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Plagiarism Most writers don’t consider Plagiarism to be a major problem for them. If they don’t take another author’s work and copy it or paraphrase it directly, than plagiarism isn’t an issue. At least that is a common thought. Plagerism however con be a lot subtler than the author realizes. From birth to adulthood the average individual is bombarded with stories, personal stories from friends and relatives, books of all sorts, to the average one hour drama seen on the Television. All of this can have an impact on the author’s creativity. When a writer begins to frame out a narrative in their minds and put the characters together into a story, he or she must be doubly aware that the story they are telling is not a reconstruction of one already told. By all means the writer should write from the heart and follow the path the characters lead, but when the end is near, it is time to reflect on the story. Does it sound familiar? Have these characters lived before in another book? If they have, then it is time to alter the story to fit a new and original theme. At a leading preparatory school in Florida, encyclopedias are strictly forbidden. If a student paper resembled any summary of an encyclopedia, the paper is immediately failed. This may sound harsh, but the instructors are teaching a valuable point. The students need to research their topic using a variety of sources, and the end result must be their original thought. A concept based on footnoted sources from many different mediums. Plagiarism is also a legal issue. The writer must be sure that any and all facts or quotations from other sources are recognized with a footnote or written permission. To use another’s work without their permission can open the author up to legal ramifications. When researching any project, the writer can unintentionally state a theory or fact, thinking it is an original thought and not realizing until it is too late that the idea was stolen from another source without recognition. It came from something they had read previously and forgotten. Another problem during nonfiction production is an author can spend so much time quoting other authors that the reader may wonder why they are reading this book and maybe they should read the cited works. Before I wrote this article, I did my research on the subject. I perused internet articles, and read other source material. When any writer sits down to write a non fiction piece, there must be research involved. Even fiction writers need to be accurate when describing places in time and historical events. The key is to know when the line is crossed from factual referencing research about a subject to plagiarism. A good way to keep the line clear is to realize that any reprint of another person’s ideas whether fact basted of in a fictional plot is considered plagiarism. The writer is just rephrasing another persons thought. If the piece is nonfiction and the material is fact based then it must be noted in the book where this information came from. All non fiction books have end notes or a bibliography citing all the sources used. These sources can be used when the author needs them to support his or her original idea. In a fiction book, the key is to look at the plot and the dialogue of the book and make sure it represents an original concept. It would be impossible for a fiction book not at least in some ways vaguely resemble the plot of another work. The author most be aware than any similarity in characters and plot must be minor. When writing a manuscript or an article, the author must keep two things in mind. Any factual piece of research must be noted in the bibliography and appropriate credit given to the original author. Also, the main concept or story line must be their original thought, not a paraphrased idea of another author. If all work is held up to those standards then the author is safe from the pitfalls of plagiarism. By: Jennifer Dixon, ABP Editor.
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