Plagiarism or Influence: Changing form but not the content

A book review seems not to be plagiarized… Or is it?

Professor Wang: It’s well written. Are you sure it’s his own work?

Professor Tsu: I tried a plagiarism search. Nothing showed up.

Professor Wang: What they’re doing now is changing all the key words.

Professor Tsu: Sounds just as much effort as writing an essay from scratch.

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Voice-over

An example of rewriting by changing the form but not the content. It may fool computer plagiarizing software but not a human reader… But we do learn from models…

Original Book Review

Suspense in "The Charm School" (1988) keeps being ratcheted as on a rack. Had to keep putting it down to draw breath. Its "charm" lies in waiting for the axe to fall. Which it does, repeatedly.

I also read Nelson DeMille's "The Gold Coast" (1990) which was less wrought up, and funny, and I still kept stopping but for a different reason. That was to highlight lines of clever writing where he shines a light on human capers and frailty.

So it's as if Nelson DeMille decided to do "The Charm School" as dollops of derring-do with dashes of diplomatic back-stabbing, then to pen personality profiles tongue in cheek in "The Gold Coast".  Great span of talent.

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Rewritten Book Review

Anxiety in "The Charm School" (1988) keeps being increased. I had to keep stopping to take a break. Its so-called charm is in waiting for crises to happen, which do, very often.

I also read Nelson DeMille's "The Gold Coast" (1990) which was less tense, and humorous, and I still often stopped reading but for another cause. That was to mark lines of skillful writing where he illuminated human strengths and weaknesses.

So it's as if Nelson DeMille decided to do "The Charm School" as a mainly an action novel, then to write about characters ironically in "The Gold Coast". He has a great range of skill.

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