Plagarist caught

[Lucifer_Carroll]

What gets me the when you look at the source material, all the author was able to add was massive suck. The original is much more tightly written. Hmmm, I see a career here.

One sec while I make Hemmingway novels even more unbearable to read.

 

[rosco rathbone]

Here's another good story about a plagiarist getting theirs: http://www.nypress.com/18/48/news&columns/RobertClarkYoung.cfm

 

[sophia jane]

Interesting article:
http://www.slate.com/id/2140683/

 

[Pure]

nice to see a plagiarist get a penalty, for once. will not happen to Ms V at Harvard.

 

[Pure]

Hi Sophia,

Doing a little extra reading on this cuz I was interested in the whole story. Evidently she used a ghostwriting company to "help" her. Kinda makes me wonder who actually did the plagarism- her or the ghostwriters. But then again, maybe all of the plagarism was her and everything else was the ghostwriters. Either way, it sucks.

That's interesting. Ghost writers often have dubious ethics, at least the ones who write for students, knowing the student will misrepresent the product as his/her own. BUT, the lazy dishonest ghost will often screw the dishonest student by plagiarizing-- it's quick to copy and adjust than to write fresh material. I think it's neat: The person buying the paper is too stupid to know original material in carrying out his/her scheme, and he or she gets shafted by the ghost who likewise cheats.

 

[sophia jane]

That's interesting. Ghost writers often have dubious ethics, at least the ones who write for students, knowing the student will misrepresent the product as his/her own. BUT, the lazy dishonest ghost will often screw the dishonest student by plagiarizing-- it's quick to copy and adjust than to write fresh material. I think it's neat: The person buying the paper is too stupid to know original material in carrying out his/her scheme, and he or she gets shafted by the ghost who likewise cheats.

I understand what you mean, and there is a kind of justice in that kind of thing, particularly if the "writer"/student gets caught. In this case, I think it's interesting because unless someone confesses and tells the whole story, it's impossible to know who exactly was the one who stole the material in the first place. It's obvious that the author had help, in many forms apparently, but who the original plagariser is will probably stay a mystery. Kinda makes me wish I were a fly on the wall, so I could know the whole scoop.
Actually- that's a good book idea.

 

[eric shawn listo]

Let's not forget the publishers who wanted to make a star out of an attractive young girl and didn't do their home work...Antother example of what a racket the publishing world is...

 

[elfin_odalisque]

No, it doesn't suck - it just shows she is as naive as a 19 year-old would be. If Dreamworks is pushing a half-mill down your throat as a sophomore at Harvard, then you listen. My brother is in the same Hasty Pudding club as her and (despite a jealousy at the riches) they are still batting for her. If it was palgiarism they would have pulled the print - bit they haven't.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

No, it doesn't suck - it just shows she is as naive as a 19 year-old would be. If Dreamworks is pushing a half-mill down your throat as a sophomore at Harvard, then you listen. My brother is in the same Hasty Pudding club as her and (despite a jealousy at the riches) they are still batting for her. If it was plagiarism they would have pulled the print - but they haven't.

 

[sophia jane]

No, it doesn't suck - it just shows she is as naive as a 19 year-old would be. If Dreamworks is pushing a half-mill down your throat as a sophomore at Harvard, then you listen. My brother is in the same Hasty Pudding club as her and (despite a jealousy at the riches) they are still batting for her. If it was plagiarism they would have pulled the print - but they haven't.

Actually they did pull it; they've stopped shipping it and have recalled all unsold copies. Supposedly, they're going to "revise" the portions that were plagarized.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

I just hope there's a Free Speech contest this year - you guys make decisions without ever bothering with the facts.

 

[elfin_odalisque]

SJ, that's new and I accept it. The girl is a nice person (I can assure you) but got way out of her depth. If you want to do the Ivy League, money counts - the girll got caught up in a corporate nightmare.

By the way, the book is not that bad.

 

[togitc]

SJ, that's new and I accept it. The girl is a nice person (I can assure you) but got way out of her depth. If you want to do the Ivy League, money counts - the girll got caught up in a corporate nightmare.

By the way, the book is not that bad.

Have you written a book lately? Just by chance does it need certain revisions?

 

[Pure]

Right Sophia, note to Elfin

It's being pulled. The real author's publisher got after hers. It will be off the shelves in the bookstores and returned. Supposedly there will be revisions.

Irony: The book will be rare, and already fetches $100/copy!

Note to Elfin:

I'm sure she's nice, just go in over her head. I must remain agnostic about her literary ability, though I just read of another plagiarist, Epstein that went on to write several successful TV series (LAPD Blue, iirc?)

Of course the book is 'not bad'!--look at its prototype!--Just the title, Sloppy Firsts (the first book) makes me want to read it.

McCafferty's third book is appearing, and I hope she benefits from the publicity.

 

[Pure]

Ms. V has been a busy little bee

A Second Ripple in Plagiarism Scandal


By DINITIA SMITH and MOTOKO RICH

Published: May 2, 2006

Fresh passages in the novel by a Harvard sophomore, whose book was pulled from stores last week after she acknowledged plagiarizing portions of it, appear to be copied from a second author.


At least three portions in the book, "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life," by Kaavya Viswanathan, bear striking similarities to writing in "Can You Keep a Secret?," a chick-lit novel by Sophie Kinsella.

