What do you do when you discover your words have been stolen?
March 9, 2018 7:04 AM Subscribe
I found out that a previous classmate on a group project has taken my written description of the project and is using it on their portfolio Web site.
I found out that a previous classmate on a group project has taken my written description of the project and is using it on their portfolio Web site. We have both since graduated, and there was also one other team member on the project. The person is also using photos of the work we did, but I’m less concerned about that since we all contributed to taking photos of our work. What does disturb me is that they’ve taken a case study I wrote of the project from my Web site, and also analysis (the script for a final presentation) - entire paragraphs of text - and is presenting it as if they wrote it all originally. Not just a sentence here or there, or added her words or analysis, but my entire case study, the structure of how the project progressed, and key insights I came up with that are tied to my role. Of the three projects I had worked on with this person, two of the projects are in her portfolio - again both have entire paragraphs of my writing, not adding her own words, just my paragraphs. English is her second language and I had gone out of my way to help edit some of her work when she asked for help, and I was happy to help - but she also had English tutorial classes, there was free editing assistance on campus and we as a class also talked about plagiarism. I’m pretty hurt that she would just take all of my words.
My concern is that both of us are using the exact same words professionally now in our portfolios, and an employer could search and legitimately think one person has copied another. I know I should let this go, but I also feel violated. Has someone gone through something like this, and if so, how did you resolve it? There are a few faculty from our department who I could ask to serve as ‘mediators’ to speak to her, but that even sounds silly to write. I doubt that if I ask her to either take down the work or rewrite it into her own words that she will do either - she may feel ‘under attack’ or not understand the concept of plagiarism. I also know she’s since gotten a job likely in part of what I wrote. I’m concerned that a future employer is going to think that I’ve just stolen her work. All I want is for her to take down the words that I wrote and write her own damn words, but I also don’t want to open a can of words, which is why I want to know how others have dealt with it. Is this common and what do you do to resolve it?
I found out that a previous classmate on a group project has taken my written description of the project and is using it on their portfolio Web site. We have both since graduated, and there was also one other team member on the project. The person is also using photos of the work we did, but I’m less concerned about that since we all contributed to taking photos of our work. What does disturb me is that they’ve taken a case study I wrote of the project from my Web site, and also analysis (the script for a final presentation) - entire paragraphs of text - and is presenting it as if they wrote it all originally. Not just a sentence here or there, or added her words or analysis, but my entire case study, the structure of how the project progressed, and key insights I came up with that are tied to my role. Of the three projects I had worked on with this person, two of the projects are in her portfolio - again both have entire paragraphs of my writing, not adding her own words, just my paragraphs. English is her second language and I had gone out of my way to help edit some of her work when she asked for help, and I was happy to help - but she also had English tutorial classes, there was free editing assistance on campus and we as a class also talked about plagiarism. I’m pretty hurt that she would just take all of my words.
My concern is that both of us are using the exact same words professionally now in our portfolios, and an employer could search and legitimately think one person has copied another. I know I should let this go, but I also feel violated. Has someone gone through something like this, and if so, how did you resolve it? There are a few faculty from our department who I could ask to serve as ‘mediators’ to speak to her, but that even sounds silly to write. I doubt that if I ask her to either take down the work or rewrite it into her own words that she will do either - she may feel ‘under attack’ or not understand the concept of plagiarism. I also know she’s since gotten a job likely in part of what I wrote. I’m concerned that a future employer is going to think that I’ve just stolen her work. All I want is for her to take down the words that I wrote and write her own damn words, but I also don’t want to open a can of words, which is why I want to know how others have dealt with it. Is this common and what do you do to resolve it?
This won't help with the sense of violation, but: is your page older? If you do "Page Info" in a browser, then look at the Modified date, the older page has a pretty good chance of being seen as the original.
posted by scruss at 7:52 AM on March 9, 2018
posted by scruss at 7:52 AM on March 9, 2018
English is her second language and I had gone out of my way to help edit some of her work when she asked for help, and I was happy to help
As an immigrant whose first language is not English, and who had a bit of a hard time understanding the standards of academia in the US, I beg you not to let this go. This person will never learn that misrepresenting someone else's work as her own is not okay unless someone clues her in.
