Plagiarism - An Ever-increasing Problem

Plagiarism - An Ever-increasing Problem

Plagiarism has been a problem to academic institutions for centuries. Plagiarism basically means taking credit for somebody else’s work. The technical definition of plagiarism, as used by State University, is presenting work done (in whole or in part) by someone else as if it were one's own. Dishonest practices that go hand in hand with plagiarism include faking or falsification of data, cheating, or the uttering of false statements by a student in order to obtain unjustified concessions. In the past, plagiarism had been limited by the availability of information that is worth plagiarizing, either in area libraries, in newspapers and magazines, or even in academic files maintained by campus organizations (fraternities). Now, with the wealth of information available on the Internet only a “click” away, plagiarism has become an ever-increasing problem. When you think about it, getting enough information to do a paper is as easy as “click”, copy, paste, print, and then you are done.

Not all cases of plagiarism are as harsh as copying and submitting an entire document, but in reality, plagiarism is plagiarism. It is so easy to just forget about giving credit where credit is due that sometimes the work is handed in and the credit is given to the student. By doing this, the crime of plagiarism has been executed and the punishments could be severe. Punishments or repercussions could range from getting a zero on the paper to as severe as getting kicked out of university. Not to mention the possibility of criminal charges. Throughout this “age of the internet,” that we live in, plagiarism has the possibility to affect everyone. There are websites that are dedicated explicitly ...

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... employers for five years after the incident. If ethics are not a good enough reason for a person to refrain from plagiarizing, the combination of ethics and possible punishment should be.

Besides providing ways to plagiarize and telling of the possible repercussions of plagiarism, the Internet also provides us with some ways to detect plagiarism. Sites like Plagiarism.org and Turnitin.com have dedicated themselves to detecting and stopping online plagiarism. They hope to complete an online database that will contain thousands of documents that can be cross-referenced to determine if the report has been plagiarized. They hope that this will prevent papers from Internet sites ever being used to obtain a course requirement. With enough cooperation from enough institutions (colleges, universities, high schools) these hopes may become a reality in the future.