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Bookish Rants and Raves: Plagiarism
Filed in Bookish Rant or Raves , The Book Lovers Posted on June 2, 2011 @ 9:44 am
18 comments
In light of recent events, it’s probably no surprise that Plagiarism is the topic of our Bookish Rants and Raves post this week.
As the plagiarism has come to light all of the Book Lovers have been affected in different ways. So we thought we would share the post this week and tell you our thoughts on Plagiarism and Trust in book blogging.
Amanda: Plagiarism for me is an old enemy. Having been plagiarised repeatedly in school and not being able to prove it, just the word “plagiarism” sends a shiver down my spine.
I try to be empathetic in everything I do in life, but plagiarism is not something I can’t get my head around, especially when it comes to book blogging. I can understand some of the motivations to consider plagiarism – free books, more followers and seeing a nice big list of book reviews with your name on them – but I will never understand why people do it.
Book Blogging in particular is about giving our opinion of a book we have read. So I am completely stumped when someone thinks it’s OK to steal someone else’s opinion.
Why would you even want to use someone else’s opinion and not your own? What on earth is the point?
Jackie: I had a similar experience to Amanda’s in school, where I was reprimanded along with another girl for cheating on a test. This infuriates me to this day for the simple reason that I was the geeky, smart girl that always did well. The other girl was just plain lazy and these facts should have been obvious to a teacher. But I guess they can only see so much.
This incident will always remain with me because I didn’t like someone even thinking I had been the lazy one. The same idea can be applied to book reading/reviewing/blogging. I think we can all agree that, at times, it’s overwhelming along side the other facets of “real” life. Really though, if you can’t keep up the pace, make an apology and just don’t do it! Better to admit to lack of time than to use some other person’s work and claim it as your own.
Book blogging is about community and there are many collaborations out there that I find are excellent resources for like minded bloggers, especially within our group here at BLI. If help is ever needed, it’s usually only a matter of asking and you will find 5, 10, 20, or more people willing to offer advice or lend a hand.
The bottom line for me is if you can’t compose your own thoughts, then just don’t offer any at all.
Larissa: I totally agree with both Amanda and Jackie. How desperate for attention must you be to fake your way through a Book Blog? I mean really? For free books? Couldn’t you at least get the work done? Reading books you got for FREE is too much of a hassle?
This is all inconceivable for me. I have a day job that takes a LOT of my time, plus other projects and still I find the time to write original posts. If you can’t manage your time or isn’t able to produce original content, try cooking!
Susi: So surprise I agree with what everyone else said- plagiarism is just something I would never thought of checking on BLI. I’m a way too trusting sap it seems. Now we already have some thoughts about why plagiarism is wrong so I will just talk about why it would hurt your team so much if you participate in a group blog.
The biggest hurt in an incident like this comes more from the personal betrayal. That sounds harsh but it is after all that. You trust your co-bloggers to do what they told you- to write down THEIR thoughts about the books you will organize for them. All the book blogging is much work- work that usually is totally worth it. But when you are informed about something like this it’s hard to believe at first. You have to start checking the claim and if you realize it is true, it will hit you that you just assisted someone with Theft- plain and simple. This hurts because you didn’t do anything wrong but from the outside it looks like- you gave the plagiarist a place to post the stolen content so if you are lucky enough to have many helping hands to assist you in checking all of the plagiarist’ work you can at least save your own hard work- the group blog. It is in my opinion essential to react fast and be open about what happened- secrecy will do you no good. Tell all the involved parties and APOLOGIZE. Don’t say things like ‘I will verify it’- that doesn’t count as an apology. Be honest and say you’re sorry even if it was not directly your fault- it is the least thing you should do.
