Thursday, January 10, 2008

Madam President, Get Real

According to several sources, like the AP and this one, RWA president Sherry Lewis doesn't think Cassie Edward's plagiarism is "clear-cut" and that concerning the whole issue about whether or not CE's plagiarism is actually plagiarism, Ms. Lewis says, "...I’m not qualified to make that assertion.”


You look like a reasonably intelligent woman. I'd bet good money you can read just as well as I can. (It might even be a prerequisite for becoming an RWA president.) Try it. Read through the various posts on this subject available all over the web. See what you think then. And please, don't let RWA come out of this looking like a group of foolish, ignorant women. Please.

I don't normally get too involved with crap like this, but this has got my Sicilian up. How hard is it to say if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck it must be a duck? There is still time to make a statement and do the right thing.

8 comments:

  1. This line sums up my thoughts on Sherry Lewis' statement -

    "And please, don't let RWA come out of this looking like a group of foolish, ignorant women. Please."

    I don't belong to RWA now, membership lapsed cause of finances, but I plan on re-signing/re-joining in the coming months.

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  2. If you haven't read it yet, here's an article from the Associated Press on this whole thing.

    From the article:"A popular romance novelist alleged to have lifted work from other texts acknowledged that she sometimes "takes" her material "from reference books," but added that she didn't know she was supposed to credit her sources."

    Umm... Huh? What writer doesn't know they're supposed to cite their sources? This gal is part of the reason romance writers are looked down on. Bah and Feh.

    And don't get me started on the gal from RWA or the quote from Signet saying she did nothing wrong.

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  3. Looks like politics as usual in the upper echelon of RWA.

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  4. "And please, don't let RWA come out of this looking like a group of foolish, ignorant women. Please."


    Amen, and Amen. If she lets this go, we're going to look like the pack of ignorant bored housewives people stereotype us to be. It's within HER power to say something, and chip away at that, AND at plagiarism with one swoop. But it takes guts to do the right thing.

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  5. Kristen, I'm with you. If her reading comprehension skills are that poor, she shouldn't be president of a writer's group.

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  6. I hope she comes back and makes a public statement, not just the one the RWA made to its members saying she didn't have all the information at that time to make the right call.

    This whole "kerfluffle" (kinda love that word) is just going to color the romance and writers therein a bad color, all over again.

    She can make a stand, but RWA like any other bureaucracy, has a red tape trail. She can't do anything, for or against, until that has been fulfilled. And I'm sure by then, they are half hoping the whole incident will be forgotten.

    What's one more bad opinion of the fluffy headed housewife who has more time than sense to write that trash? It's not like any of us are trying to make a career out of this with a public sterotyped handicap already against us. :eyeroll:

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  7. *sigh* I had such high hopes for Ms Lewis. Dashed again.

    It's no wonder people think that plagiarism is no big deal when even publishers and professional writers associations will do nothing against it.

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  8. Word.

    Gotta love nora.

    http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jH1jfLr686U9StpMVlcXotcGoRRQD8U39SFG1

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