How much influence does the media hold over the general population’s opinion? In this case, did a pair of bloggers ruin a person’s long lasting career?---
Some people just do not understand the realities of plagiarism. If a writer is not required to cite where she did her research – is it plagiarism? Recently, Cassie Edwards has been accused of this act.
Cassie Edwards is a well known historical romance author whose career spans more than 25 years; she currently writes for Signet, a branch of Penguin Group. One of her novels was passed to an academic who noticed something odd while reading. Many of Edwards’ sentences appeared familiar to her, and ill-fitting with the rest of the novel. The academic began to google the sentences and came up with startling evidence. It appeared that Edwards had taken from Paul Tolme’s article "Toughing It Out in the Badlands," almost word for word.
Originally Signet stood behind Edwards 100%, but the support quickly dwindled. These accusations rooted from the blog known as "Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books," but the Associated Press latched on to the story, even making the New York Times. When questioned, Edwards’ admitted to sometimes taking her information from references books – but she remained firm in her belief that what she was doing was not plagiarism.
By January 21st, 2008 – 13 days after the story first broke - the bloggers from “Smart Bitches Who Love Trashy Books” had assembled an 87 page document showing Edwards’ words versus articles they found when typing phrases into google. The proof is extreme, as it is clear that Edwards copied information.
Since novelists are not required to provide a bibliography or works cited, at what point should plagiarism be punishable? And what should the punishment be? Plagiarism is a form of theft. What will be taken from her in return? Clearly, in this case, the bloggers have already demolished Edwards’ credibility and career.
Additional ARTicles:
Publishers Weekly
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4 comments:
This article produced an interesting controversy in the world of writers that needs does require addressing. Potentially if more attention is brought to these matters, more concrete guidelines can be placed to prevent further confusion.
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Malong
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