Kaavya Viswanathan - Harvard Author and Plagiarizer Update

9 Responses to “Kaavya Viswanathan - Harvard Author and Plagiarizer Update”

1. Nina says on 5/3/06 at 11:06 am:
   

   In re: to will we see her on the talk show circuit?
   She was on “Today” last week:
   http://newsbusters.org/node/5085

2. Elsa says on 5/3/06 at 11:13 am:
   

   Thank you, Nina.
   Here’s a quote from that:
   “Because I am grateful to have this chance to explain what really happened from my perspective.”

   ~~~

   “Perspective” is a Sagittarius thing ala, there is more than one truth.

3. Lise says on 5/3/06 at 11:48 am:
   

   Born in Chennai (formerly Madras), India.

   Still looking for date.

4. Michelle says on 5/3/06 at 4:17 pm:
   

   Whatever the circumstances, I gotta say… I feel bad for this girl. Whether it was deliberate or not, she was about to be set for life (if she played her cards wisely, of course), and now her name is mud.

5. Jordan says on 5/3/06 at 4:57 pm:
   

   I used to feel bad for her, but now that I see that she didn’t just plagiarize once or twice. I just read that there are around 40 instances where she plagiarized 5 different authors. She had it coming to her.

6. Jordan says on 5/3/06 at 5:01 pm:
   

   and another thing. How did her editors not relaize her plagiarism?

7. CC says on 5/3/06 at 6:07 pm:
   

   Her editors provided her with models of chick lit to ‘inspire’ her. She then weakly plagiarized them by changing words not phrasing. I see it with international students a great deal. The concept of restating one’s own words isn’t very clear, and produces a great deal of such writing.

   The ‘unwitting’ participation of the editor is just like the James Frey incident(Nan Talese ed.). Not taking responsiblitity for something they were obviously aware of before the book went to press.

8. CalGal says on 5/3/06 at 8:37 pm:
   

   Harvard should kick her sorry ass out. Come on people, this is about Ethics and Values 101. She’ll be lucky if she’s not sued by her own publishers.

9. Marly says on 5/4/06 at 7:28 am:
   

   I read an article on Slate about the same things that CC refers to. Apparently, the book packager has some responsibility in this also. A book packager is a new term for an entity that works with authors to write books that will be high selling within a certain genre. It’s a relatively new phenomenon but what it amounts to is writing by committee. Now, I’m not saying that this kid shouldn’t be blamed but she IS 17. She was surrounded by adults who pushed a certain model of writing on her and she might have wanted to please them. She was also under pressure to deliver the goods. These are entirely different standards than striving for good craftsmanship and integrity. These are the standards of the marketplace which a lot of times amount to: Anything that will make you money is permissible. And I think the kid was blinded. I wonder how much Libra or Pisces she might have in her chart also where one might go into denial about one’s own responsibility in order to take the path of least resistance and please others.

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