There has been several interesting discussions in the “blogoshpere” lately surrounding negative behavior and actions of book bloggers. The posts started with Presenting Lenore’s “Bloggers Behaving Badly” then it was followed by Persnickety Snark's “Blogger Conflicts.”
And honestly as horrendous as the topics in those posts are, it is nothing compared what has happened recently. It’s one thing to commit an act because you are unaware that it’s wrong. It’s a whole other issue, when you know something is wrong and you do it anyway.
If I could give a new blogger one piece of advice, it would be: Find Your Voice.
It doesn’t matter if your reviews aren’t the most articulate or the best written. That’s something that can happen later, something that you will acquire with practice and determination. But find your voice and make your blog your own.
Which brings me to the topic of this post.
Plagiarism.
Plagiarism is wrong. No matter how you look at it.
There is no excuse... “I didn’t know.... I didn’t mean to... I did it subconsciously.” No, you didn’t. You did know and you did mean to.
Plagiarism isn’t just copying and pasting word for word and passing it off as your own. It can be taking someones work and changing around the sentence structure, getting out your thesaurus and changing a few words here and there... basically taking the central idea tweaking it and passing it off as your own work.
It’s especially frustrating for this to happen in the blogging community. Why would you plagiarize a review? What is the point? Isn’t the whole idea of a blog to share YOUR views on a book. How could you take someone else's review and pass it off as your own? Where is your integrity? You don’t have any. You’ve cheated yourself, your fellow bloggers, your readers, the author who wrote the book, and the publicist that sent it to you.
I have no respect for someone that does this.
My reviews may not be the greatest. I know that on the blogger hierarchy my reviews are somewhere near the bottom. (Which is probably why, as far as I know, no one had plagiarized my reviews.) But at least I can say in all truthfulness that they are my own thoughts and ideas.
I was outraged to find out earlier this week that the same blogger not only plagiarized the reviews of one blogger but three! And possibly more! I can’t express how hard it is for me not to call this person out and let them be reprimanded for their actions.
The three bloggers that were violated are some of the most talented, respectful and intelligent women. Adele, Steph & Tirzah write some of the most wonderfully expressive reviews. I am envious at their abilities. And furthermore, I am devastated that this issue was unnecessarily inflicted upon them.
The bottom line is, plagiarism is wrong. There’s no excuse for it.
This community is one of the things I love the most about blogging. But in the recent weeks I’m almost embarrassed to be a part of it. I hate feeling that way.
Before you decide to take the “easy” way out and use another persons work as your own. Think about the person you are really hurting.... yourself.
Read more posts about Plagerism:
Adele of Persnikty Snark
Tirzah of The Compulsive Reader
Steph of Steph Su Reads
Lenore of Presenting Lenore
Liz of My Favourite Books
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
42 comments:
The entire situation baffles me...
I've been plagiarized before (more than once), but it was stories I had written, not reviews (which hurt even more than it would to have someone copy my reviews, but that would still piss me off too because I've had people copy my "about me" sections on sites and those were big "WTF?"/"Oh no she di-nt!" moments).
I'm a member of a few anti-plagiarism groups on livejournal but that's more about plagiarism against writing - I've seen people steal art and writing (as in fiction/poetry) and call it their own but I was shocked to find that some people actually copied reviews.
Plagiarism in general is just pointless... really, they can't honestly feel good about themselves when people compliment their work because they know they don't deserve it.
And with books... if you read a book, how difficult is it to say what you like and didn't like about it and why you liked or didn't like it? That's basically the point of reviews, it's meant to be your own opinion and even if the plagiarists agree with the stuff written in those other reviews they could still find a way to put it in their own words instead of copying/rephrasing someone elses.
I disagree about what you said at the end though, that they're only hurting themselves - I've talked to plagiarists before (because of the whole LJ community thing, when someone is found plagiarizing we basically call them out on it and have the work taken down) and some of then genuinely don't see what they're doing as wrong (one girl who copied a story, a story that was 8 years of hard work by a great author, and turned it into a fanfic had the nerve to say that if people put stuff on the internet then they should expect people to copy it) and there are plenty who have been caught plagiarizing again even after they've been called out on doing it the first time and been kicked off of whatever site they were posting on.
The ones that end up being hurt at the people they copy from and the readers that have trusted them and complimented them on their words only to find out they were stolen from someone else.
Wow, I totally just lost my train of thought (it's nearly 5:30am, haven't slept yet). But basically, I agree and it makes me lose a little bit of faith in humanity that people even need to point out that plagiarism is wrong... it's like a basic thing that people should know already.
If anything, I AVOID certain blogs so that their opinion's won't influence my own. Let's say I was in middle of reading... Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott (completely random) and I noticed your newest review was of that title. I wouldn't read your review on it until AFTER I've written my own.
It only makes sense... right?
Love, Hannah
*facepalm*
Second of all, I totally agree with you that a blog should express the blogger's opinions, not someone else's. Great post.
Something should be done. If a blogger is known to plagiarize those bloggers whose work was used should let the offender know they are aware of it and notify fellow bloggers. It it doesn't stop, it should be made publicly known in blogs who is doing it. We who visit sites and read review could then boycott the offending blogger. I know you get into legal issues here, but since there is no regulatory body for blogs, what other way is there. I won't support a blogger who does this and I don't think many others would either.
And I love your reviews Kristi! They are very real.
What's the protocol when it's another blogger? If it happens should we email them and ask for the post to be taken down?
Lizzy yes email them a nice post quietly and ask them to stop. Explain that you have a copyright on your words and they are breaking the copyright. If it continues then contact the host.
I won't even read reviews of books that I have read but haven't written the reviews for yet. I want to be completely certain I don't repeat any other reviewers thoughts, even subconsciously.
It's theft and I can't understand why people blog and then don't publish their own reviews.
My reviews may not be the best and I don't write that many but they are my own and reflect my thoughts and feelings.
Which also brings me to a pet peeve that may be sort of related to those who don't see such cut & paste & change every fifth word as plagarism.
The number of bloggers who use jacket copy / publisher description in a review and do not indicate the source or that its not their original work (by quotes, italics, links, the usual). I can see how a blogger, seeing the same paragraphs over and over on blogs may think anything from a blog is fair game.
To the Story Siren, keep up the good work.
Anyway, thanks for the great post and love your site!
Thanks for your posts, reviews are hard work and you are doing a great job!
That said, plagiarism is a huge issue with the internet, one of the downsides I think. I'm currently a college student majoring in English, and I know that they have lots of problems with kids downloading essays from online and handing them in. =/
This is different though. Blogging is optional. For me, it's fun and something I do in my leisure time. Why would someone copy someone else's review for something that is supposed to be fun?
At FanLit, we've been affected by plagiarism, too, but there seem to be several culprits out there, which is very upsetting.
I wish I had time to start some sort of group where bloggers/readers could report and discredit bloggers who plagiarize. If someone would be willing to do that, please let us know.
By the way your reviews are great!
Post a Comment
Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to comment!! I do read every comment and appreciate them!
Please note that any overly negative comments, uncalled for personal attacks or spam will be deleted.
Also, please do not leave links to your book reviews in the comments section. Thank you!
Happy Reading!