The full saga of Opal and the Harvard plagiarist

Parent Cafe
101

<p>Ronald Reagan once told a moving story about something he witnessed years before - only to have it revealed sometime later that the “event” actually happened in a movie he saw
well I think that was a role that he played in a movie- and I for one, was not too surprised when he was found to have Alzheimers.
I wonder how long he actually had , had it.</p>

102

<p>Well, he may have been suffering from Alzheimers at the time - but it was early in his first term in office… :slight_smile:
The movie was “A Wing and a Prayer” and Reagan wasn’t in it, he just saw it.</p>

103

<p>Arjun Shankar: You asked an innocent question early on, but since then you seem to be defending the actions. Is this your way of rationalizing or internalizing some of the things you may have done?</p>

104

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<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/27/books/27cnd-author.html?hp&ex=1146196800&en=624c5c30a07fe9b1&ei=5094&partner=homepage[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/27/books/27cnd-author.html?hp&ex=1146196800&en=624c5c30a07fe9b1&ei=5094&partner=homepage&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

105

<p>The more she says, the more she digs herself into a hole. I actually had some small doubts concerning the plagiarism charges before I read this: </p>

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<p>If she had a photographic memory, she would remember precisely where her words came from.</p>

<p>Furthermore, she is trying way too hard to explain her plagiarism to be sincere.</p>

106

<p>Plagiarism for sure, as the publisher of the Harvard student book has caved. </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;

107

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<p>No…i just think there’s more to her case than meets the eye. I think we shouldn’t jump to conclusions till its completely analysed. Remember, i’m not defending plagiarism…i’m just offering alternate possibilities, which unless considered makes the charges levied very unfair.</p>

108

<p>“The publisher Little, Brown and the author Kaavya Viswanathan have agreed to withdraw all editions”</p>

<p>Agreement? And we have to believe that as well? Did they suddenly decide to play nice and eat all the costs brought by “unfair” charges? </p>

<p>Final analysis: Bu-bye royalties and career. All what is left is a ruined reputation.</p>

109

<p>Gotta go get a copy quick!!! (don’t worry - I buy everything used. ;))</p>

110

<p>Arjun - I just have to say that the expectations of a Harvard student go far beyond recognizing sources and realizing inspiration. Harvard students are, by and large, brilliant and are certainly capable of having great thoughts that they put down on paper. But with that, there comes the noblesse oblige of recognizing - for themselves and to others - ideas that their own intellect may have come up with eventually but that in fact others did come up with and it is from those others that the thoughts were born.</p>

<p>I have been on judicial board cases where students “didn’t realize” (or claimed not to have realized) where certain information came from. This is still plagiarism and theft of thought. If this were a case before my board, the student would be found responsible of academic dishonesty and plagiarism and suspended if not expelled. I would allow myself to feel badly for her given the possibility that it was partially unintentional, but with that I would also then find her guilty of a kind of negligence that a person of great intellectual means simply cannot allow in his or her own life.</p>

111

<p>What a joke! Read a couple of Q/A from interviews given prior to this plagiarism accusation:</p>

<p>Isn’t it a little precocious for an 18-year-old to be penning a chick-lit novel?
Probably not as much as a 30-year-old, but I think I’ve experienced enough to capture the angst and drama of high school. </p>

<p>Is this inspired by Bridget Jones’ Diary?
Not consciously. The books aren’t similar, except for their categorisation as chick-lit.</p>

112

<p>Chocoholic, it’s interesting that the interviewer brought up Brigit Jones Diary where the author was straight up about her source of inspiration.</p>

113

<p>Yup!! And Kaavya thinks its precocious for a 30-year old to be writing a chick-lit novel!! I wonder how she would categorize a 19-year-old lifting off a 30-year-old’s chick-lit novel. Her responses are pretty slick.</p>

114

<p>Ah, well, the publisher is withdrawing the book. So much for the increased sales this event was sparking…</p>

115

<p>Guilty as charged. 40 or more passages. No way this could ever be a coincidence/unconscious. No shame either–makes me sick. Anyone else think the OP’s motivation to defend this “author” is, uh, . . .obvious?</p>

116

<p>So meanwhile, as far as I know, Doris Kearns Goodwin is still a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers, and still touted as one of “the nation’s leading historians.” No shame there. (To be fair, she graduated from Colby.)</p>

117

<p>“Guilty as charged”? “40 or more passages?” Well, here they are: <a href=“http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/lunch/Passages.pdf[/url]”>http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/lunch/Passages.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
In my opinion you’ve got maybe 4 which I’d consider too close for comfort, another 4 or 5 that are borderline, and another 30 or so which fall into the “Paul is dead” category - that is, if you’ve made up your mind in advance that it’s true it’s obvious, but if you haven’t, you don’t see how anyone could believe it.</p>

<p>My favorite examples of “plagiarism” are: No. 31, which concludes that because both books contain a description of a high school cafeteria in which the different social groups or cliques sit at separate tables, the second book is plagiarizing the first one (!); coupled with No. 27, which accuses V of copying McC because in that same cafeteria scene each of them describes the “druggie” group as the “dregs.” That’s plagiarism?</p>

<p>Other examples of claimed plagiarism: each author, at one point in their book, says that a teenaged boy is wearing “faded Vans” shoes, although of different colors. (Plagiarism examples 4 and 20) Apparently McCafferty owns the rights to say that a person is applying “Carmex” to their lips, as well, (No. 25) and also the use of the term “upper crust” or anything similar, to describe the social elite. I could go on, but if you look at the “offending” passages on their own I don’t think that a reasonable person would conclude that most of V’s are “copies” of McC’s.</p>

<p>Now, I haven’t read either book. It may be that the overall plot lines are excessively similar (I mean, beyond the fact that genre books like this tend to all be the same anyway.)</p>

<p>atomom, I’m inclined to accept the OP on her face. On the other hand, I don’t see why you are so gleeful about this.</p>

118

<p>The passages I saw were quite obviously the same. </p>

<p>Not gleeful. Sad that a Harvard student could be this stupid. Be smart. Look good. Cheat. Lie with confidence. Is that what it’s all about?</p>

<p>(I suppose some people still think Nicole Simpson’s killer will be found any day now).</p>

119

<p>The extent of the similarities between the passages in the books has been overstated, in my opinion. Here is the list of allegedly infringing passages: <a href=“http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/lunch/Passages.pdf[/url]”>http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/lunch/Passages.pdf&lt;/a&gt;
In my opinion there are definitely 4 or 5 which I’d consider too close for comfort, another 4 or 5 that are borderline, and another 30 or so which fall into the “Paul is dead” category - that is, if you’ve made up your mind in advance that it’s true it’s obvious, but if you haven’t, you don’t see how anyone could believe it. If it wasn’t for the first group I don’t think anyone would have noticed the rest.</p>

<p>I can understand why the publisher pulled the book, but I couldn’t be sure that this is a case of intentional copying, either. The parts that are supposedly copied are, for the most part, trite and unoriginal descriptions of common high school scenes and themes - such as the students sitting at tables in the cafeteria according to their social group, the descriptions of the attire of the students, etc. It could actually be a case of unconscious regurgitation of previously read stuff, given the lack of originality of the books. I can’t say about the plotlines, though.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/3828527.html[/url]”>http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/3828527.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Not coming to a theater near you: the movie version of How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, the debut novel by Harvard sophomore Kaavya Viswanathan that was yanked off shelves this week when it was found to contain multiple plagiarized passages.</p>

<p>A source close to DreamWorks, which had optioned Opal Mehta, said Friday that work on the movie, which was in the early stages of development, has been halted.</p>