Plagiarists Lose By Their Takings
Last week, one of our regular letter writers committed a literary crime: plagiarism.
This person’s letter, submitted via e-mail, was well written and appeared to meet our basic requirements. An effort was made to verify authorship by calling the contributor, our standard procedure with all letters we use.
Only when a copy editor was proofing the page for publication was that letter recognized as one that had been circulating on the Internet for several weeks.
In follow-up e-mail correspondence with this writer, who admitted to the offense and was quite apologetic and embarrassed, the writer told us other unoriginal pieces had appeared on the letters page.
Regrettably, this is true. Other people have pulled off this trick without getting caught until after the fact. But that does not make it OK. Our letters page is intended to be a forum for original ideas. We even frown on heavy quotations within letters.
Particularly troublesome is the fact our latest plagiarist has the education and background to know that plagiarism is a no-no. Moreover, this person is in a position to lead others by example.
Webster’s New World Dictionary defines the offense this way: Plagiarize To take ideas, writings, etc., from another and pass them off as one’s own.
J. C. Hodges and M. E. Whitten, in the Harbrace College Handbook (8th Edition, 1977), describe plagiarism this way: “If you fail to acknowledge borrowed material, then you are plagiarizing. Plagiarism is literary theft.” They break it down into three types: Using someone else’s exact words and not putting them in quotation marks; taking information from someone else and not citing the source; and paraphrasing information in a way that too closely resembles the original.
It could be argued that no one is harmed by such action. Had we published that letter writer’s submission, the original writer probably wouldn’t have suffered from it. By posting it on the Internet, the real author might have even hoped for such exposure, credited or not. Regardless, plagiarism is wrong.
In the world of academia, it’s entirely too easy (and perhaps common) for students to go online and actually obtain prewritten term papers. Such an offense can result in a failing grade.
Certainly there are worse crimes than word theft. Consider, though, that what may begin as a simple act, devoid of malice, may have far-reaching consequences. For example, in his new book, “Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous,” Don Foster reveals evidence that the “Night Before Christmas” was actually written by Revolutionary War veteran Major Henry Livingston in 1823, rather than Clement Clarke Moore, as everyone has believed.
Plagiarism is a pointless waste of one’s own voice.