Bankrupt of Originality
Saturday, May 15, 2010
It has been way too long since I last posted something in this blog. It has been an entire sem already. No, this blog is not, in any way, abandoned. I just took an unexpected halfyear hiatus. But take a look, I'm here now.
Anyway, moving on to what I was supposed to post after that long hiatus...
Plagiarism.
It is a form of cowardice. It's as if you're trying to hide your own incompetence behind the works of other people. You claim as it your own, trying to delude yourself (and other people, for that matter) that you've created it. You feed on other people's intellectual property.
The compliments you receive are nothing but empty words.
I so detest plagiarists. Especially those who plagiarize fiction.
I mean, c'mon, fiction is a form of expression and you just can't copy someone else's form of expression.
Not only it's illegal. It's also a form of self-mockery.
What, you don't have the skills and imagination to write one for yourself?
Ooh yes. It is a form of self-mockery.
You may have taken down the plagiarized work from your site but the fact that you plagiarized still remains. You know who you are. And you know what you are. A plagiarist. A fraud.
What the original writer of that work wants is acknowledgment. All you had to do was to put a little byline or even a parenthetical citation to acknowledge who wrote the work. But no, when people asked you if you wrote that thing, you just had to say yes. When people complimented the work, you just had to say that you write these kinda things when "inspired, driven, and motivated."
Sheesh. Inspired, driven and motivated to what? To plagiarize, most probably.
Don't you feel pathetic?
I have said this before but I really think I ought to say it again.
Plagiarism is illegal.
The original work was submitted to an esteemed UP professor, mind you. The said professor could testify that it was one of her former Creative Writing students who wrote that work. Lots of people could testify against you. Me being one of them. I have read the original draft.
Oh, and just in case you're thinking that you weren't exactly plagiarizing because you paraphrased what was originally written, I have to say that plagiarism is not only copying someone else's work verbatim. When you closely imitate someone else's work by changing a few words here and there, that is still plagiarism. You cannot say otherwise.
Considering the fact that you're a member of a writing org in DLSU, this is really degrading. Shameful, even more so.
You cannot say that you are "more of an idea kind of guy". Everyone has ideas. All the time. What makes writers different from everyone else is the fact that they can actually put their ideas into words and create something tangible out of it.
Writers are called writers for a reason.
You cannot say that you are "not much into writing" either. That's just like a swordsman saying he has lots of ideas on how to become a damned good swordsman but he's just not into using swords...
*insert eye-rolling gesture here*
Not to mention that the swordsman really wants people to praise him so he just claims the fame of a REAL swordsman for himself...
Oh. Did that hit too close to home?
I'm sorry.
Not.
Here's a copy of the original work, by the way.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
BY: MIGUEL RICO SUBOSA
THINGS WITH A FUTILE BEAUTY
The reddest rose atop the tomb of a dead beloved.
A book you love all too well that you placed it far up some shelves -- its pages virgin, not one dog-eared. And it even still smells of plastic unwrapped.
The ever-changing moon, blessed with a borrowed luster yet accursed of appearing every night.
A melody sang but never heard.A grand idea left unspoken. Or that grand idea spoken in too many words.
INVIGORATING THINGS
Moss along the bark of a wilted tree in wintertime.
The returning caress of a winter breeze on Indian summer.
A light that flickers from a distance while one is alone and afloat the indigo vastness of an ocean at night.
The sidden silence of a mother to welcome the first cries of her infant. She chooses to sleep and quiet her cries of pain so that the little world of the delivery room hears nothing but her newborn child's cries. It is her hero's welcome for one she has long been awaiting.
A sour candy that stings the tongue -- STING! -- when one is half-asleep.Sex between lovers, though one or the other is infertile.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Things with a futile beauty" and you changed it to "Beauty in Vain"...
"A reddest rose atop the tomb of a dead beloved" and you changed it to "A crimson rose atop a lover's gravestone"...
Y'see, that's plagiarism. As a self-proclaimed writer, you should know that it is the lowest of all the lowest things that you could have done.
How much more pathetic a writer could you be?