And I'm being charitable here because she should already know this given she has graduated already.
I would not contact her directly, unless I do it in writing. I would also consult with my school, in case they have any guidance. If a cease and desist letter is doable, I would go for it.
Please, PLEASE don't let this go.
posted by Tarumba at 7:53 AM on March 9, 2018 [23 favorites]
As an immigrant whose first language is not English, and who had a bit of a hard time understanding the standards of academia in the US, I beg you not to let this go. This person will never learn that misrepresenting someone else's work as her own is not okay unless someone clues her in.
And I'm being charitable here because she should already know this given she has graduated already.
I would not contact her directly, unless I do it in writing. I would also consult with my school, in case they have any guidance. If a cease and desist letter is doable, I would go for it.
Please, PLEASE don't let this go.
posted by Tarumba at 7:53 AM on March 9, 2018 [23 favorites]
I’m going to go against grain here. Why don’t you talk to her first? And give her benefit of the doubt that she’s clueless? Honestly, 90% sure a simple conversation would solve your problem. Document the conversation and prepare before of course.
A cease and desist letter escalates the situation very rapidly and is a lot of work. Sure, maybe go that route if she refuses to change or it doesn’t change after two weeks.
I work as a negotiation coach and what I’ve seen so often in my practice is how people assume so much and immediately go for a “fight” response when we can get so many things by asking politely.
posted by treetop89 at 8:03 AM on March 9, 2018 [25 favorites]
A cease and desist letter escalates the situation very rapidly and is a lot of work. Sure, maybe go that route if she refuses to change or it doesn’t change after two weeks.
I work as a negotiation coach and what I’ve seen so often in my practice is how people assume so much and immediately go for a “fight” response when we can get so many things by asking politely.
posted by treetop89 at 8:03 AM on March 9, 2018 [25 favorites]
Plus: make a notation on your web portfolio that this piece of your writing has been copied and is being presented falsely by someone else (unnamed) as their work.
posted by lathrop at 8:08 AM on March 9, 2018 [15 favorites]
posted by lathrop at 8:08 AM on March 9, 2018 [15 favorites]
I would not suspect that your classmate did this out of cluelessness, exactly, although I imagine your classmate feeling entitled to do it or figuring you wouldn't ever know about it or simply not bothering to think through the obvious problems (like, what happens if you use the same words on your own portfolio). It's worth asking your classmate to take it down.
You'll know best whether the faculty at your school might have any pull with your classmate, and how they'd react to a request. If a former student of mine came to me with this issue, though, I'd be honest with them and say that while I sympathise, there's little to be done about this, other than refusing any future recommendations for the plagiarist, or potentially revoking any recommendations already given.
If your classmate ignores or rejects your request, and faculty may have given her a recommendation, you could contact the relevant instructor(s) to see if they would rescind any recommendations. Provide proof (screenshots/links).
posted by halation at 8:31 AM on March 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
You'll know best whether the faculty at your school might have any pull with your classmate, and how they'd react to a request. If a former student of mine came to me with this issue, though, I'd be honest with them and say that while I sympathise, there's little to be done about this, other than refusing any future recommendations for the plagiarist, or potentially revoking any recommendations already given.
If your classmate ignores or rejects your request, and faculty may have given her a recommendation, you could contact the relevant instructor(s) to see if they would rescind any recommendations. Provide proof (screenshots/links).
posted by halation at 8:31 AM on March 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
Why is this a problem? You all worked on the project, you all contributed, right? I'm assuming that, in theory, this person could have edited words that you wrote, or vice versa, throughout the project. That's what collaborators do, they work together on a thing, and when it's done, they are all responsible for all the content.
I write multi-author research papers for a living. If any of my co-authors used text from any work that we co-wrote, I'd feel like a jerk for telling them not to use it, even if I was the one who originally wrote those words.
If you don't want potential employers to think one of you is plagiarizing from the other, simply write on your page that the work was a collaboration with students A,B,C. And in that case, a simple request that they acknowledge your participation on their site is completely normal, polite, and a non-bridge-burning action.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:06 AM on March 9, 2018 [22 favorites]
I write multi-author research papers for a living. If any of my co-authors used text from any work that we co-wrote, I'd feel like a jerk for telling them not to use it, even if I was the one who originally wrote those words.
