Saturday, March 13, 2010

The dangers of cross-cultural plagiarism

I'm doing a bit of textbook editing on the side. As is usual here, the material is mostly cribbed from elsewhere with the questions sometimes done by the "writer" and sometimes themselves cribbed from elsewhere.


This can lead to disaster as it would have been in this case had they not asked me to do some editing for them.

In one section of the book there's an activity to make a restaurant menu. They have a sample menu at the top of the page as a model. Here's what the model menu says:

WONG WONG's
CHINESE FOOD MENU

LUNCHEON SPECIALS

SUM YUNG CHICK $6.99
Different And Delicious
WON HUNG LO $6.99
Chinese Meatballs
CHU SUM TWAT $16.99
Dinner Parties Of Three Or More
SUC MI PORK $9.69
Chef's Special
FUC YU MAN $6.69
Speciality Of The House

DINNER COMBINATIONS

1. GOO IN HAND...$9.69
For Those Dining Alone
2. GOO WEE CHICK $6.99
Sloppy Seconds No Charge
3. CUM TOO SOON $6.99
Order Early These Go Fast
4. SUC MI WANG $6.99
Traditional Chinese Meatloaf
5. SUM DUM CHICK $4.99
You Get What You Pay For
6. LIK MI CLIT $6.99
Delicious Lip Smacking Oriental Delicacy
7. CHO KON IT $9.99
Not For The Light Throated
8. FUC SUM NOW $6.99
For Those In A Hurry
9. TUNG SUM CHICK $8.99
A Taste Bud Tingler
10. SUM GULP CUM $9.69
Low Cal Diet Special

As funny as it would be to leave that all there, professionalism and ethics kick in. I'm going to have to warn them. :(

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