Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Plagiarism in the Digital Age

                   Image result for stop copying
            
         “Plagiarism is the fear of a blank page.” 
                                           ~Mokokolma Mokhonoana 

The first hit on Google for the word “plagiarism” and its informal synonym “cribbing” gives us these definitions and etymologies:

pla·gia·rism. plājəˌrizəm

The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

From early 17th century: from Latin plagiarius ‘kidnapper’ (from plagium ‘a kidnapping,’ from Greek plagion ) + -ism.

synonyms:
copying, infringement of copyright, piracy, theft, stealing; informal cribbing

crib. krib/verb

copy (another person's work) illicitly or without acknowledgment

Dictionary.com offers this for the word “plagiarism”:

An act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of 
another author without authorization, and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author.

Plagiarism Online lists this as the number 2 form of plagiarism:

Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit.

            We all know the most obvious forms of plagiarism: copying directly from online or hard copy sources; and paraphrasing others’ ideas as one’s own.  It is easy to locate direct plagiarism off the internet.  As a writing teacher for over 30 years, I can identify writing and thinking styles as a forensics expert can finger prints.  Once I suspect that a student’s writing is not his own, all I have to do is to print out the source document, append it to the student’s paper, and I’ve proven my case. But the internet has spawned more insidious forms of plagiarism. 

Before computers and the internet, if a particular piece of information appeared in five sources—usually encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference hard copy—it was considered to be “common knowledge,” available for “fair use” and did not have to be cited.  “Cairo is the capital of Egypt” counts as common knowledge, as does “William Shakespeare wrote The Comedy of Errors.” Plagiarists have become more wily in their use of the internet than to copy sources directly.  What they do now is to scan summary sites such as Schmoop and Monarch Notes (see A Monarch Shmoops Off Cliffs, Sending Off Sparks: The No Fear Prison and Misprision of Paraphrase) for themes and ideas, or they harvest them from Google hits and compile them to form their papers.  If confronted, those who have some conscience will admit how they wrote their papers.  Others claim that these ideas are common knowledge and so fair use: no citation necessary.

But the internet engines may list five sites for the same idea, often not offering citations of original sources.  The rule of five no longer applies.  If you do not do the work of developing your own ideas and researching whether others have formulated them before you, then your work is not original. 

Let’s draw a distinction between term papers and theses.  A term paper constitutes compiling others’ ideas and words with proper citations.  A term paper requires only research, organizational, and citation skills, and can be a grind.  The internet can turn the writing of a term paper into an assembly line that requires little to no investment in thinking, experimenting, revising. A thesis or essay requires not only term paper skills but, essentially, critical and creative thinking.  There are no short-cuts to original thinking—it takes time, experimentation, patience, energy, and humility.  Original thinking can be an exhilarating adventure. Sweeping up—kidnapping—others’ original ideas and claiming them as one’s own is not.

 Specifically (although this applies to all universes of discourse), a literary thesis or interpretation is entering a conversation that—as with those who write about giants such as Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf, or Shakespeare—spans centuries.   

The best policy is to 

(1) report and cite your research activities on an essay;
(2) cite your sources within your paper, not just as part of a Works Cited list;
(3) the first time you use a source, write the full title, author and page numbers;
(4) thereafter, use the author's last name to introduce her/his ideas, and add page numbers;
(5) research ideas you have independently so that you can cite and situate your contribution into the larger conversation before you;
(6) when in doubt, cite.

To give credit, even if it’s to write “the first five hits on Google for Romeo and Juliet interpret the death scene as…,” is to show respect for those who have done the work of deep thinking before us.  To name them is to friend them. To give credit makes you (look) smart and confident. To give credit credits the researcher as an honest person with a conscience, who belongs in the conversation—who belongs to the family of literary enthusiasts.  It is a sure way to develop integrity.  To plagiarize is to sully oneself, to skulk in alleyways, to be burdened with shame.  It shows disrespect for oneself, for those from whom one steals, for those whom one is attempting to sham. To give credit is shine.

So why do people plagiarize?  South African philosopher and essayist Mokokoma Mokhonoana writes that “Plagiarism is the fear of a blank page.” Why we become afraid of the blank page is a topic for another time. I’m most concerned about students, who, on the night before a paper is due—after coming home from a day of four classes and two jobs and caring for an ill parent—in the dark of their bedrooms, with only laptops for light, steal.

