file<\/em> \u2014 from which I drew those notes. \u00a0Presumably, I entered the material from Allen Buskirk\u2019s article into that file back around 2005, when (or even before) the article was published.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Why didn\u2019t I enter his name? \u00a0I have no idea. \u00a0It\u2019s been nearly thirteen years. \u00a0Perhaps it was something as simple as being interrupted by a telephone call and forgetting to do so. \u00a0When I copied and pasted the material into a blog entry, it never entered my mind that it came, substantially unchanged, from somebody else.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I can say this: \u00a0I have never intentionally plagiarized anybody or anything. \u00a0I\u2019m more than happy to credit others for thoughts and for references and am, I think, quite\u00a0generous in that regard. \u00a0(Even on this blog, I try to remember always to thank the people who have brought interesting items to my notice.) \u00a0Moreover, given the way in which I write, that passage from Professor Buskirk would almost certainly never\u00a0have been incorporated intact into the final product. \u00a0It was there as a reminder to me of an argument or a point that I wished to make, and as direction to a reference that I would have consulted before sending anything off for publication.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the years, I\u2019ve seen prominent writers whom I greatly respect (such as Doris Kearns Goodwin, Alex Haley, and Stephen Ambrose) condemned for plagiarism and, candidly, it has worried me. \u00a0I can easily understand how they might, without intending it, have fallen\u00a0into that problem. \u00a0In each case, they are (or were) popular historical writers who cover large topics for a broad general audience, necessarily (because nobody can be an expert in everything) consulting a wide range of sources and taking notes as rapidly as they can (if they\u2019re going to accomplish what they hope to do) from multitudes of articles and books. \u00a0It\u2019s not difficult at all for me to imagine how even a good, decent, honest person could take notes from a source and then, for whatever specific reason, eventually incorporate those notes into a final text in a form that\u2019s too\u00a0close to the language of the original source.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
This has worried me because I, too, am trying\u00a0to write on very large topics for a broad audience. \u00a0(My weekly newspaper columns are just the tip of that iceberg; I have more than\u00a0a dozen book manuscripts underway, at various stages ranging from near-completion to\u00a0mere\u00a0rough notes.) \u00a0Not being a specialist on all\u00a0of the subjects that these manuscripts cover or will cover (but being interested and, I hope, an intelligent consumer of specialized expertise), I consult many writers. \u00a0I jot down lots and lots of notes. \u00a0And I expose myself, thereby, to exactly the same risk\u00a0that eventually caused trouble for Stephen Ambrose, Alex Haley, and Doris Kearns Goodwin.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Painstakingly writing a narrowly-focused academic monograph on a subject in which one might well be the world\u2019s reigning expert, or, at least, one of the small handful of those who pay it serious attention \u2014 so focused are such scholarly works \u2014 poses little danger of unintentional\u00a0plagiarism. \u00a0The bigger and broader one\u2019s canvas and the more and the faster one writes, though, the higher the risk.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And yet, while I\u2019m grateful for narrowly-focused academic monographs, I\u2019m also grateful for writers like Stephen Ambrose, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Alex Haley, and (my absolute favorite) Paul Johnson \u2014 for whose sake, in my judgment, the academic monographs really exist in the first place. \u00a0If it weren\u2019t for the big, daring, risky syntheses, speaking to a larger audience, we would be left only with relatively dull and boring treatises engaging the attention of only\u00a0a relative handful of academics.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
My critics quite definitely don\u2019t intend to do me good. \u00a0And most of what they have to say about me \u2014 daily, weekly, monthly, year after year \u2014 is malicious and false, as well as very often absurd. \u00a0But on this matter, while they hope to embarrass me (and, in this specific instance, have succeeded in doing so), they provide an unintended service and a reminder. \u00a0They\u2019re armed with online programs that will enable them to detect verbal resemblances and influences of which I, their target, may be quite unaware. \u00a0I need to be careful. \u00a0\u201cHere be dragons.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, if anyone among these critics ever wants to contact me on this or any other issue, she\u2019s entirely\u00a0free to do so\u00a0directly. \u00a0I\u2019m quite open, forthright, and transparent on just about everything, and I would be in this regard, as well. \u00a0My email address is daniel_peterson@byu.edu.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGreat minds,\u201d Eleanor Roosevelt is reputed to have said, \u201cdiscuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m attempting to argue for important ideas. \u00a0It disappoints me that, all too often, those ideas are grossly misunderstood by certain critics and, even more so, that I myself become the topic of conversation instead. \u00a0I\u2019m just not all that interesting. \u00a0But the ideas are. \u00a0And it distresses me most of all when I myself provide any justification<\/em> for my becoming the focus.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I\u2019m followed very closely by\u00a0a small but quite\u00a0dedicated cadre of anonymous critics \u2014 some of them people whose malice, impelled by motivations that\u00a0I honestly don\u2019t understand, apparently never sleeps \u2014 who comment constantly on what I do, say, write, think, and don\u2019t think, on where I travel, what I read, what music I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>