plagiarizers will be shot and sent to the western front

all right, perhaps that's a play on words from what my modern american history professor wrote on the board the day of our first exam.

he had written "cheaters will be shot and sent to the western front." (he has an awesome sense of humor.)

so, plagiarism. i absolutely hate it. for anyone who has some integrity, especially someone who calls him- or herself a writer it is inexcusable. like hester prynne, the scumbags that feel it necessary to plagiarize should have a giant "P" emblazoned across their chests.

in high school if you plagiarized a paper, you failed that assignment, and could face other repercussions, depending on the teacher. in college, it was the same deal, though you might also fail the class and maybe even be asked to leave the school.

i remember back in school always hearing about "do NOT plagiarize" from my teachers, and in college, every syllabus had the school's anti-plagiarism message (and punishments) listed, usually on the first page. it's no joke. it's theft. it's dishonesty. for lack of a better word, it's just plain shitty.

so, imagine my surprise when i go over a book review for this month's publication for the first time to really edit (i prefer getting it settled into the layout first before i do my fine-tuning). i already had one of my editors go over the manuscript and she didn't notice anything amiss, and i can't blame her. however, for some reason i wanted to look something up in the book, and that's when i caught it. the very first page of chapter one contained the same paragraph that i had just read, located about 3-4 paragraphs down the first column of the review. i flipped out. i then discovered the first 2 paragraphs were gleaned from the book flap, and the last paragraph was from page 130.

did this freelance writer think i was stupid??? that i don't look over the books? true, i didn't catch it immediately, but i caught it nonetheless (thank god).

i was so insulted, pissed off, and about ready to drive out to where this man lived to personally give him a piece of my mind, though honestly, it's not worth the gas money.

i plan on e-mailing him and demanding answers. one person told me to send his name out to as many other publications and blacklist him. another told me to give him a serious slap on the hand. quite frankly, i want to confront him, ask why he did it, and then tell him that his past work over the last year has been shoddy, his book reviews have been sub-par, and i don't need him writing for me.

is this too harsh, or not enough? it's not like i'm NYT and i'm cool with that. but still.

if you take writing seriously, then you don't steal someone else's words and present them as your own. take pride in your work. don't be lazy. as a good friend told me after i mentioned the incident, "how would he have liked it if someone had plagiarized him?"

seriously man, how would you feel about it?