If you don't want potential employers to think one of you is plagiarizing from the other, simply write on your page that the work was a collaboration with students A,B,C. And in that case, a simple request that they acknowledge your participation on their site is completely normal, polite, and a non-bridge-burning action.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:06 AM on March 9, 2018 [22 favorites]
I write multi-author research papers for a living. If any of my co-authors used text from any work that we co-wrote, I'd feel like a jerk for telling them not to use it, even if I was the one who originally wrote those words.
This is more akin to submitting a co-authored paper for publication with a journal and not including your co-authors' names on the work, though. The person using this in a portfolio has only their name on the portfolio, with no indication that it was a group project (let alone the name/credit for OP's contribution).
It also sounds as though while in theory the classmate could have edited the written work, they didn't actually do that. The OP says that at least some of the content at issue is "a case study I wrote of the project from my Web site," which sounds like it was not a part of the submission at all (though the "script" part, which the classmate is also using, probably was). The classmate participated in the 'research' -- the original project -- but not in the write-up that the OP did.
posted by halation at 9:17 AM on March 9, 2018 [15 favorites]
This is more akin to submitting a co-authored paper for publication with a journal and not including your co-authors' names on the work, though. The person using this in a portfolio has only their name on the portfolio, with no indication that it was a group project (let alone the name/credit for OP's contribution).
It also sounds as though while in theory the classmate could have edited the written work, they didn't actually do that. The OP says that at least some of the content at issue is "a case study I wrote of the project from my Web site," which sounds like it was not a part of the submission at all (though the "script" part, which the classmate is also using, probably was). The classmate participated in the 'research' -- the original project -- but not in the write-up that the OP did.
posted by halation at 9:17 AM on March 9, 2018 [15 favorites]
Yes, the others should certainly give OP/anon's name and all collaborators if they are posting any part of that project, that's what I'd ask for. To me, whether the others edited those specific words is immaterial. Once it's done it's done, and trying to keep track after the fact who "owns" rights to specific sentences (or pieces of!) is madness IMO, YMMV.
Maybe I'm misreading. Maybe A,B,C all did their own small projects (1,2,3) and then handed them in together without coordination, cooperation, or otherwise collaborating on it in a co-authoring sense. In that case, no, B and C should not be posting part 1 in isolation and passing it as their work, but they'd certainly be allowed to post (1,2,3) while crediting their group members.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:42 AM on March 9, 2018
Maybe I'm misreading. Maybe A,B,C all did their own small projects (1,2,3) and then handed them in together without coordination, cooperation, or otherwise collaborating on it in a co-authoring sense. In that case, no, B and C should not be posting part 1 in isolation and passing it as their work, but they'd certainly be allowed to post (1,2,3) while crediting their group members.
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:42 AM on March 9, 2018
I absolutely don't think you should let this go. You don't say what field you are in but if it's anything where creative work or intellectual property are key to your career (and its sounds like it is), you need to start defending your rights to your own ideas and intellectual property now. Yeah, it's a can of worms to open, but the alternative is just letting other people blatantly steal your work, and I think you will begin to really regret that in the long run.
I would send her an email telling her that's your work and that you know she copied it from your website, and asking her to take it down. If she says no, I would forward the correspondence to your faculty contacts (so write your part of it professionally, courteously and neutrally from the beginning) and ask for their thoughts/feedback. I suppose if you really want to escalate you could always send her a DMCA takedown notice.
(I am basing my approach here on my experience doing creative work for marketing / advertising, etc, and doing portfolio reviews for students in those fields. Even if you work on the project with a team, your own perspective on the project and your writing about what the goals were and how you accomplished them is still your own creative work; it demonstrates a lot about your personal knowledge of the field. You own it.)
posted by the turtle's teeth at 9:42 AM on March 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
I would send her an email telling her that's your work and that you know she copied it from your website, and asking her to take it down. If she says no, I would forward the correspondence to your faculty contacts (so write your part of it professionally, courteously and neutrally from the beginning) and ask for their thoughts/feedback. I suppose if you really want to escalate you could always send her a DMCA takedown notice.
