Monday, January 08, 2007
The Price of Plagiarism
I can't overemphasize the importance of attributing any information that you did not uncover on your own. Every year, many professional journalists find their careers over because they were sloppy with attribution. Already in the first week of 2007,
Jacqueline Gonzalez of the San Antonio Express-News newsroom employee resigned after admitting she used, without attribution, information from Wikipedia in her Christmas Day column. Two other instances of plagiarism were uncovered in other column.
In an article in the Express-News, Editor Robert Rivard was quoted as saying "Nothing is more important to us than the trust of our readers. They have to know with some certainty that we act swiftly and unequivocally in the face of such a transgression."
The best advice: When in doubt, attribute. If you are writing for the Web and found the information on the Web, provide a link to the original source.
Jacqueline Gonzalez of the San Antonio Express-News newsroom employee resigned after admitting she used, without attribution, information from Wikipedia in her Christmas Day column. Two other instances of plagiarism were uncovered in other column.
In an article in the Express-News, Editor Robert Rivard was quoted as saying "Nothing is more important to us than the trust of our readers. They have to know with some certainty that we act swiftly and unequivocally in the face of such a transgression."
The best advice: When in doubt, attribute. If you are writing for the Web and found the information on the Web, provide a link to the original source.
