ShmoopTube

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Plagiarism, a la Shmoop. Johnny Theatre just loves life under the bright

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lights.

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And yeah, okay… “Johnny Theatre” is just his stage name. He changed it a few years

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back from “Joe Actor.” Johnny is in awe of playwrights who can manipulate

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language like it was Play-doh…

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He is so in awe of them, in fact, that he decides to start… borrowing some of their

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work, and passing it off as his own.

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That is why they call it “play-giarism,” after all… right?

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Like any thief, he starts small.

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For a while, it’s just a line here and there that… speaks to him.

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But by the end of the year, he’s submitting full plays to publishers with just the title

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changed.

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It isn’t long before someone realizes that Johnny’s play “Seriously Tortured Guy”

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is actually “Hamlet.” Whoopsies. Immediately, Johnny is kicked out of his theatre

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group. No other theatres in town will have him.

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But that’s only the tip of the iceberg. The head of his old theatre company publicizes

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the offense, and suddenly Johnny’s writing career is as dead as his acting career.

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David Mamet catches wind of the fact that Johnny took his play “Glengarry Glen Ross”

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and published it under the title “Dude, Where are My Leads?”

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He brings a lawsuit against Johnny… before long, Johnny has lost his life savings in

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court fees, his home, his possessions… and his pet turtle, Gilbert, who can’t even

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look him in the eye anymore. He even serves a few months jail time.

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And plagiarizers don’t get their own jail. He shares a cell with some guy who’s still

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got half an ear in his mouth. Things got bad in a hurry for Johnny… but

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they don’t have to get bad for you.

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Plagiarism is a crime… a theft of ideas, rather than of a physical thing… but a crime

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all the same. And it’s totally unnecessary. You can always

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reference someone else’s words or ideas…

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…as long as you give them credit, by citing them properly.

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Of course, not all plagiarism is intentional… some people have gotten in quite a bit of

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trouble for repeating someone else’s phrasings unintentionally…

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…which is why you must be sure to know and understand the citation process…

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…and to be careful whenever you are putting to paper… or to keyboard… anything that

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may have originated elsewhere. Students who are caught plagiarizing can be

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expelled or suspended.

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Journalists or others in the media can lose their jobs… and have trouble ever finding

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another one that doesn’t involve offering French fries to hungry customers.

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But what are some of the types of plagiarism you have to be aware of?

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Well, there’s “copying verbatim,” i.e…. copying someone’s work word for word without

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citation. No bueno. Obviously.

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Then there’s “copying verbatim with citation”… which happens when you fail to put quotes

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around the line or lines you’re copying. Just a couple clicks of a particular keyboard

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button could keep you out of a ton of hot water.

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And finally there’s paraphrasing, which is when you get really clever and change 3

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or 4 words to make it seem like a totally different sentence.

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Nice try, slick. Copyrights protect ideas, not just the words expressing them. So if

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it’s obvious you’re ripping off someone’s precise idea… start thinking about whom

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you’d like to be the recipient of your one phone call.

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When in doubt… cite. You can get in trouble for not citing…

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…but you’ll never get in trouble for citing too much.

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You might give your readers a headache, but at least you won’t suffer Johnny’s fate.

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