NewsHour Extra: Plagiarism Scandal Exposes World of Book Packaging -- May 3, 2006

Using NewsHour Extra Feature Stories

Overview: NewsHour Extra features stories can help students identify and interpret key issues in current events. This activity anticipates one class period, but the follow-up essay might be assigned as homework, or in another period.

Warm Up: Use initiating questions to introduce the topic and find out how much your students know.

Main Activity: Have students read NewsHour Extra's feature story and answer the questions on the reading comprehension handout.

Discussion: Use discussion questions to encourage students to think about how the issues outlined in the story affect their lives and express and debate different opinions.

Follow-up: Students can write an 500-word editorial on the topic expressing their views and send it to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org] for possible publication.

Evaluation: Students are graded on their answers to reading comprehension questions and/or their editorial.

Story: Plagiarism Scandal Exposes World of Book Packaging, 05/03/06
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/jan-june06/author_5-03.html

In-depth Lesson Plan: How to Avoid Plagiarism --The purpose of this lesson is to teach students the definition of plagiarism and how to avoid plagiarism in their own work.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/general/plagiarism.html

Initiating Questions:

1. What is plagiarism?

2. What does it mean to paraphrase?

3. What does it mean to use another person's words?

4. What does it mean to use another person's ideas?

Reading Comprehension Questions: (click here for printout)

1. What is "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life" and why is it in the news right now?

Kaavya Viswanathan's novel, "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild and Got a Life," is the story of an Indian-American girl's quest to get into Harvard University. It fictionally parallels the real-life pursuit of the author, who is a sophomore at Harvard. It also contains over 40 similarities to another author's work, according to the publisher of the copied works.

2. How has the author of "Opal" responded to the controversy?

During an interview on NBC's "Today" show, Viswanathan apologized for the similarities but said it was not her intention to steal from the author.

"I completely see the similarities. I'm not denying that those are there, but I can honestly say that any of those similarities were completely unconscious and unintentional, that while I was reading Megan McCafferty's books, I must have just internalized her words. I never, ever intended to deliberately take any of her words," she said.

3. What are book packagers? What do they do?

Like many authors, Viswanathan worked with a book packager, Alloy Entertainment. Book packagers craft ideas and proposals for books that are then sold to publishing houses.

Although technically not secret, they are not a publicly well-known or discussed part of the book industry.

"They're used quite often. What they do is they come up with book ideas. They work very closely with authors to shape manuscripts; they edit manuscripts; they come up with concepts; and they find authors to write the books," Karen Holt, deputy editor of Publishers Weekly, a magazine that covers books and the book publishing industry, told the NewsHour.

4. Why do publishing companies use book packaging companies?

According to Holt, publishing companies use packaging companies because they help with copy-editing and creating book covers.

"In a sense, in a lot of cases it's kind of a form of outsourcing for the publisher, where a lot of the editorial functions that you would assume that a publisher is doing actually the book packager is doing," she said.

5. Who is responsible for ensuring that a novel was written by the author?

Although many people might work on a novel, the ultimate responsibility for the integrity of the work rests with the author.

"There really is no process for checking, for vetting any book to see if there is plagiarism. I mean, clearly, they rely on the honesty of their author; you know, clearly they have the expectation that this is original work," Holt said.

Discussion Activity (more research might be needed):

1. Kaavya Viswanathan admits to the similarities between her book and those of Megan McCafferty but she says that it was unintentional. Do you believe her? Do her intentions matter? Why or why not?

2. Do you think book packaging is a good idea? Why or why not? What are the pros and cons of this part of the publishing industry?

3. Associated Press articles report that Kaavya Viswanathan's book contains passages that are similar to a additional books, "Can You Keep a Secret" by Sophie Kinsella and "The Princess Diaries" by Meg Cabot. Look at the examples below. What do you think? Are the passages too similar? Are these good examples of plagiarism? Why or why not?

"Can You Keep a Secret" - the main character, Emma, approaches two friends who are "in a full-scale argument about animal rights," one friend says, "The mink like being made into coats."
How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" - Opal runs into two girls who are having "a full-fledged debate over animal rights." One of them says, "The foxes want to be made into scarves."
"The Princess Diaries" - "There isn't a single inch of me that hasn't been pinched, cut, filed, painted, sloughed, blown dry or moisturized…Because I don't look a thing like Mia Thermopolis. MIA Thermopolis never had fingernails. MIA Thermopolis never had blond highlights."
How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" - "Every inch of me had been cut, filed, steamed, exfoliated, polished, painted or moisturized. I didn't look a thing like Opal Mehta. Opal Mehta didn't own five pairs of shoes so expensive they could have been traded in for a small sailboat."
"Can You Keep a Secret" - one character says to another, "And we'll tell everyone that you get your Donna Karan coat from a discount warehouse shop."
" How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life" - Opal says to another girl, "I'll tell everyone that in eighth grade you used to wear a 'My Little Pony' sweatshirt to school every day."

Write a 500-800 word essay on any of these topics providing clear examples. Send your completed editorial to NewsHour Extra [extra@newshour.org]. Exceptional essays might be published on our Web site.