So in essence- plagiarism sucks even more when you also affect your friends with it. Don’t copy someone else’s work and sell it as your own- it should always be as easy as this: Do you want something like that happen to yourself? Could you accept or tolerate it? No- so why would you do this to someone else? Lesson Learned. To jeopardize trust like this will hurt the people around you and it only gets worse when waiting for an apology takes this long…
Has: During the two incidents that when I came personally across this issue of plagiarism – the personal affect and the aftermath and dealing with it is what is stressful and upsetting. But if there is any reviewer/blogger out there now who has read about this and has plagiarised. I IMPLORE you to rectify this, take down the affected reviews, don’t wait until you get an email notifying that you have stolen content. Also DON’T put your head in the sand and ignore the problem when you get caught out – This is advice I like to give out those who have been affected by this issue and feel like they are out of their depth.
If you do get called out – ISSUE an apology straight off. No delays and no re-writing of reviews. Once you are caught out by a blogger/author the damage has been done. The moment you are caught pull the review. Post an apology announcement and email apologies to those reviewers and authors, PLEASE don’t wait for authors/reviewers to contact you to let you know you have stolen content, you will get caught out eventually.
This is MOST especially if you are co-blogging with other bloggers. It can affect friendships and the reputation of their site. Hiding away makes the problem fester and will implode. This can affect and harm all parties – but it is not the end of the world if you do get caught out, by owning up and apologising can go a very long way and friendships and reputations wont be damaged. In fact you’re co-bloggers will most likely help you and give you personal support, ignoring or hiding away will just upset and anger people, because it gives the impression that you are dismissive and don’t care.
It is upsetting for all parties, and this is why the message is DON’T do it – Just don’t. If you need a break because it is too stressful. TAKE ONE. If you feel you aren’t up to par for reviewing books, because others are better – BOLLOCKS – if the very prolific Harriet Klausner can be quoted and used as an example of being a good reviewer; and I find her reviews only make sense if you live in a parallel world. Readers want honest and accurate reviews, they want to know about your opinions on it. It is a given that most all reviewers will disagree about a book or an issue.
Plagiarism isn’t a minor issue or a blunder, or an accidental mistake, especially if those reviews that were copied from author reviews on amazon or major publications, this can increase your chances to getting caught much sooner the fact is – if someone is caught doing so, embarrassment is the least of their worries, the repercussions for plagiarising reviews is just not worth it.
Stella: Of course I have heard about plagiarism, been warned about it in school where teachers and professors told us there isn’t anything worse than stealing someone’s hard work and passing it on as yours. Been told about the consequences. But I never imagined I would experience it (first hand) in the blogging world. I mean I’m puzzled. I just don’t get it why a book reviewer would plagiarize. We started blogging because we wanted to share with others what we thought about the books we read. The main point of blogging is telling the world OUR thoughts. Why blog if you just copy others’ opinion and thoughts and then pass these on as yours? What’s the point of blogging then? Oh yes, silly me for not seeing it immediately: the free books and the authors you get to cozy up. I feel so very sad and sorry for all the authors who now feel betrayed and disappointed. And all the other bloggers who considered her a friend. And of course I also feel sorry for us: it was tough learning we had a plagiarist among our group who was too coward to deal with the aftermath, but you know what? Maybe we were lucky, better to discover it sooner than later, right?
Caro: I won’t repeat what was said before, all my fellow Book Lovers got it perfectly. I am against plagiarism, and I felt betrayed too that it happened to us. I think what’s rattling me is that we ALWAYS read every member’s reviews before we publish them. So we read theses reviews and didn’t realize they were plagiarized. Makes me feel like I should have realized it before. That hurts the group. :/. I’m very glad that most authors and bloggers have been understanding with us. We love our authors and followers and it would kill us to loose their trust and respect. Here that’s my point.
JoJo: I also agree with everything my fellow BLI ladies have said. But I think the biggest thing that bothers me about plagiarism is where is your conscious? To me that is a big part of life. Do some people just not listen to it when it tells you that something you are doing is wrong, or do they just not care?
When it comes to reviews, i just don’t understand why you would copy someone else’s work. The whole reason for reviewing is to give YOUR opinion! And in my eyes if your receiving a book for free from someone so you can review it for them, then stealing someone else’s work, you are also in the end stealing from the author. Where is your conscious?
