Well, Rick, I would have quessed that people knew this stuff, but since you
asked: you don't borrow, you don't take, you don't steal, and that does not
make any difference if the material is copyrighted or not. If you want to
use someone's statement or paragraph, or whatever, you put it in quote marks
and you provide proper attribution for your source. Paraphrasing, of course,
is getting into grey areas, and I, of course, would not recommend "borrowing"
even there.
The easist thing here if for you to talk to your editor; your editor deals
with these issues all the time, and he/she can tell you what the accepted
style is for that newspaper and he/she also has editing and stylistic books
and pamphlets--the Associated Press used to have this 4" X 4" yellow
stylistic pamphlet which covered this issue. And, of course, you could make
it a bigger issue, and procrastinate longer, by making a trip to the library
or by doing an internet search.
And, I am somewhat puzzled by your questions: you are not writing a book, or
a major article--you have 700 words which is long for most newspapers these
days but which is not going to be enough once you start writing. Even in a
newspaper article/editorial of 700 words you should not run into these types
of borrowing/attribution issues. My advise to you is that you write this
article/editorial, that you sit down and write it, just write it. You
obviously know the stem cell material, and you know about you and your
experiences. So, just write it, forget about everyone else, and just write
the article. And, then, you will find that 700 words is not near enough, and
you will have to edit, and what you will edit out will be all those quotes
from other people. The best thing I can say to you is: just write it.
My basis/authority for answering your question: I was a journalism major as
an undergraduate, and I have worked for a few newspapers. I am the survivor
of many, many writing courses: I was a university assistant professor where
these and similar issues arise when papers were assigned; and I do have that
law degree and that law experience.
Congratulations on being asked to write this article, and 700 words is
a lot of space for a newspaper. Good Luck. You will be amazed what a kick
it is to see your name and your work in print. And, no, I don't think it is
extravagant for you to get those 30 extra copies of the newspaper on the day
that your article runs. Katie
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask]
In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn
