Plagiarism vs. Borrowing
Just a short entry today because I was wondering about something I ran across. I often have a hard time distinguishing between plagiarism, paraphrasing, borrowing and stealing when it comes to written or spoken material. If someone rips a hole in the door with an ax, pokes their head through and says with a dastardly smile, "Here's Johnny!", we recognize that they are quoting Jack Nicholson in The Shining and not Ed McMahon of the Tonight show. Quotes and authors aren't required. If someone says, "I'll be back!" in a heavy Austrian accent, you'll chuckle and say, "Arnold, right?"
These are examples of quotes that may not be perfectly done and the impersonator doesn't give proper credit and may even say the wrong thing, but you get the drift and give the credit where it's due, right? But I'll bet you might not always do it. I'm going to give you a quote by an author and see if you can tell me who said something very, very similar. So much so, I can't really figure if it is borrowing or what.
In the early 1860's Orestes Brownson wrote of Abraham Lincoln, "You ask not can this man carry the nation through its terrible struggles, but can the nation carry this man through them and not perish in the attempt." Doesn't that seem familiar?
These are examples of quotes that may not be perfectly done and the impersonator doesn't give proper credit and may even say the wrong thing, but you get the drift and give the credit where it's due, right? But I'll bet you might not always do it. I'm going to give you a quote by an author and see if you can tell me who said something very, very similar. So much so, I can't really figure if it is borrowing or what.
In the early 1860's Orestes Brownson wrote of Abraham Lincoln, "You ask not can this man carry the nation through its terrible struggles, but can the nation carry this man through them and not perish in the attempt." Doesn't that seem familiar?
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