What it boils down to is not matter what it involves, books, music, reviews, homework, plagiarism is plagiarism. Listen to your conscious, it is there for a reason!
Melissa: Right from day dot we are drilled with the fact that plagiarism is WRONG. How can someone really benefit from ripping off someone else’s work? It’s laziness really.
I started book blogging and sharing my views just over a year ago. I can tell you that yes, at times it has been hard work trying to find the right words, the right way to express how I’ve felt about a book. Hell, I’ve spent almost an hour sitting in front of my computer once just to make sure that my review included everything I wanted to say. I’d tell you right now, if I found out that someone was stealing my words and claiming them as their own, I’d be royally pissed! And it’s not just the blogger you stole from, that you are letting down. It’s the Author that has sent their book to you in good faith that you will give an honest review in YOUR OWN WORDS. Or the Publisher that has gone out of their way to provide you with a copy of a book in exchange for your opinion. It’s the Followers you have on your blog that think they are hearing YOUR opinions on a particular title. And most importantly, you’re letting yourself down.
At the end of the day, those that plagiarise need to be pulled up on it and if they are mature about it, they will do the right thing and apologize and pull that specific piece of work down.
So these are our thoughts, feelings and honest opinions of what has happened in the past week, and what will undeniably happen to someone else in the future until we all get the message through that PLAGIARISM IS WRONG. We want to thank all of our followers, author friends and publishing contacts for their continued support throughout this difficult and shocking time. We are definitely lucky to have the support system of the blogging community behind us.
Links to help:
1. Fair Share: creates a feed of copies of your blogposts around the interwebs
2. Copyscape: checks blogs/sites for copied works
3. Also report to blogger if its hosted on blogger to get the site removed if they ignore you.
2. Copyscape: checks blogs/sites for copied works
3. Also report to blogger if its hosted on blogger to get the site removed if they ignore you.
How do you feel about plagiarism?
Have you ever been affected by it?
Anything you would like to add?
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Great post all of you!
I can't understand plagiarism at all and plagiarizing a review even less, but got nothing much more to add that hasn't already been said.
I'm in 100% agreement with all of you Ladies. Great post!
I have to say I love the book blogging community. It seems like everyone has each others back. I have two (well actually 3) blogs and I posted the same movie review on both of my blogs and a reader saw both posts (not knowing that both the blogs were mine) and contacted me to let me know that she thought someone stole my post. It really felt good that a fellow blogger had my back even though it was really both me.
Plaggerism is not right on any level. If you like a quite that someone else came up with Quote it and site your source, give them credit. Any really are you that lazy that you cant write your own opinion?
Amanda
paranormal romance
Books, Shopping and Rock N' Roll
Great post everyone. You have my sympathy and support. I'm sorry that your trust was broken and the blog has taken a hit for someone else's actions.
Hang in there. 🙂
Stacie
GeishasMom73 on twitter
I am a teacher of international students learning English. In class, I repeatedly caution students about plagiarism and have caught students doing it, and given them big fat zeros. I don't condone it in any way.
However, I am aware that in many cultures, the concept of plagiarism is non-existent. Some may think, "Wow, I really like this, so I'm going to use it" without thinking further than that. The US has strong individualistic values, which usually means we give and receive credit where credit is due. Even then, plagiarism is far more common than one would expect, especially if you get into paraphrasing (a paraphrase with the same grammatical structure and vocabulary is still plagiarism). I think almost 40% of college students in the US have admitted to some type of academic dishonesty. It happens. That doesn't make it okay. But people can get away with it relatively easily.
The best thing book bloggers can do is what they're already doing – talking about it, informing other people about how to protect themselves, and shaming those who do practice plagiarism.
Great post. It's wrong to take someone's work in this fashion.
Fantastic post! I was reading everything that happened the other day with a lot of fellow bloggers finding out their reviews had been sopied. I felt horrible for them cause I know how much time it takes to review and its something that comes from their mind and their thought on the book. Im glad to see other book bloggers have each others backs and support each other! You guys are awesome!
