Plagiarism on the Internet

Plagiarism on the Internet

Plagiarism is known as a form of literary dishonesty, otherwise known to college students as cheating. It is looked down upon highly by academics and it carries with it many serious consequences. Over the past five years, the Internet has emerged as a cheater's dream and a professor's worst nightmare. It's because of a variety of web sites that give students access to entire papers for a nominal fee and sometimes even for free. As a result of the widening accessibility of the Internet, as well as the new medium's lack of regulation, a student can click a few computer buttons and in a matter of minutes, they can download a well-crafted term paper without having to pick up a single book. It seems as though the Internet has totally changed the meaning of the word 'research.'

Plagiarism can formally be defined as: repeating the author's sentences as your own; adopting a particularly apt phrase as your own; paraphrasing someone else's argument as your own; presenting someone else's link of thinking in the development of a thesis as though it were your own (Modern Language Association). Although a writer may use another's words and thoughts, they must be acknowledged as such.

The act of plagiarism in school is nothing new. In the days before the Internet, plagiarism occurred in colleges and universities across the country in the form of Cliffs Notes. Cliffs Notes, formed in 1958 by a Lincoln, Nebraska Company presents summaries of many works of literature (The Associated Press).

Professors found that students were often reading these summaries instead of reading the entire works. Students then plagiarized these summaries to prepare term papers. Some universities, such as Villanova, ha...

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...line Posting. Center for Teaching Site. U of Iowa. Retrieved 15 Mar. 2001. .

-Professor from the University of Iowa discusses the mentality of students selling term papers via the Internet. Defines the kinds of term paper sources on the web. Explains how downloadable papers threaten education. The author gives suggestions to faculty members do minimize the threat of Internet plagiarism. Gives possible solutions to put downloading term papers to legitimate educational use.

Wice, Nathaniel. "Copy & Paste: Term Paper Mills on the Web." Online Posting. Yahoo! Internet Life. Retrieved 30 Mar. 2001.

-Refers to Internet plagiarism as a "frat boy's fantasy." Claims that his random sampling of common plagiarism websites did not turn up any A+ work. He warns that students must be weary that although the papers are fast and easy, they are far from quality work.