I was unlucky enough this weekend to be caught with my trousers down.A reader to my last blog, let’s just call her L commented that I had more or less copied from her article and just changed the wording a bit.
Fair dos! I’ve committed the classic of writers’ sins – plagiarism. Who hasn’t at one time or another? Well, it is January and far too early in the year to be exercising my tired quartz and dipping into the deep wells of my quirky imagination for originality. L suggested that at least I should have cited the source.
I have no Qualms with that and in fact have taken the liberty to go a step further by taking away the ghastly plagiarized text and replaced it entirely with the original work in quotes. The bits that I didn’t plagiarize I’ve left as it is so that at least I can show my half-wit in all its glory.
L commented anonymously and claimed to be the author of the original work. I consider it Quite unlikely that L was the author of the work in question with good intuitive reasoning. Far more likely is that the anonymous reader had clicked on one of my feeds on the front page and came across the article I used for the blog. I strongly suspect also that she is on my friends list and had recently heaped praised for me.
All I can say is sorry L whoever you may actually be…I won’t do it again… promise… well not exactly promise actually but I will be more careful next time at least to ensure what I do has more of the me-ness than of the writer from whom I may source the material.
My good friend Albert Einstein (more about him in a later blog) said:
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
It seems then that if Albert is honest enough to admit to some plagiarizing and get away with it then I ought not to hang my head too lowly in shame.
And what about the Bard? Here’s a man from whom I take great inspiration. Did he not commit plagiarism? According to Michael J Cummings he didn’t – Did Shakespeare Plagiarize? But that is just his opinion. The Bard was like you and me, ordinarily human. In his day, his plays didn’t have anything like the fame that they enjoy today.
Since I’m a nearly extinct dodo anyway and probably carrying some kind of avian flu – then watch out if you should dare to point out my faults! I might just plague-rise YOU!!
did you receive personal gain and/or were there any royalties stiffed in this heroic effort of yours to borrow something from a friend on your List and repost it so that all of us leftBrained RightThinkers could appreciate it more than what was obviously NOT noteworthy enuf 2 repost the original????
its kinda like she wrote the book and you are writing the script for the movie!
i think U Rock, you PlagueRizing Bird Phlue U!
I agree with you Annwyl.
I do this Yahoo blogging in the name of fun, to share interesting things, and sometimes to add my flavour / humour / wit to it. I work full time and certainly do not have the time to work on an individual masterpiece of originality that shines in smartness and is outrageously funny. I'm not in the league of professional writers for the time being. I'm here to have fun and to try. To practice, gain experience and to learn from others.
You've plaguerised me with your bird-love!! :-P
Thursday 18 January 2007 - 11:13AM (GMT)
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