(I am basing my approach here on my experience doing creative work for marketing / advertising, etc, and doing portfolio reviews for students in those fields. Even if you work on the project with a team, your own perspective on the project and your writing about what the goals were and how you accomplished them is still your own creative work; it demonstrates a lot about your personal knowledge of the field. You own it.)
posted by the turtle's teeth at 9:42 AM on March 9, 2018 [3 favorites]
It's a group project. Every member of the group has the right to show the project as something they worked on. The content you are talking about was part of the project. Ideally they would say on the site that it was a group project, in case people thought they did it all on their own.
posted by w0mbat at 10:10 AM on March 9, 2018 [8 favorites]
posted by w0mbat at 10:10 AM on March 9, 2018 [8 favorites]
I think you’d be doing her a kindness to follow up on this, especially if your page is older, as people are going to see that you have the same text and will assume one of you plagiarized. If English is not her first language, many people would probably assume that she’s not the original writer, but there is enough chance people will think otherwise that I’d be seriously annoyed, too.
In your shoes, I’d contact her and say “hey, I noticed that you are using the text I prepared for our group project on your website. Since I have already posted this on mine, I’d suggest you change it asap in order to avoid confusion.”
If you want to be generous, you could offer to help her prepare an alternate text.
Also, would it be appropriate for the three of you to cross-reference/acknowledge each other on the part of your sites that relates to the project? That would be a nice way of making it clear that any similarities come from collaboration.
Of course, all of this is assuming that your colleague is a decent person and you like her at least a little bit. If she gets snotty or does not respond to your kindness in raising this with her, I’d then go the lawyer route and send a cease-and-desist letter.
posted by rpfields at 10:22 AM on March 9, 2018
In your shoes, I’d contact her and say “hey, I noticed that you are using the text I prepared for our group project on your website. Since I have already posted this on mine, I’d suggest you change it asap in order to avoid confusion.”
If you want to be generous, you could offer to help her prepare an alternate text.
Also, would it be appropriate for the three of you to cross-reference/acknowledge each other on the part of your sites that relates to the project? That would be a nice way of making it clear that any similarities come from collaboration.
Of course, all of this is assuming that your colleague is a decent person and you like her at least a little bit. If she gets snotty or does not respond to your kindness in raising this with her, I’d then go the lawyer route and send a cease-and-desist letter.
posted by rpfields at 10:22 AM on March 9, 2018
If employers are looking at online portfolios, then it is in your professional best interests to understand intellectual property and copyright laws as they pertain to your industry.
You can start by seeing a lawyer for clarification. The less expensive first step is to reach out to your former classmate via email. She might take down your personal work from her website on her own.
"Dear SO and SO,
Why are you presenting work I did for our collaborative project as your personal work in your portfolio online?
I am referring to this, this, this, this, and here (include text and screen caps. document document document.)
- Anonymous. "
Hopefully you get a written response. If she does not alter her portfolio to reflect your contributions (and removing a case study she wholly did not generate!) I would pay a lawyer to write a cease and desist letter.
There are copyright lawyers, and you can consult one to look at the portfolio and tell you exactly how problematic this us. The institution that gave you both degrees might also help, but it sounds like you are in a creative field and you need to handle this on your own by learning from a legal professional what is copyrighted and what is not in situations like this because this could presumably come up again for you in professional life.
You can also send that Cease & Desist to her ISP and get her website taken down. I absolutely would not hesitate for a hot second to send the Cease & Desist to her ISP. This is the bare minimum you should be doing to protect your intellectual property.
I would not accept attribution as fair for aspects of her portfolio that are significant and solely your intellectual property generated by you, like the case study. Nope.
(I would hope feverishly there was an opportunity to let her employer know if I could do it without blowback. If my lawyer said it was professional to send the cease & desist to them (maybe your work is in her online company bio or something?) then I would DEFINITELY send her employer the cease & desist.)
Again, it sounds like your industry is prone to this if employers are meant to review your online portfolio? Get yourself up to speed on intellectual property and copyright laws and always defend your work. That's your brand out here in the workd and it has significant value. This is a part of your professional life now, be a professional and deal with this directly and completely. That's in writing and with legal advice.
