April 26, 2006

• Plagiarist or Fraud?

  The weekly Harvard Independent points out
  that Kaavya Viswanathan's recent novel may have been
  ghostwritten.  Therefore the ghostwriter, rather than the
  purported author, may have committed the original plagiarism. 
  Viswanathan maintains that she herself wrote the novel, and said that "any
  phrasing similarities... were completely unintentional and
  unconscious." (Harvard Crimson, April 24)  (The use of ghostwriters is not generally called plagiarism, although one definition says
  plagiarism is "passing off someone else's work as your own."  This
  would of course make all recent U.S. presidents guilty of the crime.)

  Related material:

  • ABC News Nightline:
    Harvard Writer Not First to
    Strike a Similar Pose
  • The Harvard Plagiarism Archive

  • 2:00 pm
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