Plagiarism And The Controversy Of Plagiarism

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With other people’s work becoming easier to access and the ability of copy and paste there is an increase of plagiarism but with this ability comes with many consequences of plagiarizing. Kimberly Embleton and Doris Small Helfer state that “the Internet and the World Wide Web have made academic dishonesty considerably easier and faster.” (Embleton & Helfer, 23) According to Authors Embleton and Helfer there are numerous web sites where papers can be bought or found for free but committing plagiarism in this way does not pay. (Embleton & Helfer, 26) So what are some impacts of plagiarism? First, let’s discuss what constitutes plagiarism and the controversy that surrounds plagiarizing. This controversy includes intentional vs. unintentional plagiarism and the idea of what is considered common knowledge. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary plagiarize is defined as: to steal and pass off as one’s own (the ideas or work of another): commit literary theft. (Merriam-Webster, 1980) According to the web site Plagiarism.org the following are considered as plagiarism:” turning in someone else 's work as your own, copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit, failing to put a quotation in quotation marks. giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation, changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit, copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not.” (Plagiarism 2014) There are also serious impacts that plagiarism has on people, both for the plagiarizer and the person being plagiarized. It affects a person’s learning, affects colleges and universities, it can damage relationships and reputatio... ... middle of paper ... ...rism can result in loss of employment, lawsuits against the plagiarist, and loss of the faculty member’s credibility and their professional standing. Students, whether high school or college age; are also expected to know the do’s and don’ts of writing. If students are not careful to distinguish their own ideas from information that came from other people’s work they could be subject to disciplinary action, forced to withdraw from college. Students also may find that many of the sites where they can buy papers give the students that are buying them poorly written papers that end up getting a bad grade. Another effect of student increase of plagiarizing are that teachers are so busy checking student work they may have less time to teach them about the writing process. Teachers are finding out that they need to take time to teach about the concepts on plagiarizing.

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