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Elan Brown Professor Collin Ludlow-Mattson English 114 First Year Composition 15 November 2013 Original Thought Intellectual property is original, creative property that comes from ones mind such as music, inventions, or literary pieces. The issue of plagiarism often comes up when dealing with intellectual property on whether or not certain cases are considered stealing. Malcolm Gladwell made the argument that when it comes to genre writing, everything is somewhat the same due to the continued use of borrowed themes. It is true that genres often borrow themes however, if a piece of literature doesnt contain any type of original thought, with the author adding their own twist to it, then I would consider that plagiarism. In Malcolm Gladwells, Viswanathan-Gate, he discusses the case of new author Viswanathan and her teen novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, where she was accused of plagiarizing from Megan McCaffertys Second Helpings and Sloppy Firsts. The case Gladwell argues is that what Viswanathan did should not be considered stealing. He believes that since they are both genre based novels of the same genre, that being romance, then the case should not be considered plagiarism due to the fact that its guaranteed that they will follow the same guidelines. For example, since they are both romance novels it is expected that there may be a love triangle, someone you want to notice you, or a girl/boy next door scenario. Gladwell made the statement that, These are novels based on novels

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based on novels. In which every convention of character and plot has been trotted out a thousand times before.(Viswanathan-gate pg.1), he argues that these ideas have already been created in genre fiction so there is no longer any original thought but instead numerous cases of borrowed themes. Gladwell also pointed out how borrowed thoughts are seen in different writing styles such as from scholars and journalist. When it comes to journal and scholastic writings any form of plagiarism or borrow thought would mean trouble. With scholar writings one is expected to have done their own research and formed their own thoughts on the material and with journals people have to be careful not to use the same phases as others to avoid being called a plagiarist especially since journalists could be writing on the same subject. I believe that genres consist of the same themes being used over and over again, however the authors can still add their own originality to their pieces. With Viswanathans novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, I would consider this plagiarism because the structure of sentences are too similar. The similarities are too obvious between the books; Bridget is my age and lives across the street. For the first twelve years of my life, these qualifications were all I needed in a best friend. (Sloppy Seconds pg. 7), and Viswanathans novel, Priscilla was my age and lived two blocks away. For the first fifteen years of my life, those were the only qualifications I needed in a best friend.(How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life pg.14). Gladwell wanted to know, whether it is possible to write a teenlit novel without these sentences (Viswanathan-gate pg.1), it is possible to write a teen novel without those sentences. All Viswanathan did was change words and phrases around without any type of creativity. This case is similar to the artist Richard Prince and his use of Jim Krantzs photos where Prince simply zoomed in on the original image or cut out the background. In scholar writing it wouldnt be okay to borrow anything since it is expected for them to have

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original work. With journalistic writing journalist arent able to have even slightly similar phrases on stories from other articles on the same topic. When it comes to genre based novels, many have the same set up but the author can always add their own original thought to it. Just as with sampling in music, the artist may have sampled a beat or lyric but they have added their own creativity to it. It is not okay to take from one artist and claim it as your own without any type of credit given to the original artist. There is always room for creativity, you may have used another persons concept but, making it your own is what makes you an artist. In genre writing ideas may be borrowed but that does not make it okay to completely rip-off someone elses work and claim it as your own.

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Work cited Gladwell.com VISWANATHAN-GATE 30 April, 2006. Web. 16 November 2013.

McCafferty, Megan. Sloppy Firsts. Three Rivers Press. 2001. Print.

The New York Times A Copy Is Art. So What's the Original? The New York Times Company. 2013. Web. 16 November 2013.

Viswanathan, Kaavya. How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life. New York: Little Brown and Company. 2006. Print.

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