We're discussing plagiarism and prevention methods here on the blog. What do you think are some interesting and effective ways of preventing plagiarism in the future? Do we need to create more assignments that focus on citation methods and attribution? Or are there other lessons we can teach?
We would like to hear your thoughts on the subject.
We would like to hear your thoughts on the subject.
4 comments:
Giving people credit for what they have written is a simple issue of respect.
While I agree with the young author in Germany that nothing is new, she misses the point by just lifting entire passages from another's work. All she would have to do is have her character say they read the book she's stealing from and then quote it -- or just mention its title. For an example of an author who does this well, she should read Stephen Chbosky's _Perks of Being a Wallflower_.
Just because something is fiction doesn't mean that it's just okay to steal it. She shows a lack of respect by presenting materials as her own that are so clearly not. Hopefully she'll get sued. Money is a motivator, even if morality is not.
Excellent points, Amy. This specific example is, in a way, a form of laziness. There's no excuse for not putting the quotes or passages in some context so the reader knows they have been borrowed.
I wonder if some fiction writers feel they have more of a license to plagiarize than non-fiction writers.
That could be the case. And since there are very few basic plots -- boy meets girl (or boy meets boy or girl meets girl, etc), good versus evil, rite of passage, etc, maybe authors feel that fictional work is derivative anyway. But that would seem to diminish the whole endeavor of writing fiction. And if fiction writers want to be taken seriously (and win awards), they need to create something new, even if it is out of somethign old.
Neil Gaiman, for example, recently won the Newbery for a retelling of _The Jungle Book_, set in a graveyard. He never hid the fact that the story was from Kipling (who probably got his idea somewhwere else, too), but it was the way he wrote it that made it notable -- if he had just lifted entire pages from the original, people would most likely have not been as thrilled with the book.
However, maybe in a world of lazy readers, lazy writers fit right in?
"The Graveyard Book" is a great example, Amy. Thanks for sharing that!
Post a Comment