Pac Biz Articles

Seti Matua

Feb. 24, 2009

I will be the first to admit that I don’t have a single ounce of originality in my body or brain. As a child I imitated the way my brother dressed, walked, talked and played sports. I adopted his tone of speech and his laugh until he sat me down one day, me being on the threshold of pimples, puberty and junior high and said to me, “You gotta be yourself!”

In the world of writing, my brother’s advice to my pre-teen, idolatrous nature rings true today as it has throughout the ages. We all stumble upon ideas, thoughts and experiences where we find commonality. There are phrases, idioms, thoughts, logic and euphemisms that become a part of the vernacular and jargon of our day and for the most part, the broad, collective experiences of a culture rarely fall under the umbrella of plagiarism.

The literal definition of plagiarism is: “The verbatim copying or imitation of the language, ideas, or thoughts of another author and representing them as one’s own original work.” (American Heritage Dictionary)

Therein lies the key to understanding the line drawn between borrowing and stealing. Borrowing: Good; Stealing: Bad. After all, its been said that, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” (Charles Caleb Colton, “Lacon”)

But plagiarism is fraud. It’s an act of dishonesty that writers, researchers, artists, et al believe to be the equivalent of robbing one of his or her most prized possessions, their thoughts. In academia they refer to it as academic integrity and its known by the same term in journalism. Journalistic integrity and ethics are drilled into new students until they understand that using or even paraphrasing a source comes with a responsibility to quote that source in your own work.

How does a writer avoid the pitfalls of disambiguation?

1. Use quotations when citing a source verbatim. Whether you use information from an interview you have conducted, lifted a quote directly from a page in a book or you are quoting a source from a research paper or even if it’s a line from a movie you watched in your research, make sure the information is quoted accurately and that the sentence or paragraph is enclosed in quotation marks.

Example: In a meeting with the Senate Banking Committee, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said of the current U.S. economy, “This outlook for economic activity is subject to considerable uncertainty, and I believe that, over all, the downside risks probably outweigh those on the upside.”

2. Use an external source for editing. In the case of a staff writer, novelist, etc, the editor is your last line of defense when checking for accuracy and possible infringements. If you’re writing for a blog, website or any other media that will be seen and read by the public, be sure to “test” your writing. Run through a series of edits to ensure that your information is accurate and ethical. This can be applied to your research papers in university as well as to creative writing. In the 2006 case of author Kaavya Viswanathan whose novel How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life, it was discovered that the then Harvard-bound teen had over 40 similarities in her book to passages found in two books written by author Megan McCafferty. Always quote your sources!

3. Include an entire list of sources that have been cited in your work. This is often referred to as the bibliography. It provides a cross-referenced itemization of the sources used by the author. This is a sure-fire way to avoid any plagiarism in your writing. But, even when using a bibliography, it is still a good practice to know your subject matter and understand the source of the material that you are using.

Many people have been accused of plagiarism. Even our newly elected President Barack Obama has had to answer questions about certain phrases that his staff writers have included in speeches that were not credited. In my short career as a writer I’ve tried to live up to the life advice my older brother gave me many years ago but even after all these years of trying to be myself, every day I live I’m still going to make sure that I’m wearing my own pants.

An accomplished writer/editor, Seti Matua blogs regularly on Context Sports and Salt Lake Scenery, where he provides a unique perspective on a range of topics with a Polynesian twist. Seti is also experienced in the fields of project management and business analysis where he has worked with companies such as Advanced MD Software, WorkingRx, Ingenix and Coventry Health.

Tags: copywriting, plagiarism, sin, writing

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