Works Cited:





                                                

59 comments:

  1. This is very insightful and very relevant.I recently heard a professor giving his honest opinion on how students should be really dealt with when the cheat.I cant blame him,its about one's integrity and if you dont have that there really is not much to say about you.
    I personally will never be a victim of plagarizing ,I love my voice ,I may not always say the right things when responding to a question but its my voice and I can be redirected to getting to the answer when prompted.
    Cheating is unacceptable and should not be tolerated on any level.Its important to use your words and if you need to state your point more eloquently then back it up with info that supports your viewpoint but give them credit you will sound much smarter.

    Maudry

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  2. This is very insightful and very relevant.I recently heard a professor giving his honest opinion on how students should be really dealt with when the cheat.I cant blame him,its about one's integrity and if you dont have that there really is not much to say about you.
    I personally will never be a victim of plagarizing ,I love my voice ,I may not always say the right things when responding to a question but its my voice and I can be redirected to getting to the answer when prompted.
    Cheating is unacceptable and should not be tolerated on any level.Its important to use your words and if you need to state your point more eloquently then back it up with info that supports your viewpoint but give them credit you will sound much smarter.

    Maudry

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  3. It seems like you should take your own advice as the first five hits on google for “plagiarism in the digital age” yields similar results. It’s almost like there are 7 billion people in the world and having the same or similar thought as others is common and it should be, great minds do think alike but maybe you should have given them credit too.

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  4. I actually have a great story for this post. A few semesters ago I had a friend who asked me to see the take home quiz I was working on. The professor said that we were allowed to help each other but there must be clear differences in our work. So being the good friend that I was I showed my friend a piece of the quiz that we had to do. Instead of working on the quiz with my example as a guide, my friend completely copied and pasted my example into their work. However, they forgot one thing, I had my name on the top of the page. To this day I do not help others with my own work. Instead, I help them by working it out on theirs. My trust in people, sadly it was the help of one person, was destroyed when it comes to school work. And it isn't just college. It's every step of the way in school. Using my own experiences, I can say that the reason so many people plagiarize is because they are too lazy to just create the paper or the chart or even do the test their selves.

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  5. Dr. Rich,
    I find it very surprising how many people actually plagiarize their work and get away with it. With today's resources and access to the web, plagiarizing has been made so easy to do.
    Similar to Asheia, I've had someone copy my work word for word when they had asked to use it as guidance. When I was in high school, my friend had an English paper due. I had the class the year before and my friend was really struggling to get her paper started. She asked if she could read mine just to get an idea and instead of writing her own she changed a few words and copied my whole paper. The teacher had recognized my paper and had confronted my friend about plagiarizing. Ever since then I've had a hard time trusting people when it comes to school work.
    You can also see this when you do group work. Most times one or two students get stuck doing all the work then when the time to present comes, the students who do nothing try to present the information for themselves, not giving you credit. I couldn't agree with you more that the reason people plagiarize is because they're lazy and don't want to do the work themselves.

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  6. Ever since starting college, the idea of plagiarism has always made me so anxious. We've always been told that the university has very strict honor codes related to plagiarism, and anyone caught plagiarizing could be kicked out of school. I've had professors from freshman year that told us it is considered plagiarizing if we don't properly cite our sources - not in the sense of how thoroughly you cite, but down to the actual grammar of it. This always made me anxious when writing papers, forcing me to run to that Purdue website, double- and triple-checking the guidelines for how to properly cite a series of sources before submitting any written work. Missed the parentheses? KICKED OUT OF SCHOOL. Mentioned the author, but failed to include a page number? KICKED OUT OF SCHOOL. I now know from experience that this isn't quite how it works in the world of college essay-writing, but I still find it funny to look back at how paranoid I was.
    Ironically enough, I even know of handfuls of cases of plagiarism that's gone unpunished, beyond a scribbled note stating that there is a citation missing. I guess it's just up to the professor to determine if the plagiarism was based on intent or ignorance? But how can that even be determined beyond just bluntly asking the question? And who is to know if the student is responding honestly, or not?
    One thing I will definitely be taking away from this Shakespeare class is the practice of citing when an idea came from a class discussion. I've never been taught to do that, or even thought to in the past, but even in that event, credit should be given where credit is due. If we held a class discussion on a topic related to the paper we're writing, and we all came to some conclusion together, or maybe a student had some special insight that resonated with me, that's still a source of where that information or idea came from, and should be noted as such in my writing.

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  7. Dr. Rich,

    Throughout all my academic writing teachers/professors enforced thousands and thousands of times to not plagiarize. They explained the consequences terrified me so I always made sure to cite my sources even if I felt it was not necessary to source. The fear that I would be told that I plagiarized my paper would eat me alive and I couldn't live with that.

