Don't be guilty of intellectual theft

Jerry Bellune

Feb 1, 2024

I used to assign rookie reporters to interview mayors and police chiefs and others who might be newsworthy. Before they left, we discussed issues that might make a news story and their questions that needed answers.
Bellune

Since this has been prominent in the news, here is some information about plagiarism you should know.

Plagiarism is an act of intellectual theft.

It means using someone else’s work without giving them credit, according to the website Scribber.

It can be done by quoting, paraphrasing or copying a text word for word.

A recent case of this was Harvard University president Claudine Gay. She resigned after it was revealed she had plagiarized other scholars’ work as her own.

Ms. Gay isn’t alone in this. Neri Oxman, a tenured Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, was allegedly guilty of plagiarism in her doctoral dissertation, according to the newsletter Business Insider.

In 2019, the Boston Globe uncovered emails showing her husband, Bill Ackman, a critic of Claudine Gay and prominent donor to MIT and Harvard, pressured MIT to keep his wife’s name out of the news.

The Globe reported Ackman’s wife gave discredited sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein an original sculpture in thanks for a $125,000 donation to her lab.

You’ll find seven ways you could be accused of plagiarism at Scribbr.com.

The online Grammarly’s plagiarism checker will compare a text to billions of web pages and academic papers to let you know if it may have been plagiarized. It also offers writing feedback and corrections to help you improve your writing.

Tune up your eyes & ears

I used to assign rookie reporters to interview mayors and police chiefs and others who might be newsworthy.

Before they left, we discussed issues that might make a news story and their questions that needed answers.

When they returned, I asked the reporters what they heard the mayor say, chapter and verse.

“Don’t look at your notes,” I told them. “Tell me what you heard as you recall it. Tell it as you would tell your family a story.”

When they had satisfied me that they had a story worth writing, they went to their desks with their notes. They were learning three things:

  1. Ask good questions and shut up to listen.
  2. Listen not only with your ears but your eyes, too. Take in details of how speakers act and are dressed plus what’s in the room.
  3. Develop your memory to filter out the extraneous and use only words they said that are pertinent and that our readers would be interested in.

After the reporters wrote their stories, they received their notes and were told to compare what they wrote with their notes to make sure:

  1. Direct quotes, facts and figures were accurate.
  2. All important points that our readers would want or need to know were included.

You do not have to be a journalist to tune up your eyes and ears. It works for all of us.

Next: Your active listening skills.

Jerry Bellune is a writing coach and author of “The Art of Compelling Writing,” Volume 1 and Volume 2. Coaching your writers (and editors) takes time you might not have. An option is to order copies for them of my book, “The Art of Compelling Writing,” now available for $9.99 at Amazon.com
P.S. I am available online or in person for coaching sessions or seminars at your member's newspapers or press association events.