Faux or Authentic
@Anora_Eldorath (6028)
United States
March 11, 2009 9:25pm CST
I find it interesting that there are so many individuals that lack skills in areas that they would copy, plagiarize, and steal another's hard work. When I come across a thread, post, blog, etc and begin to read the words I've read in a book, I have to sigh with disappointment. And just tonight we've had three threads on jealousy over what people post. So, I've come to the conclusion that jealousy must be one of the motivators for people to steal another's work and pass their idea off as their own.
Oh, do not get me wrong, I have no issues with talking about these ideas but I would not claim them as my own. I'd reference the text in question, or the person whom I was speaking about, or the inspiration for my idea. Where text is concerned though, as a teacher and author, I have a real issue with those who do this.
The happy ending, as it were, is that most people who engage in this eventually are found out to be faux. Their work begins to decay, and their lack of ability begins to show through. They are unable to maintain the writing style of the one they are copying or the text they are stealing from and they become exposed for the faux writer they are. They are unable to maintain the level of discussion of those they steal from because they had no real ability to begin with. That is the small gem in this area. Though, it's sad that instead of educating themselves on said topics they simply steal it. They actually believe that they themselves came up with those words, and I've even seen it where these types of persons will claim that the person who wrote the book stole their ideas. (That of course seems the extreme and could be argued to be a facet of a mental illness, and I am by no means making light of mental illness).
I would hope that we as writers could respect authentic works and reference them accordingly. I suppose this has been a small vent so to speak on the issues of plagiarizing, but it also has a discussion.
Could you tell the faux from the authentic? If you could would you do anything about it? Would you speak up on a thread and say "This seems like a copy and paste from someone else's text" or "I've read this before in so and so's book"? Would you stay quiet? Would you simply reply to the thread? Would you talk to the person one on one? Would you notify the publisher of the book that this author had been plagiarized?
1 person likes this
7 responses
@elysium (169)
• United States
12 Mar 09
With bags, I can tell a faux from the authentic, but with posts, I can not tell the difference unless I read that book. If I found out somebody was pretending to be somebody else, then I would tell everybody on the forum and notify the publisher or the author. It is not right for a person to pretend to be another person. I would not want that writer to be blamed for something he/she may not have done.
3 people like this
@Anora_Eldorath (6028)
• United States
13 Mar 09
Very true! Thanks for your insight. Namaste-Anora
1 person likes this
@TheCasualReporter (283)
• France
12 Mar 09
I don't see the use in reiterating something that someone else has already said better just so you aren't copying it, in fact I applaud those who use other people's words when those words are better -- as long as they give credit to the other person, or at the very least don't claim credit for themselves. That is wrong and unnecessary. Taking the time to research a topic and then using the research is a talent in itself not to be dismissed. Ideally giving credit would include a link or title/author reference, but even stating that the phrasing is not your own is better than nothing as in, "I read somewhere and I forget where that blah blah blah" Happy MyLotting!
3 people like this
@Anora_Eldorath (6028)
• United States
13 Mar 09
Well, in true Quantitative research exact quotes are not used (often), but citations are. I had a professor that explained it as such, and this is a loose paraphrase, if you can't think for yourself you're doing a book report. I do agree that citations can be used, and direct quotes can be used but when someone simply copies it as their own, and defends it as their own, well that's just wrong.
Happy mylotting-Anora
1 person likes this
@iakulchen (615)
• Singapore
13 Mar 09
I did come across several discussions started on MyLot by this person last week, all of which had very long opening posts. They seemed odd to me since they didn't seem to have been written for a forum setting, so I ran some of the discussion urls through copyscape. It didn't surprise me too much to find that copyscape actually turned up results. Reported the plagiariser and left comments on the articles of the writers. MyLot did eventually ban this person. This was a case where the person had committed multiple cases of plagiarism.
For a single incident of plagiarism committed by a MyLotter, usually I post something to the thread to the effect of "This was plagiarisied from (link to article here). The correct thing to do is post part of the article, and provide a link to the rest of the article."
I have yet to come across(or perhaps I haven't looked hard enough) a discussion on MyLot that was plagiarised from an offline source. I suppose that if I did find one, I would probably post something similar, but change (link to article here) to (link to writer profile), since in this day and age, almost everyone has an online presence of some sort.
1 person likes this
@Anora_Eldorath (6028)
• United States
13 Mar 09
Yes, I saw one of the longer threads this week where the profile was a male, but the actual article was written by a female. It's really sad too. I generally recommend that if people have questions about how to cite material that they visit Purdue's Online Writing Labortory (OWL). It's easy to find and wonderful to use. Most of the college professors I know recommend it to college students as well!
