Poor K. Cohen - Her prodigy is another Blair Hornstine

Parents Forum
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<p>I remember when Janet Dailey plagiarized from Nora Roberts–had been for years from what I remember. There was a lawsuit, money paid, agreements reached. Four years later Janet Dailey received a 7 figure advance for four books from a large publisher. </p>

<p>But with this young author, it is my understanding that 17th Street Productions owns the copyright to her work. I’ve heard it was the people there who worked closely with her to develope the book. It will be interesting to hear if they will be held to any accountability.</p>

<p>tokenadult–you are right about the standard publishing contract.</p>

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<p><<From the big smile on her face, I conclude that negative publicity is better than no publicity at all.</p>

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<p>To be fair, that photo was taken before her alleged plagiarism was discovered. She’s wearing the same brown polo shirt and standing under the same brick archway in a bunch of photos that appear in the Crimson, NY Times, etc… both before and after this recent news.</p>

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<p>momof2inca, whew, that’s a relief – it really seemed strange to me that she would pose in such a way for this story – although doesn’t the caption say the picture was taken just last week?</p>

<p>On the first page of the actual article, the book is shown on display at Barnes & Noble with a discount of 30%…</p>

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<p>Book is selling REALLY well - #100 on Amazon! Sounds pretty funny to me, too! (the ghostwriter/packager is probably a better writer than she is anyway. ;))</p>

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<p>I have a theory and a comment -</p>

<p>From something I read in one of the earlier announcements on the book’s release, they (the company that ‘collaborated’ with her on the movie/book deal) expected it would generate a lot of sales in India, where it would be read like a “How to” on getting into the Ivies.
I think it was a similar faustian deal for Kohen - counselor recommends her to publisher, book sells well, free PR for counselor; and for kavya - she must have read somewhere ‘education is an investment’ and ‘time is money’ - she ‘internalized’ these as is her wont :wink: , put the two together and voila, ideas started flowing, the book deals started streaming in - the rest is history!</p>

<p>Basically her reading, writing, ethics/character/judgement displayed and her own modus operandi used for getting into HU indicates clearly she is not the right material for any upstanding institution - I dont think HU yardsticks should be that different on these issues than that of any educational establishment.</p>

<p>Unfortunately the college admission process in general and of the ivies in particular, makes kids feel that accomplished as they are they are still not good enough, they must claim exaggerated ECs and credentials as we saw on another thread - surely Adcoms should be able to see through some of these ‘overachievers’.</p>

<p>In our school - 1 of the kids who’s been accepted to Harvard was running a site sending referrals to porn sites at 14 - when confronted he never apologized, instead his mother unleashed her fury on me for accusing a ‘little kid’ - in her place the first lesson I would have taught my kid was to admit the error, and apologize to the adult concerned. Thus are future Milkens and Fastows made - thro parents’ direct collusion.</p>

<p>The 2nd kid admitted to HU grabbed the captain’s spot on the debate team through dubious methods, did not attend half the meetings leaving his classmates all mad…I heard this through the grapevine.</p>

<p>I have totally lost my respect for the Harvard selection process - and no, my own kid did not even try HU or the Ivies - he has an amazing maturity, for one, and we also told him not to ever put himself in situations where he is so greedy for the prize that he may find himself compromising his integrity.</p>

<p>I will blame the parents in all of this - I see a pattern. The other day a friend of ours told us of his letting his room out to a friend’s son in the local college who then landed up stealing $4,000 on the former’s credit card over a 4 month period till the kid was caught.</p>

<p>Sorry, sorry state of affairs.</p>

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<p>I don’t get why Harvard should have lost your respect. How was its admissions office to know of these shortcomings? Teachers and GCs are expected to evaluate applicants, not to suggest they are future Demosthenes, Albert Einstein and Albert Schweitzer rolled into one.</p>

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<p>You’re right - they were ‘victims’ in a sense too - teachers and GCs are sometimes a little clueless too.</p>

