I found out a few days ago that I had been plagiarised by a blogger. She had taken chunks of text from two blog entries I had posted last year and passed it off as her own on a recent blog entry of hers. She had used text from my posts Are You Happy? and Move On. More specifically, the following paragraphs.
As much as I’d like to say I am, by all accounts, happy, a stronger part of me wants to say otherwise. Perhaps it stems from the fact that I’m not finding meaning in what I do for a living. Yet, dropping everything to pursue something else is impossible. For me, there seems to be this eternal conflict or dilemma, which ever way you want to call it, between what I like and what actually pays a somewhat decent wage. I am afflicted by the constant inverse relationship of the two. I still can’t quite figure out what path ahead I should trod.
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But until I really find myself, I’m afraid I’ll always remain ambivalent about my state of happiness.
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I’ve been feeling down and demoralised of late, feelings primarily brought on by stuff that’s been going on at work. When you suddenly suck at something you thought you were pretty good at, your confidence sinks to a new low; you’re consumed with self-doubt and you can’t seem to think properly anymore.
She had also put up the exact same lyrics from the song ‘Move On’ which I had posted on my blog. After the discovery of the misappropriation of my words, I left a comment on her blog saying I noticed that she has used some of my text in her blog entry and while flattered, I’d appreciate that I be attributed for it. I shall be nice this once and not put up the URL of the said blog so as not to turn this into a shame post. I checked in on her blog the next day after I posted the comment and discovered that she had written at the end of the blog entry ‘Extracts from dimsumdolly’. In the process, she had changed her blog design to one that no longer had a field where readers could leave comments. Hmm.
Well, erm, should I say thanks for the swift action? I don’t know, ‘cos this really shouldn’t have to happen in the first place. To this blogger and whoever is thinking of using someone else’s words – it’s NOT cool to pass off someone else’s work as your own. True, I may be no academic, scholar or accomplished writer, but I don’t like the idea of being plagiarised. In the academic or journalistic world, plagiarism is akin to career suicide. Yes, the things I blog about may not be considered as ‘serious’ publishing, but plagiarisim is fundamentally wrong.
I don’t mind being quoted, but it has to come with proper attribution and not just ‘Extracts from dimsumdolly’. I expect that you indicate exactly which text have been quoted and attribute accordingly. If you need help in proper referencing, please refer to the APA Formatting and Style Guide.
Thank you.