Do you ever worry that you might have committed plagiarism in your work? It can happen innocently enough. In researching something for your WIP, perhaps you quickly copied word-for-word from some source material. But when it came time to utilize your notes, you forgot you did this and just dropped chunks, unchanged, into your manuscript.
Perhaps you’re reading another book and notice a similar passage. Or you're watching a show on TV and hear familiar words come out of the characters’ mouths. Will your neighbors begin snickering as you pass through the aisles of the supermarket?
Accidentally using research notes unaltered isn’t a sin. It’s a mistake, and it’s one that more than a few writers make. And writing something similar to what’s in another book or in a movie or TV show is unavoidable. After all, there are only so many believable ways to present certain situations or conversations.
But if you do plagiarize, or skate dangerously close to it, whose responsibility is it to catch it before your material is published? Whose responsibility is it to correct it?
Ann M. Marble, an editor by day and romance reviewer and writer at night, discusses plagiarism and writers’ and editors’ responsibilities in an excellent column posted Monday at All About Romance. The website is for romance writers and readers, but the article applies to all types of writing—fiction, nonfiction, long, short, romance, mystery, what-have-you. You can find the article here.
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8 comments:
Elaine- Thanks for posting on this timely subject, especially as lots of us- myself included- use outside material in our research.
Thanks to Laura, I've been following the Cassie Edwards fiasco since early on. I do agree with your Back Fence blogger that ultimately, it must be the author's responsibility (and disgrace) even if editors enhance their checking mechanisms.
Best of all, you've offered a perfect place to put a link to a related (and hilarious!) Newsweek article that Laura also forwarded. It's by Paul Tolme, whose distinctly unromantic, ferret-y reportage was appropriated to bodice-ripping purpose and (mostly) to the nature writer's amusement.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/94543
The recycle bags of newspaper that I put out last night are gone now. But somewhere in one of those bags was a NEWSDAY article about college profs being called to attention concerning their use of internet material in their classroom without sufficient regard to copyright laws.
The article didn't give me a solid grounding on copyrights for internet-specific pieces, but I would assume that what applies to writing applies whether it's posted on the internet or residing in my computer.
Hope that message made sense! Plagiarism is one of my hot button topics. And one of my biggest fears is that I'll mess up sometime and unintentionally slide other people's work into mine.
I assume your question of who is responsible for catching the OOPS is going to flow down stream and end up in the writer's lap. The person least supported and least able to hire a great attorney sounds like a likely victim.
Ok, now I'll go read the article!
And don't forget to buy the t-shirt... http://www.cafepress.com/ciaralira.215043958
But seriously, plagiarism is a particular peeve of mine, stemming from an incident when I was in 7th grade and was accused of it. The thing is, the teacher couldn't figure out where I'd plagiarized from. Because I *hadn't.* She thought my ideas were too sophisticated. She didn't take into account that as a first generation American, I had a different (not necessarily better or worse, but different) base of knowledge than most of my classmates. My father is Dutch, and world politics were standard dinner table fare.
Since then, I've been very wary whenever someone claims that their "story was stolen" or their "ideas were stolen." But when *words* are stolen, as they were in this case, it's obvious, and infuriating.
When I taught Freshman Comp, one of the first things I told my students was that I would know if they plagiarized. I would know because the passages--or, in some cases, the whole paper--would not be in their "voice." (And, indeed, that's how I found out when they tried it.) Should a good editor recognize the switch in voice? Sure. Actually, should a good editor go "this is badly written and takes you right out of the scene," as some of Edwards' plagiarized passages do? You betcha. But it's not his/her job to go looking for plagiarism. S/he isn't a high school or college English teacher.
Authors--regardless of their genre--are expected to be professionals. That's the bottom line. Accidents do happen and, as Elaine notes, there are a limited number of ways to present certain situations. I hope that most other authors would understand that, and that if, for example, a certain building's security described in my book was too similar to one in someone else's, they'd say "oh, well, if you want high security, you need all those things."
But in the Edwards case, the plagiarism was clearly not a "mistake." It was a practice, a habit that no one caught for ages. And one that Signet at first tried to rationalize, which was what blew it from a small scandal into an enormous one. (Signet's response, and, for those interested, the definition of the difference between plagiarism and copyright infringement, can be found on the Smart Bitches, Trashy Books website, along with a (growing) list of the plagiarized passages.)
OK, shutting up now. Sorry, Clare, who's listened to me rant about this topic for weeks now.
Nan- You reminded me that my teenage brother is encouraged to use the internet for essay background, and that gets into the whole issue of even finding the original source and making sure it's authoritative. Yet another can of worms. NationalEnquirer.com may not be where you want to grab biographical material, for example, even if you cite the URL.
Laura- I've enjoyed the updates. A little Schadenfreude at work, I admit, but I've always been scrupulous about attribution and I, too, have been falsely accused of "influence" that didn't exist and couldn't be concretely demonstrated.
Still, my sense of justice likes to see people who take the unethical way out (like churning 6 bleh books/year by clumsily extracting the marrow from other authors' hard work) being caught and pilloried. Now where did I leave my flaming pitchfork?
I work/write in a field where there is only so many ways to say something. I'm very concerned about appearing to copy someone else's work, but how many ways can I write the side effects of a pain medication or what the long-term complications of diabetes are.
That being said, for stuff that is less formulaic, I have no time or patience for plagiarism.
When I was editing for a health site, I was shocked at how many health writers would just copy and paste into their articles. If I sent them back for a rewrite, no apologies, no "oh my!", nothing.
Hi, I'm Elizabeth in Cincinnati, a Mom, an accountant and a writer, mostly in that order. Laura, your comment about a "change of voice" within a piece struck a chord with me. When I wrote my as yet unpublished and unedited novel two years ago, I cut and pasted excerpts from my journal or from other short stories into the base story of my novel. It didn't work for the very reason you describe. It changed the sound of my voice. I realize that plagiarizing oneself is not illegal, but upon re-reading the passage it certainly seemed unethical...to the reader though, not the writer. :-)
I have noticed postings on other blogs that just don't sound like the voice the blogger usually uses, googled the passage, and sure enough, it came from somewhere else.
Cool blog, ladies.
Elaine, thank you for the invitation to peruse your site. We have another connection, although I've never met you. Your husband was my ex-husband's best man...but I bet you already know that.
Does anyone care to comment on invasion of privacy issues as they relate to blogging?
Sigh.
Betty (aka Elizabeth)
Yup, knew that, hence the semi-anonymous post. ;) Write to me off-blog: ewsparber@womenofmystery.net.
I'm not sure what you mean by "invasion of privacy issues at they relate to blogging." Whenever you publish something, whether it's in the traditional sense or on a blog, you open yourself up to unwanted attention by annoying or dangerous people. Odd as it sounds, a lot of romance writers find themselves "stalked" by prisoners. This is one of the reasons a lot of writers use pseudonyms--to protect themselves. It's also why publishers have fans send their letters to the publisher, who then forward the mail to the author.
When you put yourself out there, which is what you do when you publish something, you need to expect this. I'm not saying it will definitely happen, but it does come with the territory. This is especially true with blogging, where you share your truly personal thoughts.
As far as the law is concerned, my understanding is that blogging is just another type of media. All the same laws that apply to books, newspapers, TV, etc., apply to blogs--e.g., copyright, plagiarism, libel. Many even apply to email.
I FINALLY got around to finishing an article on this topic and appreciated your take on the subject.
http://criminalbrief.com/?p=812
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