INDEX FILES on Charge of Plagiarism against E.G.White
An Analysis of the Literary Dependency of Ellen White

We Analyse, You Decide

David J. Conklin

Alexander Lindey in his book Plagiarism and Originality points out (on pages 60-1) that the vices of a double-column approach are "considerable":

1) Any method of comparison which lists and underscores similarities and suppresses or minimizes differences is necessarily misleading.
2) Parallels are too readily susceptible of manipulation. Superficial resemblances may be made to appear as of the essence.
3) Parallel-hunters do not, as a rule, set out to be truthful and impartial. They are hell-bent on proving a point.
4) Parallel-hunting is predicated on the use of the lowest common denominators. Virtually all literature, even the most original, can be reduced to such terms, and thereby shown to be unoriginal. ...
5) Parallel columns operate piecemeal. They wrench phrases and passages out of context. A product of the imagination is indivisible. It depends on totality of effect. To remove details from their setting is to falsify them.
6) Parallels fail to indicate the proportion which the purportedly borrowed material bears to the sum total of the source, or to the whole of the new work. Without such information a just appraisal is impossible.
7) The practitioners of the technique too often resort to sleight of hand. They employ language, not to record facts or to describe things accurately, but as props in a rhetorical hocus-pocus which, by describing things in identical words, appears to make them magically alike.
8) A double-column analysis is a dissection. An autopsy will reveal a great deal about a cadaver, but very little about the spirit of the man who once inhabited it.
9) Most parallels rest on the assumption that if two successive things are similar, the second one was copied from the first. This assumption disregards all the other possible causes of similarity.

A close examination of the type of double-column analysis you see on the web or in Rea's book bear out Lindey's warning. However, by showing a fuller context (i.e., whole paragraphs and whole chapters) such as I present in my work, eliminates the above concerns (assuming that people actually read the whole). What typically happens when people are presented with supposed evidence of plagiarism is that they develop a severe case of tunnel vision and they only see the similarities--they never even see the dissimilarities (which is exactly what the critics are hoping for!).

Comparison studies on this website, contributed by David Conklin are:

Desire of Ages Chapter 1
Desire of Ages Chapter 3
Desire of Ages Chapter 4
Desire of Ages Chapter 5, Part One
Desire of Ages Chapter 5, Part Two
Desire of Ages Chapter 5, Paragraph Analysis
Desire of Ages Chapter 6
Desire of Ages Chapter 7
Desire of Ages Chapter 8
Desire of Ages Chapter 10
Desire of Ages Chapter 11
Desire of Ages Chapter 12
Desire of Ages Chapter 13
Desire of Ages Chapter 14
Desire of Ages Chapter 16
Desire of Ages Chapter 17
Desire of Ages Chapter 19
Desire of Ages Chapter 20
Desire of Ages Chapter 21
Desire of Ages Chapter 24
Desire of Ages Chapter 27
Desire of Ages Chapter 33
Desire of Ages Chapter 35
Desire of Ages Chapter 37
Desire of Ages Chapter 39
Desire of Ages Chapter 40
Desire of Ages Chapter 41
Desire of Ages Chapter 45
Desire of Ages Chapter 46
Desire of Ages Chapter 47
Desire of Ages Chapter 48
Desire of Ages Chapter 49
Desire of Ages Chapter 51
Desire of Ages Chapter 52
Desire of Ages Chapter 53
Desire of Ages Chapter 54
Desire of Ages Chapter 56
Desire of Ages Chapter 58
Desire of Ages Chapter 58 Analyzed with other authors
Desire of Ages Chapter 59
Desire of Ages Chapter 63
Desire of Ages Chapter 66
Desire of Ages Chapter 67
Desire of Ages Chapter 72
Desire of Ages Chapter 73
Desire of Ages Chapter 74
Desire of Ages Chapter 75
Desire of Ages Chapter 76
Desire of Ages Chapter 80
Desire of Ages Chapter 83
Desire of Ages Chapter 84
Desire of Ages Chapter 85
Desire of Ages Chapter 86
"Night Scenes" Chapter 18 by Daniel March -- is it the source of DA pages 673-694?
Objections Answered
Misinformation

Misinformation on the Internet
EGW adapts a famous quote

Bibliography
Longest Phrases Index
Verbatim Index

Sketches from the Life of Paul, chapter 13

Great Controversy (pp.317-319) and Life Incidents
Great Controversy (pp.320-325) and Life Incidents
Great Controversy, chapter 1, pages 30-31
Great Controversy, chapter 5, page 80


Also check out comparison studies by Ulrike Unruh:

Desire of Ages, chapter 75, Intro.
Desire of Ages, chapter 75, pages 698-703
Desire of Ages, chapter 75, pages 703-709
Desire of Ages, chapter 75, pages 710-713
Desire of Ages, chapter 75, pages 710, 713-715
Titles from Patriarchs and Prophets and Edersheim
Patriarchs and Prophets, chapter 2
Patriarchs and Prophets, chapter 21
The Great Controversy, (pp. 317-319)and Life Incidents