Honest, heartfelt post. I know how bad and how responsible you all feel. You are handling things in the right way. My respect for you is leaping off the page.
I feel if someone has so little in their head that they must resort to plagiarism in order to find something to say, they are in the wrong business.
I just got here through some other blog, and I am really amazed something like this happens! And like many others, I just can't understand the why. I am a bookblogger myself, and I just want to show others what good (or less) books I have read, and recommend them to others.
Great post! It boggles my mind that someone would plagiarize a book review. To destroy one's online reputation for free books? Really?
Why on Earth would anyone feel the need to plagiarize reviews? It must just be laziness, which is beyond sad. My two cents worth may not amount to much when it comes to my opinion about a book I have read, but it is MY opinion – good, bad or indifferent. Read the book, have an original thought.
I really hate that you all had to go through this. There really isn't anything I can add, you guys said it all. It is just bad for everyone involved. I hope that anyone else who has done this or thought about doing this will think again and not go there!
I appreciate The Book Lovers staff being open with us. It's sad to see how much injury results from plagiarism. Thanks for your honesty.
Great post ladies! I'm with you in this, and you have my supports!
I copy my status update at Goodreads : When write review, the reviewers always write it with their heart and all their feelings. So when someone plagiarism it, it's like tearing their heart, and it's hurt!. Is it so hard to write review, until you imitated theirs?
Yes, Plagiarism suck!
I hope all of you will be okay. I love this blog site, really
Sorry I have to be sincere!
I don´t really understand what you all call plagiarism.
Only an exact copy of a text or a copy of an idea too? Being really clear almost all blogs about books are completly equal. Just different people writing in different ways but the whole idea is the same.
Reviews of the same books, the same topics, authors and giveaways. So I think there´s no point talking about a single text copy when the plagiarism comes from the idea.
A blog about books could be a model, but that´s not what is happening. If I opened 30 blogs in the same week I would probably see the same reviews and discussions, memes and so on.
I think plagiarism is more than a single text copy, plagiarism is the whole idea, if you need to give credits everytime you do a post it´s because something is wrong and you don´t have your own ideas.
Thank you so much
Kisses
Sam
PS: Sorry for the bad English 🙁
@Samantha We're talking about copying whole sentences from someone else's review and not changing 1 word. That IS plagiarism.
We wouldn't even mention a copy of ideas, because clearly that couldn't be proven.
PS: your english is fine don't worry 😉
I'd like to add that – if this was the case of ideas, which I totally get or even phrases. But we have documented that there were sixteen reviews that were affected in this case. In one instance one was taken from an author review on amazon. When you click onto the amazon page link the author's review is right up there and its pretty ironic that this blogger linked her review with it. This was a systematic case of stealing content from other reviewers/bloggers. We CANT condone this and this was why this blogger was called out. Not once but more than several occasions. I am sad, disappointed and upset this happened especially by someone who we gave our trust to. But essentially plagiarizing reviews/books/essays anything is not cool. People who have worked hard on writing something which someone can claim credit to is beyond wrong. What if a publicist quoted a review for a book blurb, from this blogger and it was taken from another review? Now that would be totally unfair, wouldn't it?
Hi @pattepoilue
I understood that part and totally agree with all you, that´s not fair, or better this is total absence of values.
But I just want let people know that everytime you copy something is plagiarism,not only a text but an idea too.
This is a big problem, that lets all the blogs alike.
I know that things on internet are hard to prove and we have bad people everywhere, but we also have to look to ourselves and see if we are not using an idea created by other person and thinking that just giving credits everything is all right.
This discussion is bigger than we can imagine.
But let me ask. If this plagiarism problem was so big as I understood. Cant´t all you sue the person?
Here in Brazil we can ask a register of a certain page on internet with the post date and everything, and this can be used like a prove in a lawsuit. It´s not a crime but your text is your privet property and nobody can copy without your agreement.
Thank you so much and don´t feel bad everytime someone does something bad, there are 20 doing the right thing!!
Kisses
Sam