Thursday, April 21, 2011

They Write, She Copies. Their News, Her Byline.

The keyboard shortcut for plagiarism
is CTL + C. Lake Placid Journal Writer Bobbie Cline has it down pat. Take a press release and highlight the desired sections; copy-and-paste the words that others so nicely wrote -- in their exact, original order. And, if Bobbie Cline wants to show that she's really good at ripping off Internet documents, she can create a keyboard macro -- one key stroke and the mini-program will type out "By Bobbie Cline" faster than she can say, "I don't see the problem ...it's a news release, isn't it?"

3 comments:

  1. It amazing that someone wastes their credibility and reputation to corner a few silly words of false credit. Does the plagiarist think no one will notice? Does the plagiarist think that squirt of pleasure she gets by seeing her name in a byline is worth the pulbic shame when we do notice? The ethics are a mystery, but the psychology is bizarre -- truly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was given express permission to quote this firm's ad from them and recognized it as such.If still in doubt, contact THEM.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I see no attribution in the "news" article. There is no word or phrase that acknowledges, in a way that would be transparent to readers, that you are quoting what a promoter wrote. Journalists use quotation marks when they use the words of others. At the end of the quote marks, they use a signal phrase such as "... said in a press release," or "... according to the firm's advertising literature." You do neither. Your byline combines with your omission of quotation marks and your lack of attribution to qualify this as deceptive (you don't tell the reader who told you) and plagiarism (you present the material as if you wrote it).
    By Old Word Wolf on They Write, She Copies. Their News, Her Byline. on 5/18/11

    ReplyDelete