Welcome to adulthood. You've got this.
posted by jbenben at 10:43 AM on March 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
You can start by seeing a lawyer for clarification. The less expensive first step is to reach out to your former classmate via email. She might take down your personal work from her website on her own.
"Dear SO and SO,
Why are you presenting work I did for our collaborative project as your personal work in your portfolio online?
I am referring to this, this, this, this, and here (include text and screen caps. document document document.)
- Anonymous. "
Hopefully you get a written response. If she does not alter her portfolio to reflect your contributions (and removing a case study she wholly did not generate!) I would pay a lawyer to write a cease and desist letter.
There are copyright lawyers, and you can consult one to look at the portfolio and tell you exactly how problematic this us. The institution that gave you both degrees might also help, but it sounds like you are in a creative field and you need to handle this on your own by learning from a legal professional what is copyrighted and what is not in situations like this because this could presumably come up again for you in professional life.
You can also send that Cease & Desist to her ISP and get her website taken down. I absolutely would not hesitate for a hot second to send the Cease & Desist to her ISP. This is the bare minimum you should be doing to protect your intellectual property.
I would not accept attribution as fair for aspects of her portfolio that are significant and solely your intellectual property generated by you, like the case study. Nope.
(I would hope feverishly there was an opportunity to let her employer know if I could do it without blowback. If my lawyer said it was professional to send the cease & desist to them (maybe your work is in her online company bio or something?) then I would DEFINITELY send her employer the cease & desist.)
Again, it sounds like your industry is prone to this if employers are meant to review your online portfolio? Get yourself up to speed on intellectual property and copyright laws and always defend your work. That's your brand out here in the workd and it has significant value. This is a part of your professional life now, be a professional and deal with this directly and completely. That's in writing and with legal advice.
Welcome to adulthood. You've got this.
posted by jbenben at 10:43 AM on March 9, 2018 [4 favorites]
OP, you phrased this as a personal problem and commenters (including me, above!) are responding to that aspect of your issue. This is a professional matter with an interpersonal aspect, any advice to approach her as a friend is incorrect and has the potential for drama and failure.
My sample letter above maybe wasn't so great. Once you know the law, you can reach out and say "Your online portfolio presents some of my work as your own. I am referring to this, this, this, and here. Please remove my work from your portfolio."
I got a little distracted by the personal way you framed your askme, I can imagine how you are feeling. This is a professional matter, she's stealing your work product and putting her name on it. Deal with that as directly and efficiently as you can. She's not your friend, she's a colleague in your industry. Be professional and direct.
posted by jbenben at 10:59 AM on March 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
My sample letter above maybe wasn't so great. Once you know the law, you can reach out and say "Your online portfolio presents some of my work as your own. I am referring to this, this, this, and here. Please remove my work from your portfolio."
I got a little distracted by the personal way you framed your askme, I can imagine how you are feeling. This is a professional matter, she's stealing your work product and putting her name on it. Deal with that as directly and efficiently as you can. She's not your friend, she's a colleague in your industry. Be professional and direct.
posted by jbenben at 10:59 AM on March 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
I am not a lawyer, merely an ex-academic librarian, but I suspect your classmate is *not* violating copyright. The group project would most likely be considered a collaborative work, and as such you all are co-authors and all own copyright to all of it. If you wanted to reproduce figures or videos or something that she had worked on as part of the project, you would likely be legally allowed to do so.
That said, copyright is a completely separate issue from plagiarism - if she is presenting your words as her own, that is probably plagiarism, which some people/employers will care about and some won't. Plagiarism is not actually a crime or a legal issue, it's an ethical issue that different people and industries interpret in WILDLY different ways.
Also, *is* she actually presenting your words as hers? It's not 100% clear to me from her description whether that's what she's doing. If she's presenting your shared group project as a shared group project, then the people reading it can and should realize that she didn't do all of it. If the quality of the writing is important to them, they're going to ask her for other samples of her writing.
Practically speaking, I really, really wouldn't worry about employers seeing the same text in both of your portfolios and getting confused, for two reasons: firstly, because it's incredibly unlikely that anyone will ever notice. There is no TurnItIn in real life. Secondly, if people see the same group project in your portfolio as they do in hers, guess what, they're going to conclude that you worked on the same group project, which is true! They will not automatically know that you wrote the presentation script, but they would have no reason to assume that she had written it either. You can put the "credits" in your portfolio to indicate who did what if that's important to you.
