The Article Summed Up
Plagiarism: A Personal History
Root Causes
Plagiarism: A Crime Against Language
Closing
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Introduction
Perusing the day's Globe and Mail, I came across two stories that would work rather well as editorial fodder.
The first was an interview with Robin Pollock, A Torontonian currently at the Scrabble Championships in Florida. This one gave a good sense of what it took to be a champion (or just serious) Scrabble player, and would have been praised as a sign of the status of the wordsmiths among us: Not a story grand enough for the front page, but at least news-section worthy.
Delving deeper into the paper, however, I found an article that struck much deeper than anything about a board game could. I found an article in the Arts section about Fareed Zakaria and the controversy swirling around him because of the discovery of his plagiarism.
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The Article Summed Up
The article begins by relating how a blogger discovered that a large part of his recent article on gun control for Time magazine was poached from an earlier piece written by Jill Lepore and published in The New Yorker. It then goes on to show how Zakaria apologized to some of those he wronged, has been put on suspension for a month by CNN and The Washington Post, and how, despite everything swirling around him, he seems to be feeling less guilty than expected.
After relating this instance of a professional plagiarising another's work, Houpt moves onto other cases of professionals plagiarizing before finishing with the hypothesis that journalists (and writers) are spreading themselves so thin that plagiarism is to be expected. Houpt cites Zakaria's own hectic schedule over the past few months in his defense and also notes how many major journalists don't always write everything that's attributed to them.
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Plagiarism: A Personal History
All of this gives me, a young up-and-coming writer, pause - especially because of my academic background. Through all six years of my university studies plagiarism was constantly watched for, checked for, double-checked for, and avoided. All necessary citations were made as accurately as possible, and all sources that were used were included in bibliographies at the ends of papers.
Perhaps this extreme prudence came from being constantly warned about plagiarism in opening classes, in course outlines, and through email notifications. Or perhaps it came from being accused twice before.
Once it happened in elementary school where, being a little lazy and full of A's, a large section of a resource was poached to speed a project up. Then, once more I was accused in high school where the advanced argument and style of an essay made a teacher wary, though all evidence - and most importantly, the truth - were on my side.
Of course, in the former case, being guilty, I lost marks, but in the latter case I received an ever-after unthinkable 100% (on an English paper, no less).
Whatever the case in my own history, if journalists are spreading themselves thin and basically backing themselves into corners where they have no choice but to plagiarize to keep things running smoothly, then a few things might be to blame. There are the personal things - greed, audience pressure, the feeling/desire to just do more - and the matter of writers' pay.
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Root Causes
The first of these issues can be dealt with easily enough on paper. Though restraint is much more difficult to put into true practice. Simply put, though, if you're a writer and seem to be trapped in a position where you have no choice but to plagiarize to meet deadlines or to keep a blog afloat, then just ask if anything can be ended. After Zakaria's month-long suspension is over his plagiarism will probably be largely forgotten by most of the public, but this isn't something that every writer will be able to weather.
The other issue is more systemic, and less personal, but still a major concern. Anyone can write, but to write things that show up in newspapers, that show up on reputable websites, or in magazines or books, writers need training.
To become a journalist you need to know how to write, but you also need to know about things like the impact that story can have on those involved or readers in general; you need to know about how best to approach topics and subjects; and you need to know about the ethics related to the profession. It's no different with fiction, or with poetry. And those with all this training (or awareness/skill) should be properly paid.
To write for yourself is one thing, but to write for other people - in most cases, people you don't even know, and may never know - is completely different. You need to know how to write so that you can interest people, you need to know how to convey emotion by showing it to a reader rather than telling him/her about it. And you need to be able to put words together in such a way that people can enjoy reading what you write for potentially long stretches.
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Plagiarism: A Crime Against Language
Setting aside all personal and industry issues, the fact that plagiarism exists makes little sense.
English is a puny language in comparison to many others (Greek and Latin come to mind - after all, on the dance floor an Ancient Roman could just say crisa rather than "shake it!").
Yet, it's the magic of language to take a finite set of things and put them into a near infinite set of connections and orders, even to get across the same meaning. Some people call a writer's own way of putting words together to get across a meaning that another writer has already conveyed "style." Maybe that's part of the problem.
Outside of fiction and poetry, writing can sometimes drone. There are some journalists with unique voices, but more often than not the sort of thing that you'll read in a major magazine is hardly distinguishable from anything else in the same publication. By and large non-fiction writers, fiction writers, and poets have more unique voices than your standard reporter or news writer.
In part, this monotony in journalism comes from newspapers and news shows and magazines requiring a standardized tone - often authoritative - and it can be hard to maintain that tone if everyone is writing in their own unique style. The internet has helped to give people a platform to show off their own voices in their writing, but one of the trade-offs so far is the loss of that authoritative tone in a lot of what's posted online.
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Closing
Check back here tomorrow for another Annotated Links, and don't miss Friday's delve for the deserving in Squirm.
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