The English exam featured a column on tattoos by Melbourne writer Helen Razer without her permission and without acknowledging she was the author.

Instead, the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority falsely attributed the article to ''part-time journalist and blogger Helen Day'', who wrote for blog ''Street Beat''.

In fact, the so-called ''blog entry'' was a clumsily edited version of an opinion piece by Ms Razer, published in The Age on September 23 last year, which argued that tattoos were more a fashion symbol than a sign of deviance and criminality.

The VCAA has apologised to Ms Razer and conceded it should have acknowledged her and The Age in the exam paper.

Ms Razer said she became aware her column had been used in the exam when she noticed a spike in the search term ''Helen+Razer+Tattoo'' while looking at referral logs for her website.

After searching the internet, she discovered a number of Facebook pages with names like ''Getting a tattoo just to spite Helen Day by being conformist'' and ''Helen Day is a slut''.

Ms Razer wrote on her own Facebook page that she had been plagiarised by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority. ''An op-ed piece commissioned by The Age was given the fake by-line 'Helen Day', some seriously shitty 'youth' editing and turned over to a horde of 18-year-olds who have joined ''We hate Helen'' pages by the thousands,'' she wrote.

Ms Razer told The Age that, as someone who had volunteered as a writing tutor, she was eager to do whatever she could, without being paid, to advance literacy. ''But I'm not happy to have my work misshapen, misattributed and 'blog-ised' by state English examiners to whom, you'd reasonably suppose, the idea of ethical use of writing might occur.''

When Ms Razer asked the VCAA why they had not acknowledged her as the author, she said she was told her name would be a ''distraction'' for students. ''I imagine my brand recognition among young readers hovers somewhere south of nothing.''

Ms Razer said she could understand why some students found her work ''troubling''.

''Ham-fisted editing by the VCAA that seeks to make my original, reasonably dry piece 'hip' ends in a disconcerting experience for the reader. And this, I suppose, accounts for all the nastiness that continues online.'' She said examiners had inserted poorly written ''blog-speak'' words she would never have used such as ''mega'' and ''try-hard''. Ms Razer said the treatment of her work had led to a diminution of her professional reputation, with hundreds of derogatory references to the exam question and herself on social media after students posted links to the original article.

She said the VCAA had breached her moral right of attribution under the Copyright Act and the distortion of her work had infringed her moral right of integrity.

VCAA spokesman Justin Shortal said the authority had no intention to cause damage to Ms Razer's reputation. ''We are concerned about anyone whose work has been used in a VCE exam becoming the subject of criticism or attack. We will review our policy and processes on the use of recently published material in our examinations.''

Mr Shortal said under the terms of the Copyright Act the VCAA was permitted to use and adapt written material for exams without seeking prior permission to maintain the security of the exams.

However, copyright lawyer Peter Banki said false attribution breached a person's rights under the Copyright Act. ''It would seem to be an infringement of her right to have her authorship falsely attributed to another person.''

jtopsfield@theage.com.au