An Example of Real World Plagiarism
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Whether intentional or not, plagiarism often has serious consequences. Those caught plagiarizing pay a high price for the small amount of effort made on their part. One Harvard student, Kaavya Viswanathan risked her career as a writer and her standing as a student when she plagiarized from bestseller author, Megan McCafferty. In Viswanathan’s book, "How Opal Got Kissed," forty- five passages were found to be plagiarized from two of McCafferty’s books. Following are two excerpts from each book.
| McCafferty's Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings | Viswanathan's How Opal Got Kissed |
| page 7: "Bridget is my age and lives across the street. For the first twelve years of my life, these qualifications were all I needed in a best friend. But that was before Bridget's braces came off and her boyfriend Burke got on, before Hope and I met in our seventh grade Honors classes." | page 14: "Priscilla was my age and lived two blocks away. For the first fifteen years of my life, those were the only qualifications I needed in a best friend. We had bonded over our mutual fascination with the abacus in a playgroup for gifted kids. But that was before freshman year, when Priscilla's glasses came off, and the first in a long string of boyfriends got on." |
| page 6: "Sabrina was the brainy Angel. Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: Pretty or smart. Guess which one I got. You’ll see where it’s gotten me." | page 39: "Moneypenny was the brainy female character. Yet another example of how every girl had to be one or the other: smart or pretty. I had long resigned myself to category one, and as long as it got me to Harvard, I was happy. Except, it hadn’t gotten me to Harvard. Clearly, it was time to switch to category two." |
"Hymn" on display at the Saatchi Museum, London. 30
As a result of plagiarizing, Viswanathan’s book was recalled, the contract for her second book was terminated and a movie being produced by DreamWorks was suspended and her standing as a Harvard student came into question.
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