Plagiarism, Influence, and Tribute
These three terms are sometimes confused in academia, and I think it’s important to be able to distinguish between them. Okay. I’m going to make this pretty simple. Being influenced by something does not mean plagiarising. Let’s unpack that a little. Plagiarism is directly copying someone else’s work without giving credit to the author. It’s when someone steals someone’s intellectual property without permission or credit. An easy way around that is just to cite one’s sources. Influence, on the other hand, is when someone has been impacted by earlier writers, books, or artistic movements so much that it spills into the style, themes, and creative choices of later authors. For example, someone who writes fantasy - like me - might be influenced by Rick Riordan and JK Rowling. In addition to that, since I like supernatural stories, I’m influenced by things like Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, and Teen Wolf . I draw from these works without copying from them. There might be similar themes be...