Tagged “dougwils.com”

“see you later, alligator”

You don’t have to cite anyone when you write ‘on the one hand’ or ‘on the other.’ And as my son once observed (please note the citation), no one knows who was the first person to say ‘see you later, alligator.’ But perhaps I should take that back. Maybe somebody does know. Maybe I am just the one who does not know. It sounds like it might have come from one of those Tin Pan Alley songs in the twenties.
Douglas Wilson

A Brief Vindication of Gary Greenfield

Gary Greenfield

Gary Greenfield resigned his household’s membership from the Kirk, telling Doug Wilson directly to his face: “You are a cult leader.” Since then he has learned the hard way that Mr. Wilson does not appreciate such candor. Continue reading →

Friday, May 20, 2016 |

“everybody knows that this is simple intellectual theft”

Facile comparisons between college term papers and published books need to quit being quite so facile. They may continue as legitimate comparisons, just not in facile-mode. When a college student finds some sparkling prose online, and plonks it down in the middle of his otherwise tepid paper, making the stolen portion flash like a strobe light at the instructor, everybody knows that this is simple intellectual theft, clumsily done. That kind of straight across plagiarism can happen with books also, and does, with depressing regularity.
Douglas Wilson

“an essential part of a good editor’s responsibility is to anticipate the possibility of this kind of error, and check on it”

But at the same time, I was the one who edited them, putting them together in one sustained piece. The booklet was not a “two article” affair, with his name on his and mine on mine. There was one sustained argument from front to back. Both our names were on the cover. And I was the one who had the editorial responsibility for blending them. And even if this had been a “two article” booklet, I still would have been the editor, and an essential part of a good editor’s responsibility is to anticipate the possibility of this kind of error, and check on it. Accidents do happen, and an editor’s responsibility includes an active awareness of the fact that accidents happen, and to therefore check. I didn’t check, and I should have. Mea maxima culpa. I had not read Time on the Cross at that time, and given the nature of the errors, had I read that book we would have been spared a lot of grief.
Douglas Wilson