Plagiarism - Ctrl C + Ctrl V

Ahh plagiarism, an old friend of mine. We go back all the way to grade 5. So what exactly is it? Well it is basically the copying and use of another persons work presented as yours. Whether it be a picture, a sentence or even an idea, if you blatantly copied it from someone else without referencing them, then I'm sorry but you my friend are guilty of plagiarism.

To find out more, watch this video:

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A survey of over 63,700 US undergraduate and 9,250 graduate students over the course of three years (2002-2005)--conducted by Donald McCabe, Rutgers University--revealed the following:

• 36% of undergraduates admit to paraphrasing/copying few sentences from Internet source without footnoting it
• 24% of graduate students self report doing the same
• 7% of undergraduates self report copying materials almost word for word from a written source without citation
• 4% of graduate students self report doing the same
• 7% of undergraduates self report turning in work done by another
• 3% of graduate students self report doing the same

You can read the following article to find out more facts: https://www.plagiarism.org/article/plagiarism-facts-and-stats

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Here are some cool facts about plagiarism:

• Text with references also accounts for plagiarism: Basically if you copy someone else's work word for word without the quotation mark and if you have used a reference, then it is still plagiarism,
• Using other people’s ideas does not invite plagiarism: If you understand someone else's idea well enough to explain it in your own words you can use it in your own thought.
• Common English phrases do not account for plagiarism: Some English phrases are so common that they will appear in the writing of different people. Plagiarism only arises when a string of work or a thought long enough to reflect one’s personality is used.

For more facts, read this article: https://myassignmenthelp.com/blog/25-astonishing-facts-you-should-know-about-plagiarism/

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Majority of the type of people who plagiarize are students who are either in school or university. According to a debate done on Are we a lazy generation?, the votes conclude that we currently a lazy generation and this has a major impact on plagiarism. As students, when we get assignments to do, the first thing we do is search in google for the same assignment or anything that relates to it and we copy directly from the internet, paste it, slap our name on the cover page and hand it in.

We think that we won't get caught, but in truth sometimes we do. In school it might not have such a major repercussion, but in university it does. It can lead to expulsion and that can really destroy a student's life.
For more information you can read the following article: https://www.scribbr.com/plagiarism/consequences-of-plagiarism/

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Copyright laws come into play here. You simply cannot use another person's work without referencing them. If you don't and they find out, they can and will sue you..and not for a small amount of money, they will sue you for millions or even worse, they will ask for you to go to jail. And unless you got a brother like Michael Scofield, I highly doubt you'll have any chances of breaking out of prison.

You can read more here: http://www.ithenticate.com/resources/6-consequences-of-plagiarism

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It is so simple, don't copy word for word! If someone said "It's a good day" and you want to copy them, simply change the word 'good' or the word 'day' to 'great' or 'night' respectively. This is known as paraphrasing and it is not the only way to go about preventing plagiarism, there are many other ways such as:
1. Citing - Here all you do is simply list the authors or whoever's work you are using as well as list the publication date for that piece of work.
2. Quoting - By quoting work "like this and this" you can copy someone else's work word for word as long as you cite the author/owner of the work.
3. Referencing - One of the most important ways to avoid plagiarism is including a reference page or page of works cited at the end of your research paper.

For more ways, read this article: http://en.writecheck.com/ways-to-avoid-plagiarism/

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Honestly I think that there's much more pressing matters in the world than worrying about who copied who. Students are getting expelled for plagiarism and are only getting reprimanded for other outrageous acts which are worse than plagiarism. If I copied someone else's work so what? It's not like I killed them.

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