Namaste-Anora
1 person likes this
@sanuanu (11235)
• India
12 Mar 09
I completely disagree with you. You can't imagine how many discussion are there with 164000 mylottians here. We may have a billion of discussion till now. If a new user comes, he will definitely not go for discussions which are already been posted. And if the discusison is copied then believe me that mylot would definitely delete those post without even giving him a chance to clarify his point.
About jealousy kind of thing and finding more responses for his/her reponse by copy paste then be assure that they will not get more responses for their next discussions because they will have to maintain the ratio.
One of the user told me in my discussion that he has seen this(my) discussion thrice in that day. may be he was saying the same thing you are saying but in a polite way but I have an answer to him that I don' have copied it from anyone else. Each and every letter of that discussion was mine and not copied from anywhere else!
happy posting.
2 people like this
@Anora_Eldorath (6028)
• United States
13 Mar 09
I'm not saying there will not be discussions on topics, what I'm talking about is giving credit to those authors who have written the material. For example, if I come across an article written by a college professor and I post it on here as my own work, then I'd be guilty of plagiarism. I caught a thread on here yesterday that was a stolen piece of work from a college professor. It's just sad. I have also seen people use published author's words with no citation, as if they wrote that paragraph. That's the kind of thing I'm speaking about.
I do wonder if jealousy is part of their reason for doing so. As in, perhaps they copy a noted author's work, post it as their own, because they are jealous that they cannot write as well, or the like.
It's very sad though that people resort to such things.
Namaste-Anora
1 person likes this
@paula27661 (15811)
• Australia
12 Mar 09
I did a Freelance Journalism Course a couple of years ago; an entire unit was dedicated to plagiarism and how to avoid it because it can ruin a writer's career before it has even started.
We were taught how to be "switched on" to article ideas by reading other's articles, listening to the news, surfing the net etc...Without resorting to copying someone's work as claiming it as our own. Quite frankly if I did that and got away with it, it would not feel satisfying at all to receive praise for cheating.
I haven't come across anything of this nature on MyLot; I have seen similar discussion on other forums but that's bound to happen, I have not seen anything copied word for word.
I don't know what I would do if I came across plagiarized work. I may speak to the author about it first if I was able, I guess...I'm not really sure; I know I would if it was my work that was stolen! I guess I would report the person if was 110% sure of my facts.
If it happened on MyLot I would be inclined to ignore it. I hope I never see anything like that here. 
@Anora_Eldorath (6028)
• United States
13 Mar 09
Paula-
Sadly I've seen it a few times now on Mylot and it is sad. I can't ignore it when I see it to be honest, it goes against everything I teach as an English teacher. It also goes against my rights as an author.
I agree though, how satisfying can it be to live a lie? Eventually people are going to see your writing for what it is right? Oh well.
Namaste-Anora
1 person likes this
@NuttyMomma (901)
• United States
12 Mar 09
I write articles on ehow and I recently started to notice that some people would almost word for word copy stories that were headlines on yahoo. i was so shocked that anyone would do that. you're right it will show that they have no style of their own or original ideas and they will be found out. I discuss what others say and maybe innocently repeat an idea but i never copy anyone. it is stealing. i worry sometimes that my "bright" idea might not be original but i know when i write something i am not copying it word for word. i have never "ratted" anyone out because if it is obvious to me it will also be to whoever is in charge of these sites.
@Anora_Eldorath (6028)
• United States
13 Mar 09
I know. I just strongly feel that if someone is going to use another's work they should cite them. I don't even care if they give a full bibliography, just give the name of the author so people can go read the work for themselves. To pass yourself off as something your not hurts no one but yourself, you know? Thanks for the response. Anora
1 person likes this
@elmolovesu (814)
• Philippines
12 Mar 09
Hi Anora.
Thank you for posting another interesting discussion.
I've come across people who have the habit of claiming and taking credit for another's work...and you are so right,when you get to engage them into these conversations,they end up in circles. I usually just keep quiet so as not to embarrass the person but when I feel that he or she is going overboard,I do engage (I also do this when I'm in a naughty mood).
When it comes to discussions in mylot,though,I believe that most of us here have no intention of copying or plagiarizing.I think that since there are so many members here, there is great chance that one might start a discussion on something that has already been used...just my opinion.
Thanks again. Have a great day.
@Anora_Eldorath (6028)
• United States
13 Mar 09
Thanks for responding. I think most people don't maliciously copy, I think it's more an ignorance on how to cite properly. However, if they are frequent offenders I think their work should be taken down.
Namaste-Anora
1 person likes this