    There was this student that I knew in high school that would write their essays the night before it was due. I would ask, "How did you get it done in one night?" (the essay would roughly be almost 10 pages) and they responded with, "I copied and pasted the whole article, but I cited the whole thing. I'll be okay." And with that, the student was caught and received a zero and faced consequences for it.

    I never knew what happened to that student because after that they were not seen again. I feel that it is important to give credit to an author when they deserve it. They are the ones who did the research on whatever topic it is, or they are the ones who wrote the story. I know for a fact that I would be pretty pissed off if no one would credit me when I knew credit was due for me.

    Kristen Calderoni

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  8. Dr. Rich,
    Great post. Although I've never plagiarized a day in my life, it was interesting to read a different perspective on it rather than the scalding I've received for years by my middle school and high school teachers. Taking from the Greek derivative, it was interesting to look at this concept as blatantly kidnapping someone's ideas for yourself. It makes perfect sense, to be honest and will more than likely become a tool I will utilize for my future students so that they truly will understand that plagiarizing is simply not justifiable by any means.

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  9. Dear Dr. Rich,
    I found this topic on plagiarism to be important and well needed. It is something that always comes up each semester, every professor reads it in the syllabus, about how it is wrong and not tolerated. I always found the concept to be weird, it felt like something obvious that we shouldn’t copy. Especially in this day and age with programs that detect plagiarism, people should be discouraged form relying on it. And yet still people find a way to do it and it disgusts me. I find myself to be a lazy person at times, I may procrastinate assignments, waiting till the last minute to complete them, yet I never find myself resorting to plagiarism to complete a difficult task. I would sooner hand something in late than give in to that. It is such a harmful and saddening thing to do, sure you might get away with it, but you learn nothing about the assignment if you do which is the whole purpose of college. And if you don’t you risk losing everything that you worked so hard for. It is such a dangerous gamble with such a minimal pay off that I don’t see why people still do it when it is definitely not worth it at all.
    Stephen Corrales

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  10. Dr. Rich,
    Plagiarism is so relevant today and it has been since I was in middle school. My language arts/English teachers always made to sure emphasize and discuss plagiarism, why it is negative, and the consequences that can come out of plagiarizing. It is absolutely important to not plagiarize because the consequences are just are not worth it. Getting kicked out of school? Failing the class? Not worth it! When writing a paper, I always use my own ideas and write my own way, I don't need someone else's words or ideas to get me a good grade. I know that today with the modern technology that is literally everywhere, it is tempting for people to just read an article and steal the ideas word for word, but plagiarism is still as negative as it was back then. Hopefully in the future students will be taught and encouraged that their own ideas and words are good enough to get them a good grade!

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  11. This post really brought up a not so great moment in my academic career.

    When I was at my old college (not Kean) I had taken an online class. This professor had us turn everything into turnitin.com. Easy enough, I've done it several times before. When I got off of work one day, I logged into my blackboard account and I noticed I received an F for the final assignment. My heart sank. What! I quickly emailed the professor who told me that my paper was plagiarized and I would be facing the Dean because of such. My heart sunk. WHAT!

    It turns out, I had emailed my paper to my mom to proof read before adding in my citations. When she made the grammar and spellig corrections, she emailed it back. The file saved to my download file, and I made the corrections as such. When I uploaded my paper, I uploaded my DRAFT, not my edited version.

    Live and Learn. Double check everything!

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  12. Dear Dr. Rich,
    Thank you for posts like this that better capitulate on the need for students to make sure that they have sources for their work and not desperately stealing from others. As an actor, I was always thought to never take the credit for your performance and to pass it to someone else like your director or co stars. So I think the same apply when writing a paper. It's not just about being humble but have integrity for yourself and others.

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  13. I never understand anything about citations until halfway of high school. Plagiarism was never an issue for me because I knew that everything I have ever written was authentic. When it comes to citations now, there are some many different editions and rules that you can plagiarize and not even know it. Surprisingly, Shakespeare Survey and my World Theatre class have taught me a lot more in terms of the correct citations. But I do know in college the consequences of plagiarism is no joke so it is just a matter of being careful. Though I rarely do, having my professors proofread or the writing center are some great options if I have any confusions.

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  14. I really enjoyed reading this post because even though in high school my teachers were really big on citing it didn't stop kids from plagiarizing. This was a task that were worked on with every paper. In high school I got the general understanding which I took with me to college. Once I got to college it was no joke and not realizing it with some papers I didn't even know I was plagiarizing and this was only because I was citing my source wrong. But it is crazy how sometimes people lie about it when they know that they took information right from a website. They know what they have to do with that information but just choose not to. Honest for me I rather over cite then not do it at all.

