ON PLAGIARISM: Politics and Authorship

Owen Lippert, a speech-writer for Canadian Prime Minister, has resigned after he was accused of plagiarism in a speech he made in 2003. Now, Mr. Lippert has not only lost his job; he also hurt his credibility. He also has hurt the credibility of Prime Minister Stephen Harper (BBC Online News, Oct. 1, 2008).

Plagiarism is a willful used of somebody else's literary work and producing it as one's original work. Even though, many students could have been practicing plagiarism when writing their term papers, there have been overzealous professional writers, who also have been stealing somebody's work.

Here are some authors and politician listed in Wikipedia, Free Online Encyclopedia.

Barack Obama's Vice Presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden, was forced out of the Presidential race in 1988 after it was discovered that parts of his speeches were copied from the speeches of British Labour Party leaders, Robert Kennedy and Neil Kinnock.

Helen Keller, the famous American author of The Miracle Worker" who became deaf and blind when she was 19-month old due to an acute illness, was accused of plagiarism in 1892. It was alleged that she copied part of Margaret T. Canby's story The Frost Fairies for her short story "The Frost Kings". Fortunately, she was acquitted by a single vote.

In 2006, Kaavya Viswanathan, a Harvard University student and budding author of How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life, was also accused of plagiarism for copying passages from at least five novels. She started working on her novel when she was just a high school student in New Jersey. Then, while at Harvard, she completed her novel, got a book deal with Little, Brown and Co. and a film deal with Dreamworks SKG, and received $500,000. royalty advance fee. Consequently, the books were withdrawn before they were officially sold in bookstores, the deal rescinded, the film was canceled, and her name completely tarnished.

Plagiarism is not a grievous offense as copyright infringement when it comes to legal action; however, it is as grievous as the latter when it comes to one's name and personal ambition. Therefore, students, politicians, and budding authors must take precaution when working on their manuscripts.

The Owl At Purdue (Sep. 30, 2008), an online writing help published by Purdue University listed some ways to avoid plagiarism.

1. Give proper citation when copying (and pasting) somebody's work to your manuscript.
2. If you got an idea from what you have read, do not copy it as is. Rather, use that idea to write a topic related to it, but make it something new and original.
3. Before writing the manuscript, interview experts and authorities on the topic. Then, should you decide to quote them, give them the credit; however, don't just stop there. You have to express your thoughts if you are for or against their thoughts.
4. It is also important that you have to learn how to use your own words and your own style of expressing your thoughts.

When I am reading something and happen to see something that makes me say "AHA!", I usually copy it down, including the title of the book, the publisher, the date of the publication, and the page where I found that sentence or paragraph. These would help me with my citation later, if ever I would use it somewhere in my own manuscript. Nevertheless, I don't stop there. I always try to probe the author's point, trying to rationalize it based on what I believe in. Then, underneath that quotation, I write a highlighted word, MINE!, to express my thoughts on the idea and possibly an original idea that has sprung in my mind.

Please write and copy safe.