Plagiarism

Plagiarism

For many, many years schools have been trying to stop students from plagiarizing materials. Detecting this plagiarism used to be easy because students only had access to books in the library, magazines, and encyclopedias. However, as the popularity of the Internet increased, so did the number of essays and papers being plagiarized. Students can easily go onto the internet and in no time at all find and essay on their topic of choice. For a certain fee they can buy the essay and have it delivered right to their doorstep, just in time to hand it into their teacher. Some essays you don’t even have to pay for. You can simply print them off of the computer. This rise in the internet information highway makes it harder for teachers to detect plagiarism, and easier for students to get a not well deserved A on their paper; if they don’t get caught. Bellow I will discuss what plagiarism is, ways teachers can prevent plagiarism, ways teachers can detect plagiarism and how students can avoid plagiarism.

First of all, what exactly is plagiarism? The Webster Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language says it is, “to steal or purloin the thoughts or words of another in literary composition.” [1] When we were in elementary school if we had to do research on a certain topic, we would just copy information that was found word for word. We would hand this in and get a great mark. However, times have changed. We’re in College and it is totally unacceptable to copy materials from other people and say that they are yours. It is extremely important that if we do get information from a book, magazine, internet, etc., that it is given credit for that author(s). These are not your thoughts or words so you shouldn’t be...

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...e more than happy to help their students. If students are sure and they don’t want to ask their teachers they can find loads of books on proper citation, what plagiarism is and isn’t and how to paraphrase things.

In conclusion, people today may not think that plagiarism is that big of a deal. Those people do not understand the consequences of their actions. They could get a failing mark in a class they have worked hard in, or even worse they could be expelled from the college or university. Why would anyone want to take the chances of being expelled? Nobody wants this, which is why it is so important to have knowledge about plagiarism. By discussing what plagiarism is, ways teachers can prevent plagiarism, ways teachers can detect plagiarism and how students can avoid plagiarism I hope people have a better understanding of what plagiarism is.