Who wants to sit around looking for websites trying to find out if a paper is plagiarized or not... pretty soon you're a private investigator." -- a Stanford University professor, from an article in TechWeb News.
Plagiarism] is one of those areas in the academy that no one wants to talk about and is often rewarded for not addressing actively." -- an Associate VP of Student Life, as posted in The Chronicle of Higher Education's "Colloquy."
Too few universities are willing to back up their professors when they catch students cheating, according to academic observers. The schools are simply not willing to expend the effort required to get to the bottom of cheating cases" -- as stated by The National Center for Policy Analysis. (qtd. In "Statistics").
Types of Plagiarism:
There are several different types of plagiarism, many of which are new thanks to the introduction of the Internet and its wealth of resources. There is the traditional forms of plagiarism such as turning in another person's work as their own as well as turning in a paper that the student has asked a peer to write. Copying material from a source without giving proper citation is also a traditional type of plagiarism, whether that material be hand-copied from a book or copied and pasted from an electronic source.
Even when a source is properly documented, but direct quotations do not include the quotation marks, this is a form a plagiarism, as is paraphrasing material from a source without giving proper acknowledgement. The Internet has also introduced the purchasing a paper from an online term paper service as another form of plagiarism, as is turning in work that was located on a 'free term paper' website ("Avoiding Plagiarism").
Avoiding Plagiarism:
charge of plagiarism can have severe consequences, including expulsion from a university or loss of a job, not to mention a writer's loss of credibility and professional standing" ("OWL Materials"). For this reason, when writing, ensuring that all sources are properly documented is critical to avoiding plagiarism and its consequences. However,...
Or, when relying upon expert opinion, the writer can improve upon this opinion or even disagree with the opinions previously given on a topic. A writer can also avoid plagiarism by combining their own thoughts and voice with the knowledge they have previously discovered, while still giving credit to these past researchers ("OWL Materials"). It is not simply enough to cite sources correctly, but to present knowledge in such a way that it is original.
Conclusion:
In the end, clearly plagiarism is a growing problem. Over the course of the last generation, the unethical use of another's work has risen to dramatic proportions. Although it is not clear whether or not these figures are a result of declining ethics in the educational community, undoubtedly the ease of access to materials ripe for plagiarizing is a significant part of the problem. It is too easy for students to garner source materials that is exacerbated by a disturbing trend of apathetic educators.
In addition, students must realize that plagiarism doesn't simply end with the citation of source material, but must also include originally presented material as well, to further the knowledge of the topic they are discussing. Only in this way can they truly avoid plagiarizing.
References
Avoiding Plagiarism. No date. Madison Area Technical College. November 12, 2006 http://matcmadison.edu/is/writingcenter/plagarism.htm.
OWL Materials: Avoiding Plagiarism. 2006. Purdue University. November 12, 2006 http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/.
Plagiarism. No date. The University of Edinburgh. November 12, 2006 http://helios.bto.ed.ac.uk/resman/nrm/plagarism_and_copying.htm.
Plagiarism Today. 2005. Plagiarism.org. November 12, 2006 http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism.html.
Statistics. 2005. Plagiarism.org. November 12, 2006 http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism_stats.html.