If this bothers you (and I totally understand why it would!), I think there's no harm in asking her to take it down or to credit you for the description. But I'm pretty sure you don't have a legal way to compel her to take it down and if she's acknowledging that the whole thing is from a group project I'm not even sure it's an ethical issue.
posted by mskyle at 12:59 PM on March 9, 2018 [7 favorites]
That said, copyright is a completely separate issue from plagiarism - if she is presenting your words as her own, that is probably plagiarism, which some people/employers will care about and some won't. Plagiarism is not actually a crime or a legal issue, it's an ethical issue that different people and industries interpret in WILDLY different ways.
Also, *is* she actually presenting your words as hers? It's not 100% clear to me from her description whether that's what she's doing. If she's presenting your shared group project as a shared group project, then the people reading it can and should realize that she didn't do all of it. If the quality of the writing is important to them, they're going to ask her for other samples of her writing.
Practically speaking, I really, really wouldn't worry about employers seeing the same text in both of your portfolios and getting confused, for two reasons: firstly, because it's incredibly unlikely that anyone will ever notice. There is no TurnItIn in real life. Secondly, if people see the same group project in your portfolio as they do in hers, guess what, they're going to conclude that you worked on the same group project, which is true! They will not automatically know that you wrote the presentation script, but they would have no reason to assume that she had written it either. You can put the "credits" in your portfolio to indicate who did what if that's important to you.
If this bothers you (and I totally understand why it would!), I think there's no harm in asking her to take it down or to credit you for the description. But I'm pretty sure you don't have a legal way to compel her to take it down and if she's acknowledging that the whole thing is from a group project I'm not even sure it's an ethical issue.
posted by mskyle at 12:59 PM on March 9, 2018 [7 favorites]
Maybe I'm just naive, but I'm surprised by all the bridge-burners here - let's not forget that this person is also a potential network in your industry.
I doubt that if I ask her to either take down the work or rewrite it into her own words that she will do either - she may feel ‘under attack’ or not understand the concept of plagiarism
Why do you think that? Why does it have to be presented as an attack or accusation of plagiarism?
I think courtesy and good-faith requires you to first reach out to them and just ask them to co-credit you or indicate on their portfolio that it is a group project, and explain that you are worried about mistaken assumptions of plagiarism because you are also using the project in your portfolio. I'm confused why you haven't done that first before resorting to mediators and the internet.
Unless I'm missing some context here, this person has given you no indication that they are abusing your work other than a faux-pas on LinkedIn, which is a challenging social network even in the best circumstances.
posted by Think_Long at 1:59 PM on March 9, 2018 [8 favorites]
I doubt that if I ask her to either take down the work or rewrite it into her own words that she will do either - she may feel ‘under attack’ or not understand the concept of plagiarism
Why do you think that? Why does it have to be presented as an attack or accusation of plagiarism?
I think courtesy and good-faith requires you to first reach out to them and just ask them to co-credit you or indicate on their portfolio that it is a group project, and explain that you are worried about mistaken assumptions of plagiarism because you are also using the project in your portfolio. I'm confused why you haven't done that first before resorting to mediators and the internet.
Unless I'm missing some context here, this person has given you no indication that they are abusing your work other than a faux-pas on LinkedIn, which is a challenging social network even in the best circumstances.
posted by Think_Long at 1:59 PM on March 9, 2018 [8 favorites]
In addition to mskyle 's good points, consider: could she or anyone else think you are trying to pass off her work as yours? Are your other group currently members credited in your web portfolio? Even if you are only using text that you yourself wrote, it's probably not cool to allow a reading that you did the whole described project yourself, and I'd certainly make sure you acknowledge collaborators on group projects in your portfolio before you ask anyone else to do so.
