How to practice 'autologous plagiarism.'

First, persuade your computer czar to create an editorial archive.

I get out of town so rarely I don't know whether The Keene Sentinel is ahead, behind, or running right along with most other small (15,000-circulation) newspapers in the computer age. But during a recent bout with the flu - trying nonetheless to maintain editorial standards and keep up with deadlines - I was glad we're at least where we are.

Our newsroom has been computerized for almost two decades, of course. After a fashion. For the past few years even our photos have been computerized, although some of us still don't understand how that works. All I know is that we have no more pictures on paper.

The Sentinel has had a Web site (www.keenesentinel.com) for two years now from which we give away select pieces of the newspaper, including the daily editorials. I now get angry letters from readers in places I didn't know existed.

But here's the real treat. Although we don't yet have the capacity to store all our published stories on computer, I did talk our computer wizard into letting me file all the editorials on computer, year by year, where I can search through them by date, title, or any keyword. That allows me to practice a time-saving editorial technique I call autologous plagiarism.

Here's how it works. You spend half a day talking to people and trying to figure out what, say, "stranded electricity costs" means. You talk to power producers, regulators, politicians. You strip away the mumbo-jumbo; you study the regulatory history; you write a clear definition; you give one or two plain-English illustrations; you run them past the experts, and you publish the resultant 50-word paragraph as part of an editorial about the future of electricity deregulation. Oof.

Then, six months later, a candidate for governor comes along to argue that utility rates are too high - and a utility spokesperson snaps back that the problem is actually those stranded electricity costs. You decide to write an editorial about the dispute.

Time was when that meant spending the morning in the library, trying to find the earlier editorial - or maybe doing the research again. Now, however, with a few deft key strokes, I search on "stranded," find the earlier masterpiece paragraph, and plop it into a new editorial about political grandstanding, or utility gouging, or whatever. Couldn't have said it better myself. Then I knock off early and watch a little TV.

What's more, having every conceivable editorial topic stored on computer will be a godsend for whoever replaces me in this job and needs a quick transfusion of institutional memory.

My English teachers never covered the subject of autologous plagiarism, but I think it's okay from an ethical perspective. Anyone interested is invited to steal the idea.

NCEW member Guy MacMillin is editor of the editorial page of The Keene Sentinel in New Hampshire.