Friday, December 3, 2010

Plagiarism....

What would you do if someone used something you created without giving you credit?

I had this happen to me once. I love to write poetry and I sometimes share with friends what I write. One day when I was in school, I wrote a poem about losing someone I loved and shared it with a classmate I thought was my friend. She loved it and told me to enter it into a writing contest that the school was having. I said no it was too personal for me to share it with the whole school. She took it out of my book one day, submitted it to the contest under her name, and won 1st place. She did not give me any credit in the post, so when I went to the teacher that sponsored the contest I had to prove that it was my original work. All was corrected in the end and she was punished and made to post an apology to me in the school paper. That was my first taste of plagiarism. It is important to give credit when you use someone else’s work or ideas because you can get into legal trouble if you do not.

2 comments:

  1. I am glad you were able to get the situation worked out when it came to her stealing your work. That really is an aweful thing for someone to do. I am sorry something that you wanted to keep private ended up being published. You must be an amazing writer to win first place like that. Good job. Maybe sometime you will bless us with some of your poetry on this blog.

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  2. Wow! I have never realized how someone can take something that isn't theirs and claim for their own. When I think about it, my sense of justice goes into geer right away. I have a very strong sense of justice and fairness. I am so glad everything worked out for you in that you got the credit, even though your choosing to make it public was taken away from you, you were blessed with everyone enjoying it. You sound very understanding and forgiving. Great for you.

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