The New York Times was alerted to the similarities by a phone call from a reader.

The plots of the two books are different — Ms. Kinsella's novel is about a young British woman who unwittingly confesses her secrets to a man on a plane, only to discover he is the American head of the company for which she works, while Ms. Viswanathan's is about an Indian-American girl struggling to get into Harvard. But the phrasing and structure of some passages is nearly identical.

In one scene in Ms. Kinsella's book, which was published by Dial Press, the main character, Emma, comes upon two of her friends "in a full-scale argument about animal rights," and one says, "The mink like being made into coats."

In Ms. Viswanathan's book, Opal, the heroine, encounters two girls having "a full-fledged debate over animal rights."

"The foxes want to be made into scarves," one of them says.

There are echoes in another scene in which one of Ms. Kinsella's characters threatens another, "And we'll tell everyone you got your Donna Karan coat from a discount warehouse shop."

In Ms. Viswanathan's version, Opal threatens another girl, Priscilla, saying, "I'll tell everyone that in eighth grade you used to wear a 'My Little Pony' sweatshirt to school every day."

Details and descriptions are also similar. Jack, the love interest in Ms. Kinsella's novel has a scar on his hand; so does Sean, the romantic hero in "Opal." Jack has "eyes so dark they're almost black," so does Sean.

The passages are clustered in the final third of Ms. Viswanathan's book.

Sophie Kinsella is the pen name of Madeleine Wickham, the British author of the popular "Shopaholic" series. "Can You Keep a Secret?," Ms. Kinsella's first novel published in hardcover in the United States, came out here in 2004, more than a year before Ms. Viswanathan began writing "Opal," and the book spent six weeks on the New York Times hardcover fiction best-seller list.

The copying from Ms. Kinsella's book does not seem to be as extensive as Ms. Viswanathan's borrowing from two novels by Megan McCafferty, "Sloppy Firsts" and "Second Helpings," both published by Crown, a division of Random House. In that case, Crown contends that more than 40 passages were copied from Ms. McCafferty's books.

Ms. Viswanathan acknowledged plagiarizing from Ms. McCafferty but said that it was "unconscious and unintentional."

Ms. Viswanathan said she would have no comment on the latest allegations, as did Michael Pietsch, senior vice president and publisher of Little, Brown, who last Thursday announced he was pulling "Opal" from bookstores. Ms. Viswanathan's agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh of the William Morris Agency, was traveling and could not be reached.

 

[sophia jane]

Some of those similarities aren't really that similar (the Donna Karan/my little pony thing for example). But you gotta wonder what other "similarities" are going to be found now.

 

[FallingToFly]

"eyes so dark they were nearly black"

Well shite. Half the authors on Lit have plagiarized...

I didn't know that only one person was allowed to use a DESCRIPTION OF A COLOR.

I guess I'd better start finding a way to associate colors with sounds?

"As green as the sound of a Heinken bottle breaking over a cheap whore's head" just doesn't have the same ring though....

 

[Guest]

"eyes so dark they were nearly black"

Well shite. Half the authors on Lit have plagiarized...

I didn't know that only one person was allowed to use a DESCRIPTION OF A COLOR.

I guess I'd better start finding a way to associate colors with sounds?

"As green as the sound of a Heinken bottle breaking over a cheap whore's head" just doesn't have the same ring though....

Even the fur thing isn't all that unusual -- I've heard that particular sarcastic remark made in the anti-fur argument for many years. You could just as easily accuse the "plagiarized" author of having lifted it from somewhere else.

The Dona Karen/My Little Pony one is such a common way of phrasing that you could probably find something similar in a dozen books or more

There are echoes in another scene in which one of Ms. Kinsella's characters threatens another, "And we'll tell everyone you got your Donna Karan coat from a discount warehouse shop."

In Ms. Viswanathan's version, Opal threatens another girl, Priscilla, saying, "I'll tell everyone that in eighth grade you used to wear a 'My Little Pony' sweatshirt to school every day."

I/we will tell everyone that you ___________ to/from _____________

The two blanks are distinct and different. The form in which they are phrased is about as common and conversational as it gets.

Is this the new hobby for the year? Once it was Find Waldo, now it's Find the Plagiarist. Is someone going to go after James Joyce's Ulysses for ripping off Homer's The Odessy? What about "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

"Eyes so dark they were nearly black" -- is a CLICHE' for cryin' out loud. There's nothing distinct or unusual about it. That one is just STUPID. Where there any lines that read "She sat down." or "He looked over his shoulder to see what made the noise." ?

I'm feeling a big ol' "feh" coming on. I bet if someone really checks, they can find this young author ripped off a dictionary, a thesarus, and all kinds of newspaper articles and magazine columns

 

[Pure]

i suspect there are thousands of plagiarists and plagiarisms, esp. in the stuff that high school and college students submit. in published works that receive little attention, I bet there's some too.

the techniques of ms V., better employed, prevent detection in most cases--changing words here and there, internally re ordering sentences, substituting synonyms and labels--like 'a Tommy Hilfiger shirt' instead of 'a Gap shirt.' if she had just employed the rule of 3 or 4, she'd be fine
(no more than 3 or 4 identical words)