonder why she did it? Using the "internaliaing" is such a cop out!

great article forever! and I'm lovin that game too!

Thanks Trudy! The game, yes, Rose (InBloom) did that! I enjoyed playing it too. I haven't done it today though!

Dr Guy

on May 03, 2006

Reply By: little-whip

No attribution. No mention of the author. No link. Are you saying it was not a mistake? I was giving you the benefit of the doubt. But if you are now trying to excuse it, well, I suggest you go back and reread your original post. You just did exactly what you claimed others of doing.

foreverserenity

on May 03, 2006

Dr G, I didn't mention names here, but since you seem to want to play with me, lets do it.

Doc and Whip, please play nice. You know she has to and will defend herself Doc! Let's just let this be water under the bridge, ok? Don't let me have to put anyone in the corner!

foreverserenity

on May 03, 2006

Now, lets quit polluting FS's thread, shall we? You are not on my blacklist and I have provided a place just for this sort of shit, the article is called 'Unfinished Business.'

Thank you! And yes, Doc, I agree with Whip here. Since you have some unfinished business it would be good to clear the air on that blog don't you think?

emailed the offenders, but got no response of course. One of them did take the poem down, though. The other one...lets just say their entire site went bye-bye, and I have no IDEA how that happened! (innocent grin)

Ahhhh....I guess they got what they deserve then!

crimson

on May 03, 2006

I read somewhere that 'no thought is original'. I automatically quoted it, because I'm sure somebody famous must've said it.

I include titles of stories, phrases of songs, and lines from popular television shows in my articles all the time and no one calls me on it. I could probably back 'em up if asked, but nobody's ever.

But, I've also written short stories or poems, and sometimes well-known lines have found their way into my own stuff. Typically, any good editor would catch it. Problem with the 'net is that not many people have their own editors. It's amazing what the subconcious stores.

It's also amazing that people will deliberately claim things that aren't their own, too, I guess.

Excellent article. After reading about the girl and her book deal that has now fallen through, I was actually going to write an article like this, and also mention James Frey's debacle. Pure coincidence though, no?

Tova7

on May 03, 2006

I like to write fiction. Just for fun and to try and create something out of nothing.

I go so opposite of plagiarism that I paint myself into a corner. For instance, I have to make up new species because I don't want to be accused of writing an elf, dwarf, dragon story that was written by someone I've never heard of.

I will use them, but I always wonder, "has this been done already?" But I am learning to just get over it. It's not a matter of has it been done, but has it been done MY way? hehe.

Great article.

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