Day 4 of Armchair BEA discussion topics are ethics and non-fiction:
Do you have recommendations to new bloggers to ensure credit is given to whom/where credit is due? Have you had an experience with plagiarism? How did you deal with it? What are the guidelines as bloggers that we must follow?
Do you read non-fiction? Why or why not? Is there a specific type of non-fiction that you prefer to read (i.e., historical, true crime, memoirs, biographies, etc.)? What is the perfect book for a first-time non-fiction reader?
Julie’s Thoughts
The plagiarism topic is a complicated one since it sometimes is hard to know where the line is drawn. Obviously copying someone’s work outright is a big no-no, but at what point does an idea belong to someone? If someone has a feature on their blog that they clearly state is their idea and invite others to participate and add their link, then obviously you need to link them for their idea. But, if someone decides to do a post on a certain issue, and you liked that idea and want to write your own similar post, do you need to credit that blogger? I don’t know the answer to that question, so I’m hoping the other bloggers who post on today will have some good tips to share. I haven’t experienced outright copy-catting myself but I’ve seen a lot of drama come about when other bloggers have experienced it. It is not pretty. We as bloggers need to be careful and do our best to bring our own style into our blogs and to avoid using ideas that others have already put out there.
On the topic of non-fiction, in a nutshell I don’t like it. I read some biographies in high school that were pretty good, but the few recent non-fiction books I have read haven’t really interested me all that much. I’ve read some memoirs that were good but not something I could relate to or get sucked up into the story. Some were supposed to be funny, but I didn’t find that to be the case. I’ve also read a true crime book recently that bored me almost to tears. I guess if it feels like a history book, I’m not going to like it.
Rose’s Thoughts
I think that every blogger should have integrity and give credit where credit is due. However, I think also that some topics or ideas are simply going to be repeated by several other bloggers and even though the material seems the same, it is not plagiarism unless it is coped word for word. I think it is wonderful to take a look at other blogs in order to get ideas for your own, but at the same time, you must bring something different and unique to your blog.
As for non-fiction, I do not read it very often anymore. I do love history, though. My favorite non-fiction books tend to be those about U.S. military history. I tend to like anything by Stephen Ambrose. The next non-fiction book I plan to read is People Other Than Grunts by Myles C. Page. I think the best book a first time non-fiction reader can read is one that is of a topic that interests him or her. If you are not interested in the topic, you are not going to enjoy the book. Period.
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I don’t read too much military history but I love historical non-fiction
Hehe, I had a similar approach to nonfiction to the the one that you have, Julie! It’s not that I generally don’t like it. If it’s a book most people loved than I usually enjoy it, too, but it’d take a whole ranch of horses to hunt me before I’d actually buy that nonfictional book and then read it, too 🙂 I hope I’ll be more open to those kinds of books when I am a little older!
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