As I finished reading this piece on Jane Goodall's plagiarism in her new book, I seriously thought, "Is it really too demanding to cite and paraphrase?" It opened my eyes. Of course, I knew that authors collect information from different sources. However, unlike Jane Goodall, they blend and integrate everything together by paraphrasing, directly quoting, and citing all of their borrowed material. I was not aware prior to reading this article that even highly-acclaimed authors commit plagiarism today. Today! Where every school across the country educates their students about plagiarism and infringe them from doing so. In a present-day society where plagiarism is so disapproved, how are you going to do the complete opposite of what is outlined to be honorable and valid? Really.
Something else that irks me is Jane Goodall's manipulation of the borrowed text. Not only did she not paraphrase, but she made up inaccurate quotes. Because of this, it caused one person to lose his job. I'm confused if the person was her editor or co-writer, but if not, I feel remorseful for the innocent man. Plagiarism is extremely severe, especially in our world today. Why would Jane Goodall, before publishing her book, not look over her book? Paraphrasing and citing works taught in school is really advantageous for situations such as this. I guess Jane Goodall and her team did not acknowledge the circumstances for their behavior. What they should have done was paraphrase, quote correctly, and add a bibliography and works cited list before printing the book.
Reading times:
Davy Rothbart, My Heart is an Idiot
3/19: 10 min., 3/21: 15 min., 3/23: 180 min.
"Jane Goodall's 'Seeds of hope' book contains borrowed..." 3/24: 5 min.
Total: 210 min.
Thoughtful response. I think one of the lessons here is that everybody--from middle school to high school to acclaimed writers and scientists--needs to pay careful attention to how they use sources. It is so easy to copy and paste something into notes and ultimately end up with it in your writing without your even realizing that it came from somewhere else. But it's a serious issue when that happens.
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