UPDATE: Haven't posted in a while. Been really busy, which is a good thing. And I'm happy to report that my novel, WHATEVER IT TAKES, has taken first place in two contests!
OK, today's topic: The supposed fine line between plagiarism and not. I say supposed because there is no fine line. You either steal someone else's work or you do your own. Period.
What prompted today's topic: I belong to a couple of online services where freelancers can find writing jobs. Lately, I'm seeing a disturbing trend -- people or companies posting jobs in which they want writers to simply rewrite someone else's work for their own use.
This is from an anonymous job posting today on Guru.com... "What I need is someone who can re-write the information in these pamphlets without plagiarizing the information."
Um... no. That's pretty much the very definition of plagiarizing. Using someone else's work and pawning it off as your own, even if you've reworked it so it looks different on the page, is still an act of plagiarism. (If you're using someone else's work for research, then cite the work. Give credit where credit is due.)
Not to jump on the I-just-don't-understand-these-whippersnappers-today bandwagon, but I do worry that it has become so easy to access information thanks to the Internet that there is an entire generation of people who don't understand the basic rules of fair use.
Let me help you out: If the original words are not yours, and you use them for your own purpose, then you've committed plagiarism.
It's as simple as that.
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