posted by SaltySalticid at 2:17 PM on March 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by SaltySalticid at 2:17 PM on March 9, 2018 [1 favorite]
If this is, as sounds to me, a collaborative project with many parts and where the words-making part were allocated within this collaboration to one person (you), likely she is using those words as they are intended, to represent and explain the project in its entirety. It's true that a lot of functional writing disappears into collaborative endeavors and doesn't invite questions of authorship, but if you consider the writing per se an important part of your work, I'd second the soft approach mentioned by others - get in touch, tell her you are also platforming that project as part of your portfolio and that you want to make sure that in that project's online presentation, the text is attributed to you.
posted by redpajamas at 2:39 AM on March 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by redpajamas at 2:39 AM on March 10, 2018 [1 favorite]
they’ve taken a case study I wrote of the project from my Web site,
This part, to me, does not sound like the person is taking words from a group project, but is in fact taking the OP's thoughts and evaluations after the fact. Especially if they're taking it directly from your website, and not project materials, points to the idea that they ares intentionally plagiarizing.
posted by FirstMateKate at 6:18 PM on March 10, 2018 [2 favorites]
This part, to me, does not sound like the person is taking words from a group project, but is in fact taking the OP's thoughts and evaluations after the fact. Especially if they're taking it directly from your website, and not project materials, points to the idea that they ares intentionally plagiarizing.
posted by FirstMateKate at 6:18 PM on March 10, 2018 [2 favorites]
Followup from the anonymous OP:
I appreciate that so many of you asserted not to let this go. I'm uncertain how to respond at this point. I will likely password protect my work in the future; for the time being I've added the phrase 'some contents here are being used without my permission and this issue is being resolved' to acknowledge this issue just in case employers note the similarity. I will also run this by a mutual classmate to get his gut reaction as he would likely be able to speak to her.posted by LobsterMitten at 11:58 AM on March 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
Just to clarify a few points:
Both of us on our Web sites mentioned that there were 3 team members - I went so far as to note what my role was specifically (i..e graphic designer, strategist on the bigger vision on x part etc.), doing what rpfields suggested. My classmate is using the phrase 'creator in collaboration with B and C', which makes it sound like it was her idea alone, and has used this phrase on the two projects I was involved with ('creator').
To follow up with SaltySalticid's point, it was a group project that A B and C all worked together. If I'm A here, I wrote a detailed case study saying A did this part, and I've written a case study analyzing the project after the fact. This is what's being used without my permission on my site. She hasn't credited that these are my words, and while we all contributed to our one group project, she should be able to write her own thoughts and not use mine. I've had other group projects where people DO write differently and credit one another. This person has taken my words, and in my field - strategy and design - this is my work, and in essence my IP. If I've written the implications for how our solution would work in the field which I did after we presented, she's using those without attribution. I've also creating a document comparing the two pages side by side - so far I have at least 13 examples in paragraphs that are the same. I suspect I have no leg to stand on with the other project - she's also copied from my analysis in our team folder and my Web page, but I took down the Web page where I talked about the project ironically to improve what I had written. She must have saved a copy of it and used that as a basis. She is using pictures of the Web site I created for the project without attribution as well.
I honestly don't know what to do - likely speak to a faculty or fellow classmate, who will likely say 'there's little to do'. I can calmly email her but suspect her response is 'so what, deal with it, it's not a big thing' - which is why I want a third party to hold her accountable so she sees this is wrong. It's also why I posted here - to see what others felt, to ensure I'm being objective here on the ethics and implications. This is further complicated by the fact this person has now been hired at our school to teach. I just want people to acknowledge who wrote what - that's really not radical. Then again, this might just be a pattern with this person - during one of the projects' final presentation, I wrote a lot of the script suggesting what we could present, and she stood up and delivered my words word for word without contributing any analysis, so I should have realized this is perhaps how she thinks. I had a great deal of sympathy because English isn't her first language, and I'm always happy to help someone but stealing isn't helping. At this point, I'm pretty burnt out. I won't let it show up in any communications with her, but it's definitely made me pretty sad and frustrated. It's taken what should be a good experience and made it sour. The only good thing is feeling like I'm not alone in this, so I appreciate the AskMe family for helping to think this all through.
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Alternate approach: point out your concerns about employers and offer to change the text she’s using so that it’s different enough. More work for you but it might achieve your goals. 🤷🏻♂️
posted by jeffamaphone at 7:25 AM on March 9, 2018 [3 favorites]