Thread: Imitation: the sincerest form of flattery?

Just got back from an inspection. The seller meets me there and hands me the past two inspection reports. I know of both of the inspectors. One of them I see frequently at C.E. classes. As I'm reading his, I realize that I'm reading parts of my own report!!!

He's gotten a copy of one of my reports and is using my boilerplate paragraphs and descriptions for common problem items.

Flattery or Plagiarism?

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Originally Posted by JB Thompson

Just got back from an inspection. The seller meets me there and hands me the past two inspection reports. I know of both of the inspectors. One of them I see frequently at C.E. classes. As I'm reading his, I realize that I'm reading parts of my own report!!!

He's gotten a copy of one of my reports and is using my boilerplate paragraphs and descriptions for common problem items.

Flattery or Plagiarism?

Flattery or plagiarism, does it really make any difference?
Copy and paste is acceptable by almost everyone.
Don't even give it any concern.

If you use 3-D or similar report software many user's report may be similar.

Originally Posted by William Kievit

If you use 3-D or similar report software many user's report may be similar.

Nope. Having an English degree, I like to wordsmith my own crap.

I use other guy's ideas (changed the wording) from other regions, but I've called them first.

Obtaining permission is professional. Would have been nice if they had given you the courtesy. If someone likes my comment, I let them know it's fine to use it, but if they improve it, I ask that they share it back.

Bruce, Certainly it would have been a common courtesy to ask you. If I was using an out of the box report I wouldn't really care. However, for my own reports, I rewrote virtually all the text and I would care if someone copied it without asking. In such a situation I'd simply mention to him his lack of courtesy and lower my regard for him. Going beyond that would seem to be fruitless.

I scan other folks comments all the time. I rarely ever use them. If I do it gets changed so much that it would not be recognized. Evryone of my reports is almost compltetly different from the next as each home has a slightly different situation about the same concern. If I di usesomething I find like I said it gets changed, a lot. By the time I get to the fifth inspection it has either changed so much it hardly has a smae word in it or I have wound up deleting it all together.


Almost all of my reports are typed out for what ever the concern is from the first page to the last page nowadays. I have almost canned boiler plates altogether other than example pics and some very very basic items on grading and drainage or drop down stair insulation and such.