Student author accused of plagiarism
As much as I am for the individuals who write their own works, I have to stand up for this young girl... Now I know that she most obviously stole work from the other author, but I doubt she ever expected this book to be published.
Let me backtrack. This 19 year old author attending Harvard wrote a novel at seventeen. The novel was most obviously based on the work of the author she has plagarized. I can clearly remember writing stories that mimic the work of my favorite writers. In fact, that's where writing style comes from. I'm sure you've heard of writing in a romantic style, or a shakespearean style, or a dickensian style. It all had to come from somewhere, and in two of those three cases, the author got the credit.
Now writing in that style doesn't mean stealing word for word, and DEFINITELY doesn't mean just changing a name here or there to make it look good. Writing in a style means to construct a piece and have it be slightly plausable that the creator of the style could have written the piece. In this case, the girl lost that option once she used the "Hot pink playboy bunny tube top"
If you follow the links to the Harvard page, you can take a look at the quotes that have "similarities." I use that term loosely because similarities is actually exact quotes taken from the previous book. I won't lie and say I haven't used a quote directly from a source, but we aren't talking about a research paper and we aren't talking about a book with foot notes for every quote... Hell, when another book makes up about 75% of your book, I think it's time to analyze your writing ability.
But again, I think that it's time for someone to stand up for the girl who wrote the plagarizing book. At 19 years old, I've written a lot of stuff. I never expect to be published. This is the closest I get to someone reading my work. So when she wrote her book, she was more than likely doing it for herself. She knew she plagarized, she just probably went with the flow and wanted the money and fame. So forgive her.... take it from a poor college kid... money and fame is all we want.
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I agree. I think when a person seeks to mimic a certain writing style, some confusion of HOW to execute it properly arises. From simply writing an essay or even a novel, like that girl, people usually blame the student and demand consequences. Personally, I had that problem with an essay before, but it was simply a matter of citation, I didn't cite properly. But, I fixed it. Either way, people don't see the "fixing" part, they just remember, "Hey, that's the girl who plagarized" and think less of you even though they might have done it as well. Forgiveness is key and those who fail to acknowledge this are really missing out.
I disagree. I'm sure that she had no idea that it would be come such a huge issue, and that she probably thought that she was paraphrasing enough (though, obviously not).
However, she had full intentions of publishing this book. It was written for publication under a contract that she was given during High School. In fact, the movie rights to the book were already sold (the buyer's name alludes me at the moment). What she did wrong was not checking with her publisher/the other author on whether how she wrote her phrases were distinctive enough to not count as plagarism.
Thank you for that info. I didn't know that. I guess I should do more research before I post from now on....
If she hadn't had a contract ahead of time, my argument would work...
Thanks again for setting me straight!
Librarians are the secret masters of the world. They control information. Don't ever piss one off.
~Spider Robinson
Yes, I am a Librarian
She should be punished as far as the law allows. I'm a big fan of Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings, and it's obvious that she was plagiarizing when the quotes are put next to each other. For example, the phrase "170 specialty stores" is used by both authors.
Why should we pity the girl? I doubt she is so incredibly stupid to not realize that taking passages from other books "just because she wants to immitate a particular style of writing" (and I do not buy that argument at all) violates the most sacred intellectual property law out there. I'd say she knew full well what she was doing and that it was wrong. All she does is change a few names and maybe reverse the order of one or two words just so you cannot Google the phrase and figure out it comes from another book. Even if "Opal Mehta" began as a "fairly innocuous" essay written for a college boot camp training her on how to get into Harvard (something I also have a major problem with), it makes her deed no less horrible and no less an infringement of the law. I think it's just better to let those who thought they were so high and mighty fall and deal with the consequences of their actions.
Well, what she did was obviously wrong and stupid of her. She must have known she would get caught. People are so dumb sometimes...
I think that many of you have missed my point. What I was saying was that if she HADN'T been writing for a contract or a "Get into Harvard" class, then chances are good that she was writing the paper for self fulfillment, and NOT to be published. At the time that I wrote the piece, I hadn't realized she was writing for publish when she did write it... I'm not saying don't punish her... I'm just saying that I don't think there would have been those motives if she were like any other teenage girl.
Librarians are the secret masters of the world. They control information. Don't ever piss one off.
~Spider Robinson
Yes, I am a Librarian
I completely agree with the notion of hands-on punishment for the girl, not only because of legal reason but due to moral ones as well.
To me, the problem with the situation wasn't the palgarizing in itself, since I see it as an outcome of a a much broader problem- the fact that the writing progress was a contract, as if creation is a business. Granted, in today's world everything must be ultimately marketed to an audience and sold. But there is a limit on how constructed an idea can be. Writing is not like "connect the dots" where someone just fills in the blanks presented to them by some large publishing company (and especially not fill them with something previously written elsewhere by someone else!).
The Harvard girl who was probably thrilled with the idea of being published so young and all the consequences it would bring to her reputation did not for a second believe she was intended to actually write this book herself, so she decided she might as well make those parts that were hers coincidently similar to those of a different writer.
That's about as creative writing as does the author of the ipod instructions manual we all have at home..
To paraphrase someone: "You steal ideas from one source and that's called plagiarism. You steal ideas from many sources and that's called research."
I'm pretty sure I've heard that somewhere. It's incomplete though: in paraphrasing, you draw a new conclusion from those stolen ideas.
If the girl was writing under contract, then she should've known better and reviewed her work before publication (or her editors should've noticed?)
If it was for self-fulfillment, as someone mentioned earlier, then it's fine.
I don't think she should be punished to the fullest extent of the law because it may have been an honest mistake on her part. She should still be punished to deter others from doing the same thing, however.
Yes, us poor college kids out there need something!
I see your side but I think she thought she could easily get away with it and went on her happy way with all the fame she got as only a sophomore in college. Based off of the articles I have read, I think that the fact that she doesn't seem sincerely apologetic for plagiarizing means that she would have done it again if she had the chance. I have no sympathy for her, at all.
plagarism is plagarism., just like if you rob a bank or you rob a super market it doesnt matter you still robbed. i mean yeah the girl wasnt expecting her stuff to get poublished so why did she put it out in the first place. All the blame is on her now. If you write a book it should be your own thoughts and ideas, not someone elses.
you are all nuts she should be banished from the planet