Comments on: Is this plagiarism?

By: nolahn

nolahn — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 17:35:57 +0000

Long Answer:
I could see a situation where, when writing about something highly technical — not socks — one might use a block of text from another source… which should be cited clearly and approriately within the body of writing.

But that’s a stretch. What you had here, Joe, is capital-P Plagiarism.

Short Answer:
F’ that guy.

By: paulo

paulo — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:10:34 +0000

Blatant plagiarism!

By: Rachael

Rachael — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:15:32 +0000

Holy crap. Do they teach journalism in journalism schools today? That is terrible. And lazy. You should set up a Google alert for his byline and every time he plagiarizes someone (which is pretty easy to figure out, again thanks to The Google), you should rat him out.

Or her. Either way. Rat out!

By: B TO THE JAY

B TO THE JAY — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:00:07 +0000

he doth. to totally doth.

i’ve had experience where interviewees give canned responses, and you think “i’ve heard that before,” so it’s not impossible that they’d give him the same response. but his lazy emailing suggests he probably used the google machine, not a costly international phone call to get his information. and the fact that it was so prevalent in the article is particularly damning.

“you’re fired,” donald trump (see how i attributed that quote?)

By: Casey

Casey — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:54:48 +0000

I can sympathize with the idea of writing about something that has a limited amount info to cover therefore causing some over lap, if you can’t even change the wording of articles you are stealing from that is just lazy and seems like the opposite of what a “writer” should be able to do.

By: David

David — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:53:48 +0000

Early in my career (very early), I wrote a frivolous little column about high school sports team names (lots of Panthers and Lions, etc.) in the area I was working. A week later, I happened to look at another weekly in the area, and saw my column presented verbatim by another writer. I called him. He said something like, “Well, it’s in the public record.” I told him if he didn’t want it on his record, it shouldn’t happen again.
Several years passed. I was now at another paper, and the same guy applied for a job there — and essentially (and foolishly) offered me as a reference in his cover letter. When the editor asked, I told him about the column plagerism. Needless to say, he wasn’t hired.
People who do this kind of stuff find ways to justify it, or just don’t think it’s a big deal. Stay away from them.

By: silver

silver — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 20:12:24 +0000

You’re absolutely right, Joe, and wow, that writer has balls. Evil balls, but balls nonetheless. Good thing you know never to work with them again, I guess.