My books need no one to accuse or judge you: the page which is yours stands up against you and says, "You are a thief."-Marcus Valerius Martial
Anyway, moving on to what I was supposed to post after that long hiatus...
Plagiarism.
It is a form of cowardice. It's as if you're trying to hide your own incompetence behind the works of other people. You claim as it your own, trying to delude yourself (and other people, for that matter) that you've created it. You feed on other people's intellectual property.
The compliments you receive are nothing but empty words.
I so detest plagiarists. Especially those who plagiarize fiction.
I mean, c'mon, fiction is a form of expression and you just can't copy someone else's form of expression.
Not only it's illegal. It's also a form of self-mockery.
What, you don't have the skills and imagination to write one for yourself?
Ooh yes. It is a form of self-mockery.
You may have taken down the plagiarized work from your site but the fact that you plagiarized still remains. You know who you are. And you know what you are. A plagiarist. A fraud.
What the original writer of that work wants is acknowledgment. All you had to do was to put a little byline or even a parenthetical citation to acknowledge who wrote the work. But no, when people asked you if you wrote that thing, you just had to say yes. When people complimented the work, you just had to say that you write these kinda things when "inspired, driven, and motivated."
Sheesh. Inspired, driven and motivated to what? To plagiarize, most probably.
Don't you feel pathetic?
I have said this before but I really think I ought to say it again.
Plagiarism is illegal.
The original work was submitted to an esteemed UP professor, mind you. The said professor could testify that it was one of her former Creative Writing students who wrote that work. Lots of people could testify against you. Me being one of them. I have read the original draft.
Oh, and just in case you're thinking that you weren't exactly plagiarizing because you paraphrased what was originally written, I have to say that plagiarism is not only copying someone else's work verbatim. When you closely imitate someone else's work by changing a few words here and there, that is still plagiarism. You cannot say otherwise.
Considering the fact that you're a member of a writing org in DLSU, this is really degrading. Shameful, even more so.
You cannot say that you are "more of an idea kind of guy". Everyone has ideas. All the time. What makes writers different from everyone else is the fact that they can actually put their ideas into words and create something tangible out of it.
Writers are called writers for a reason.
You cannot say that you are "not much into writing" either. That's just like a swordsman saying he has lots of ideas on how to become a damned good swordsman but he's just not into using swords...
*insert eye-rolling gesture here*
Not to mention that the swordsman really wants people to praise him so he just claims the fame of a REAL swordsman for himself...
Oh. Did that hit too close to home?
I'm sorry.
Here's a copy of the original work, by the way.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
BY: MIGUEL RICO SUBOSA
THINGS WITH A FUTILE BEAUTY
The reddest rose atop the tomb of a dead beloved.
A book you love all too well that you placed it far up some shelves -- its pages virgin, not one dog-eared. And it even still smells of plastic unwrapped.
The ever-changing moon, blessed with a borrowed luster yet accursed of appearing every night.
A melody sang but never heard.A grand idea left unspoken. Or that grand idea spoken in too many words.
INVIGORATING THINGS
Moss along the bark of a wilted tree in wintertime.
The returning caress of a winter breeze on Indian summer.
A light that flickers from a distance while one is alone and afloat the indigo vastness of an ocean at night.
The sidden silence of a mother to welcome the first cries of her infant. She chooses to sleep and quiet her cries of pain so that the little world of the delivery room hears nothing but her newborn child's cries. It is her hero's welcome for one she has long been awaiting.
A sour candy that stings the tongue -- STING! -- when one is half-asleep.Sex between lovers, though one or the other is infertile.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Things with a futile beauty" and you changed it to "Beauty in Vain"...
"A reddest rose atop the tomb of a dead beloved" and you changed it to "A crimson rose atop a lover's gravestone"...
Y'see, that's plagiarism. As a self-proclaimed writer, you should know that it is the lowest of all the lowest things that you could have done.
How much more pathetic a writer could you be?
My books need no one to accuse or judge you: the page which is yours stands up against you and says, "You are a thief."-Marcus Valerius Martial
Y Y Y
