Plagiarism, a la Shmoop.
Johnny Theatre just loves life under the bright lights.
And yeah, okay…
“Johnny Theatre” is just his stage name.
He changed it a few years back from “Joe Actor.”
Johnny is in awe of playwrights who can manipulate language like it was Play-doh…
He is so in awe of them, in fact, that he decides to start…
borrowing some of their work, and passing it off as his own.
That is why they call it “play-giarism,” after all… right?
Like any thief, he starts small.
For a while, it’s just a line here and there that… speaks to him.
But by the end of the year, he’s submitting full plays to publishers with just the title
changed.
It isn’t long before someone realizes that Johnny’s play “Seriously Tortured Guy”
is actually “Hamlet.”
Whoopsies.
Immediately, Johnny is kicked out of his theatre group.
No other theatres in town will have him.
But that’s only the tip of the iceberg.
The head of his old theatre company publicizes the offense, and suddenly Johnny’s writing
career is as dead as his acting career.
David Mamet catches wind of the fact that Johnny took his play “Glengarry Glen Ross”
and published it under the title “Dude, Where are My Leads?”
He brings a lawsuit against Johnny… before long, Johnny has lost his life savings in
court fees, his home, his possessions… and his pet turtle, Gilbert, who can’t even
look him in the eye anymore.
He even serves a few months jail time.
And plagiarizers don’t get their own jail.
He shares a cell with some guy who’s still got half an ear in his mouth.
Things got bad in a hurry for Johnny… but they don’t have to get bad for you.
Plagiarism is a crime… a theft of ideas, rather than of a physical thing… but a crime
all the same.
And it’s totally unnecessary.
You can always reference someone else’s words or ideas…
…as long as you give them credit, by citing them properly.
Of course, not all plagiarism is intentional…
some people have gotten in quite a bit of trouble for repeating someone else’s phrasings
unintentionally…
…which is why you must be sure to know and understand the citation process…
…and to be careful whenever you are putting to paper… or to keyboard… anything that
may have originated elsewhere.
Students who are caught plagiarizing can be expelled or suspended.
Journalists or others in the media can lose their jobs… and have trouble ever finding
another one that doesn’t involve offering French fries to hungry customers.
But what are some of the types of plagiarism you have to be aware of?
Well, there’s “copying verbatim,” i.e…. copying someone’s work word for word without
citation.
No bueno.
Obviously.
Then there’s “copying verbatim with citation”… which happens when you fail to put quotes
around the line or lines you’re copying.
Just a couple clicks of a particular keyboard button could keep you out of a ton of hot
water.
And finally there’s paraphrasing, which is when you get really clever and change 3
or 4 words to make it seem like a totally different sentence.
Nice try, slick.
Copyrights protect ideas, not just the words expressing them.
So if it’s obvious you’re ripping off someone’s precise idea… start thinking
about whom you’d like to be the recipient of your one phone call.
When in doubt… cite.
You can get in trouble for not citing…
…but you’ll never get in trouble for citing too much.
You might give your readers a headache, but at least you won’t suffer Johnny’s fate.