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I'm sure we're all just being flippant with the term "plagiarism." But
since this is a public forum, and the Internet is everlasting, I'd like
to remind the new writers fresh out of college: Plagiarism and copyright
infringement are both serious issues, and they are distinct from one
another. If you're using another company's published material verbatim,
that's not the same as rewriting your own company staff's work. Consider
the source, and when in doubt, ask. In some situations, plagiarism can
cost you your job, and copyright infringement can cost your company a
whole lot of money.
-----Original Message-----
From: Kari Gulbrandsen
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 8:02 PM
To: William Sherman
Cc: techwr-l -at- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: STC certification program
A lot of mine is plagiarized as well. Why reinvent the wheel? A lot of
the documents that I have had to write/edit are for internal use, and
I'm directed to take what I can use from other groups within the
organization.
There's no way that my companies would pay me for the hours it would
take to write every document that I've been involved in from scratch.
On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 6:18 PM, William Sherman wrote:
> I guess I am doomed to eternity in Hell, then. Three quarters of the
> work I have done is plagiarism.
>
> Probably the same percentage of technical writers I have known in my
> lifetime have about the same percentage in their work.
>
> Only a fool would rewrite a 400 page manual completely for 10 pages of
> changes that need to be done in 4 weeks and there are only 50 hours
> budgeted.
>
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