Kaavya Viswanathan

-Received a $500,000 contract to write a book when she was 17 years old

-Published the book 2 years later, in 2006

- Sophomore student at Harvard University at the time

- Thief, liar

Viswanathan’s novel

-Published in 2006

-The book hit best-seller lists immediately (#32 on the New York Times best-seller list)

-DreamWorks studio bought the movie rights

Viswanathan plagiarized (copied, stole)

multiple passages of her novelfrom two novels by

Megan F. McCafferty, Sloppy Firsts (2001) andSecond Helpings (2003).

McCafferty:

“Sabrina was the brainy Angel.Yet another example of how everygirl had to be one or the other: pretty or smart.”

“Bridget is my age and lives acrossthe street. For the first twelve yearsof my life, these qualifications were all I needed in a best friend.”

“…but in a truly sadomasochisticdieting gesture, they chose tobuy their Diet Cokes at Cinnabon.”

Viswanathan:

“Moneypenny was the brainy femalecharacter. Yet another example of howevery girl had to be one or the other: smart or pretty.”

“Priscilla was my age and lived twoblocks away. For the first fifteen yearsof my life, those were the onlyqualifications I needed in a best friend.”

“In a truly masochistic gesture, theyhad decided to buy Diet Cokes fromMrs. Fields.”

*The Harvard Crimson and other sources are currently reporting dozens of such “similarities.”

“No comment. I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Later – “I was so surprised and horrified when I found these similarities.”

Later – Plagiarism was “unconscious and unintentional.”

Later - "I really thought the words were my own. I guess it's just been in my head."

On the request of McCafferty’s publisher (Crown), Viswanathan’s publisher (Little, Brown) cancelled all further sales of the novel

New Delhi distributors requested to pull the book.Harvard issued no disciplinary action, since the

incident took place outside of the academic program.

Great financial loss – Viswanathan had been granted a half-million dollar advance and a movie deal.

She was also accused of plagiarizing books by Sophie Kinsella, Meg Cabot, and Salman Rushdie

Viswanathan has discredited herself and will always be known as “that girl who plagiarized.”

How to be sure you are not plagiarizing.

If a piece of work is not yours, it breaks the Academic Honesty Policy: “Webster’s New World Dictionary states that plagiarism is ‘the act of taking (ideas, writing, etc) from (another) and passing them off as one’s own.’”(p. 9 in the Ferguson Middle School handbook)

All written work is the intellectual property of the author. The author owns the work.

If you take someone’s property it is called stealing. Stealing is illegal.

If you then put your name on someone else’s work, you are lying.

Since you did not create the work, that is cheating.

So plagiarism is essentially cheating, stealing and lying all in one, which breaks the academic honesty policy on all levels.

This means to SUMMARIZE or RE-TELL the information using words that you thought up.

The rule of thumb is that you may not have any more than 3 words in a row that are the same as another piece of work.

You can also use direct quotes as long as you cite the source and do not make your entire piece of work up of quotes.

This is word for word from the website http://home.netscape.com:

“Once in a Lifetime Find in Montana

“There's gold in...Montana! At least, there might be. A microscopic diamond has been found on an 80-acre site in central Montana called the Homestead property. What was discovered was kimberlite, the molten rock in which diamonds are found, reports The Associated Press.”

Here is a summary:The Associated Press

reports that kimberlite has been found in Montana. Since this is the material that diamonds are found in, it looks like there could be diamonds in Montana.

This is word for word from the website http://home.netscape.com:

“Once in a Lifetime Find in Montana”

There's gold in...Montana! At least, there might be. A microscopic diamond has been found on an 80-acre site in central Montana called the Homestead property. What was discovered was kimberlite, the molten rock in which diamonds are found, reports The Associated Press.”

Changing words: Hardly Ever Found in a

Lifetime: Striking gold in…Montana! At least there could be. A very small diamond has been found on an 80-acre area in central Montana named the Homestead property. What was discovered is called kimberlite, the melted rock in which diamonds are made, reports the Associated Press.

This is plagiarism !

Plagiarism is the theft of intellectual property. If you copy something out of a book, movie, CD, internet

site, or other source and try to pass it off as your own, you are lying, cheating, and stealing which is a clear violation of the Academic Honesty Policy.

You must use your own words and summarize.You are free to use all sources available as long as you

mark direct quotations with quotation marks (“”) and/or use a footnote or bibliographical note to identify the source.

You cannot legally copy phrases from a textbook or any other source and include them in daily homework, assigned papers, oral presentations, or any other work without so noting.

You cannot copy the work of your fellow students. If you make a bad choice and plagiarize, you are subject

to disciplinary consequences. Excuses such as “I forgot,” “I didn’t know,” “I didn’t understand,” and “I didn’t mean to,” etc. are not acceptable after viewing this PowerPoint.

I understand that plagiarism is the theft of intellectual property. I understand that if I copy something out of a book, movie, CD,

internet site, or other source and try to pass it off as my own that I am lying, cheating, and stealing.

Plagiarism breaks the Ferguson Middle School Academic Honesty Policy. Further information regarding Plagiarism and the Academic Honesty Policy is found in the handbook which is located in the student planner on page 9.

I understand that I am free to use all sources available to me as long as I mark direct quotations with quotation marks (“”) and/or use a footnote or bibliographical note to identify the source.

I understand that I cannot legally copy phrases from my textbook or any other source and include them in my daily homework, assigned papers, oral presentations, or any other work without so noting.

I understand that I cannot copy the work of my fellow students. I understand that if I make a bad choice and plagiarize, I am

subject to consequences including: a zero on the assignment, two demerits, Saturday School, conference with administrators, lowered quarter grade, and possible suspension from Ferguson Middle School. I further understand that excuses such as “I forgot,” “I didn’t know,” I didn’t understand,” and “I didn’t mean to,” etc. are not acceptable.

Ryan, J.W., & Spangler, E.C. “Plagiarism.” 2006. (PowerPoint).

Revised 5/12/11