My Two Cents: Plagiarism

I love my "My Two Cents" posts. Why? Because they're mine. I came up with the idea back in January after the Magic Under Glass Scandal. And every time I have an opinion, I can use "My Two Cents". If someone stole my posts, not only would that hurt it would also be pointless.

This what I don't get in regards to the plagiarising of book reviews, as an opinionated person myself I couldn't stand to take someone else's thoughts why? because they're not mine. A book review is an opinion of what you think of a particular book. Your thoughts, your take, your opinion. Not someone else's opinion.

Book reviewing isn't a contest people, and it's becoming sad because it seems that a lot of reviewers are looking at it that way. It's not about having the most review books or the best reviews, I know I have neither and I am as happy as a kid in a candy shop, because I have given myself a reason to read, a reason to buy too many books. Everyone has their own reasons, they're mine.

Onto how it feels to be plagiarised, because I have been, not here, but in a school writing contest. Being a writer and having that done got me very close to having an assault charge laid against me, because i was ready to kill someone.

For writers and reviewers our reputations rely solely on our words, our ideas and our opinions. To have that stolen is absolutely shattering because to be honest, unless you have a thousand blogs ready to get on your bandwagon, you can't do much unless you have a helluva lot of proof.

To have what you work on stolen and used without any permission or credit hurts. Hurts like being kicked in the guts multiple times and then being spat on for good measure just to make sure you really feel like crap.


This post isn't for The Plagiarist, she has suffered greatly and is remorseful for her actions, those of us who know who it is aren't mentioning her name because she feels bad enough, and it will take along long time, if ever for her reputation to be restored.

This post is for the people who haven't done it yet, who have yet to think it's a great idea to steal someone else's ideas and use them. Not only have we been taught in school, college/uni, work even that unoriginality is not only wrong, but in some cases illegal, it is also down-right lazy, rude and uncreative. We are creative people with opinions and original thoughts, if you can't have an original thought or opinion then you shouldn't be reviewing.


I have said my piece, like it or not.