Behold my wondrous teal deer!

[cleolinda]

Cassie Edwards: Remarkable Similarities to Pulitzer-Winning Novel Laughing Boy. Ohhhhhh shit, now we're really in it. Because this isn't "I didn't know you couldn't copy research sources" anymore.

Meanwhile, someone gets into it with Nora Roberts, whose wonderful patience finally snaps at being told "Shame on you," in the comments at the Smart

Comments

[princessjessia]

OMG NORA. WIN. I think that is officially the funniest part of this whole thing.

[naeelah]

In high school, plagiarism was largely taught to us as copying another source verbatim -- even a part of a sentence. In college, my first semester, the teachers made sure to impress on us that plagiarism extends to paraphrasing another source without credit. So, basically, any time you use any source in your work, in any capacity, you should cite it.

I've never done any creative writing or taken courses in that, and I imagine that the standards are slightly different. As you say, writers (or any creators) frequently rip things off of other writers. It's kind of a fine line -- sort of like using samples in music. There's a big difference in reference or homage, or using someone else's idea as a jumping off point, and trying to pass off someone else's work as your own.

[edda]

*ICON LOVE*

[dhaunea]

I read bits of this entire mess to my 95 year old grandmother.

She said, and I quote, "Age has nothing to do with it. Back when I went to school, we knew that plagiarism was wrong. Being 'older' is absolutely no excuse."

Just because that particular bit has really, really been bugging me.

[cleolinda]

Oh good! I didn't want to assume, so it's good to hear that.

[dhaunea]

It's worth noting that my grandmother went to a very small local school (wherein the boys didn't attend after 8th grade but went on to public school) and my grandmother went on to a sort of finishing school with only the very basics under her belt.

Her education is amazing, but it all came about by her own hands some years after. If she came up against 'copying is wrong' back in the early 1900s, I should think someone a good 20 years younger has no excuse regarding their age and this issue.

Do people really believe that someone who attended school more than thirty years ago (and I'm talking basic primary school here) managed to walk out without knowing that you can't copy other people's work?

I agree with a lot of the comments that she might've been woefully ignorant that using non-fiction sources without proper attribution is wrong - but she wasn't 'using' them. She was copying them... and my class of 1-3 graders at Sunday School knows that's a bad, bad thing

[cleolinda]

I get the feeling that Smart Bitches readers are going through her books as time allows, and if they weren't before, they certainly will now.

[last_archangel]

It's early yet, but I think I can safely say that Nora's "bite me" comment will go into my Favorite Moments of 2008 file. WIN.

[laurelin_kit]

I have pretty much the same sense of plagiarism as you do. What boggles me in this whole debacle is the idea that there are people out there who honestly don't have that same feeling of plagiarism. Like, I can understand being thirteen or something and not understanding that you can't just rip off other people's stuff - God knows my early fanfiction contained several one-liners ripped from various sources and unattributed. But then again, this is stuff I wrote for myself and never put online.

But Cassie Edwards is an adult. Regardless of what she was taught in school in terms of plagiarism and however long ago that was and however that changes how plagiarism is viewed - she's an adult. She should have some sense of right and wrong when it comes to using other people's words. She's a member of the writing community and she should know better.