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<p>FWIW Blair Hornstine ended up enrolling at St. Andrews University in Scotland after Harvard revoked her admission. Actually that was probably a great move to get away from all the negative feelings.</p>

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<p>Who was Blair Hornstine? Why did Harvard revoke her admission?</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=513041[/url]”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=513041&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>"The publisher of the two novels from which Kaavya Viswanathan ’08 admitted borrowing language for her own book said yesterday that it is “inconceivable” that the similarities between the books were unintentional, as Viswanathan has claimed. </p>

<p>Viswanathan said in a statement on Monday that the phrasing similarities “were completely unintentional and unconscious.” </p>

<p>But Steve Ross, the senior vice president and publisher of Crown Publishers and Three Rivers Press—two subsidiaries of Random House—characterized Viswanathan’s statement as “deeply troubling and disingenuous.” </p>

<p>“This extensive taking from Ms. McCafferty’s books is nothing less than an act of literary identity theft,” Ross said yesterday. “Based on the scope and character of the similarities, it is inconceivable that this was a display of youthful innocence or an unconscious or unintentional act.” </p>

<p>McCafferty’s agent, Joanna Pulcini, said that she has found 45 passages in “Opal Mehta” that are “strikingly similar” to parts of McCafferty’s two books."</p>

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<p>It’s up to number 65 on Amazon, and rising! I’d buy the first edition before they make all the changes - collector’s item! :)</p>

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<p>Yes, as I said --it is inconceivable, not believable. If you know how writers write, you know they can absorb others’ words sometimes, but I have never seen it like that. Never.</p>

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I’m not defending the author here at all … but shouldn’t the publisher have caught this … I would think their reviewers would review a particualr genre’ and they would catch some of the similarities. Or am I way off here?</p>

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<p>So Blair Hornstine had her admission to Harvard rescinded – will there be any repercussions for Kaavya?</p>

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<p>For what? did she somehow “cheat” Harvard? Do they revoke the Harvard degrees of all the Wall Street cheats, disbarred lawyers, corporate crooks? It’s not like they’re giving her a medal.</p>

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<p>Remember - Doris Kearns Goodwin - the reigning “queen of plagiarism”, sits on the Harvard Board of Overseers (or did - I haven’t looked her up lately.)</p>

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<p>I guess Blair must have submitted her articles to Harvard as part of her admission package?</p>

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<p>A Google search on Goodwin found an interesting quotation from a guide given to Harvard students: </p>

<p><a href=“Slate Magazine - Politics, Business, Technology, and the Arts”>Slate Magazine - Politics, Business, Technology, and the Arts; </p>

<p>“Most often, however, the plagiarist has started out with good intentions but hasn’t left enough time to do the reading and thinking that the assignment requires, has become desperate, and just wants the whole thing done with. At this point, in one common scenario, the student gets careless while taking notes on a source or incorporating notes into a draft, so the source’s words and ideas blur into those of the student, who has neither the time nor the inclination to resist the blurring. . . . If, in your essay on plagiarism, after reading the [previous sentence] you observe that ‘at a certain point in the writing process the student has neither the time nor the inclination to resist the blurring of his source’s words into his own’ but don’t use quotation marks at least for the words in the middle of the sentence, you are plagiarizing even if you do cite [this] booklet.”</p>

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<p>“Who was Blair Hornstine? Why did Harvard revoke her admission?”</p>

<p><<it was=“” shown=“” she=“” had=“” plagiarized=“” repeatedly=“” in=“” a=“” newspaper=“” column,=“” prompting=“” harvard=“” university=“” to=“” revoke=“” its=“” offer=“” of=“” admission.=“”>></it></p>

<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blair_Hornstine[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blair_Hornstine&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>The publisher of the Harvard admission novel now concedes that it shouldn’t sell its book anymore. Just as happened with Goodwin’s book. </p>

<p><a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060428/ap_en_ot/young_author[/url]”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060428/ap_en_ot/young_author&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;