In the wake of the latest pair of plagiarists caught — a young Harvard student novelist with a fat book deal and the CEO of Raytheon — we are left, once more, to shake our heads and wonder: Why do they do it? Isn’t everyone on notice today that Google has made it virtually certain that you will get caught?
My assumption has always been that writers do it because, fundamentally, writing is hard, shortcuts are tempting, and some writers lack the self-discipline and/or self-respect to resist that temptation. That’s one of a bunch of possible reasons Jack Shafer’s essay on the latest plagiarists proposes over at Slate. Another rationale he suggests is “Even If You Get Caught, You’ll Probably Get Away With It.”
We can’t make writing any easier; it is what it is. But we — everyone in the fields of journalism, publishing and media — can surely do a better job of shaming and shunning those who are caught.
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