You all know what I mean, so quit looking so surprised.
You read something you like, and say to yourself, "Hey, what an original turn of phrase, I'll think I'll use it in this piece I'm working on. Nobody will find out."
Why do you do it? And no bullshitters please.
2006-12-16 21:20:25 · 16 answers · asked by Panama Jack 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
Sometimes it is not done consciously. More than once I thought I was being very witty and original, only to find someone had pre-empted me, sometimes by decades! It is possible, of course, to genuinely come up with the same idea or concept independently, also, we adsorb a lot of information and retain it without necessarily remembering the source. Later, it can pop into our heads as an apparently original thought.
I saw a Richard Dawkins lecture once when he commented on this same phenomenon - several terms and ideas he thought he had invented, like 'Peri-normal' and 'Biomorph' had actually been used by other authors. This is not the same as conscious plagiarism. (You'd be amazed at how much plagiarism my students try to get away with! In this age of cut and paste it must seem very tempting, but it's as if they assume I've never actually read any of the books on the reading list I set!)
2006-12-16 21:48:44 · answer #1 · answered by Avondrow 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Writing a book can be a fight to Authors. One may have a better idea than the other. That's why they steal.
But let's say the person didn't steal on purpose. Then it wouldn't really be stealing. Multiple people can think of the same thing. An example is in clothing; people all have feelings and some dress to express their emotions. So if a person goes to school wearing pink and another one does they can be happy, excited, etc.
2006-12-17 06:02:32 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Plaguerism or plagiarism as it`s called is sometimes deemeed as a neccessty, especially by even prominent authors compiling reference lierature. But the honourable thing to do is add a note to the particular phrase/piece, pointing to the bibliography denoting the original author and the precise piece of work that it came from.
2006-12-17 05:59:16 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Tons of people have done it--even Shakespeare. So much has been done already, there's not much that's 100% original. I'm sure that "turn of phrase" wasn't original when the "stealer" read it, either.
There's a saying that's something along the lines of--"A genius doesn't invent something, he just knows how to market it to his advantage."
2006-12-17 10:05:17 · answer #4 · answered by Multi 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
stealing ideas like in an academic dissertation is called plagiarism...however, when it comes to literature, some symbols or themes may be similar to another book...in this case we deal with intertextuality , which serves a number of purposes...so if you made your self a bit clearer then i would be able to fully answer your question...
2006-12-17 14:59:27 · answer #5 · answered by May 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
did u know jk rowling steals ideas,ive seen a lot of harry potter names also appearing in books by tolkien, garth nix and others
2006-12-18 10:36:27 · answer #6 · answered by rebecca b 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Ask J K Rowling
2006-12-17 05:26:05 · answer #7 · answered by burtbb0912 4 · 4⤊ 0⤋
you're full of crock--- not everybody does that, and it's called borrowing in any case. And if you're going to steal someone's idea why not just paraphrase, that's what educated people do!
2006-12-17 05:32:07 · answer #8 · answered by erotikos_stratiotis 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Your question makes me suspect your character.
I've been writing for a long time, and I've never consciously plagiarizer anyone.
2006-12-17 12:15:47 · answer #9 · answered by Wanda K 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I will not grace an answer to someone who even plagiarised his own Yahoo avatar name.
Not unless you own Panama Jack do you ?
2006-12-17 07:43:07 · answer #10 · answered by the_lipsiot 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