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  15. Hey Dr. Rich

    That last rule of thumb in regards to research on the internet is one that I abide by, and one that I always recommend to peers that I talk to. It can be very easy to slip into overused, or cliché, paper topics, and inadvertently plagiarize others works without citing. When so many people talk about the same thing, those who don't research their topic in-depth might find that their views align with someone else's perspective a little too closely. Being creative with topics can be difficult at times, but it can be done. Also, taking the time to cite and research a topic before writing about it could easily reduce plagiarism in students papers.

    - John P.

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  16. Dr. Rich,

    I used to find the idea of plagiarism so common sense. I assumed that nobody did it and that it was a speech that teachers and professors would give just to kill time in classes. I had never encountered anyone in any of my classes who had done it. I've always been in honors and AP classes. I know now that it happens even on those levels, but I was so focused and determined along with my fellow classmates that plagiarism seemed to belong to mythology rather than reality.

    The first time I'd ever encountered plagiarism was my first year in college. People tried to persuade me to copy other people's work, or "reuse" it as they liked to call it. I sadly admit that I can agree that it probably does save a lot of time to copy or reuse another's work.But is it worth the guilt or the chance of being caught? I don't think so at all. I like getting work back with the grade of my own intellectual efforts. I like recognition for my own ideas. Others go to school just to pass classes and to get a job. I go to learn and better myself for future employers. As I continue on my academic path, I realize that not all students are cut from the same honest cloth as me.

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  17. I heard about plagiarism since High school and I always took this word very seriously, since the consequences are very high, it can affect my whole academic career that I am working so hard to maintain it. I believe that most high school and college students plagiarize for three specific reasons. One would be laziness of their part, they just not want to do the work. Two would be lack of time, desperation will drive people to do foolish things sometimes. Third, could be lack of confidence plays a major role because believe it or not most students do not believe in their own ability to create, to go deep, to have their own ideas. This blog is really insightful and this phrase by Jamie Harrington will always be inside my mind “Stop coping and think of your own ideas.” It is very important for an individual to have a voice in this world, the goal in this life is to unique in my own way, then what is the point of living life? Having my own ideas I can be free to express my emotions and thought without barriers, and not just a puppet on a string letting others control my life. The goal in this life is to be a happy individual with your own ideas, that is a life worthy of living.

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  18. Plagiarism is a word I have been hearing since middle school. In middle school you don't really understand how serious it can be and if you're caught teachers don't really make it a big deal and take it up with the principal, the most you'll get is a zero on an assignment or at least thats how it went in my school. Today plagiarism is a lot more serious and much easier to find. Me being a good two shoes, I never had the courage to copy anyones work I was always good at putting things into my own words. Now with technology plagiarism is so easily spotted especially now a days with online submitting websites such as turnitin.com they actually scan your paper to see if your plagiarized or not. There is no need for any student to need to copy someone else's work without citing it. Copying other peoples work may seem easier the a good way out of doing work, but chances are you will be caught, and the consequences are on you and the decisions you made that could have been simply avoided by quoting and citing.
    -Melanie Azevedo

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  19. We live in a day in age where plagiarism has become some norms to college students all because they can’t seem to grasp their own ideas and put in into papers. Not only is this something I always avoid because what type of writer would I be if I just take credit of other people's ideas. I was taught not to plagiarize when I was in middle school and they made it seem as if it was a sin to do so as a writer. This is why when it comes to writing any papers of mine I tend to grasp my own ideas and out what I have in my head onto the paper. Now sure people could plagiarize and get away with it, but what’s the point. It would make it easier if you just quote what you want to say in your essay and of course credit the writer in which you obtained the source from. Writers can easily further their pints by doing so, so why plagiarize? This is why website such turnit.com exists because it allows college writers all over the world to be original and organic instead of copying words from others and just changing some words. So in other words this digital age is most predominantly about plagiarizing but as writers it’s our job to become more than just carbon copies of someone else’s work and become unique so readers can know what words are truly ours and how we use it to the best of our abilities.

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  20. Ever since I learned about what plagiarism is and what the consequences are I have been careful to cite everything I use that is other people’s work. In elementary, middle, and high school, I used to get away with getting answers from textbooks and writing them verbatim on my homework assignments. I didn’t think it was a big deal because my teachers were still giving me A’s. I assumed that if it was a problem they would say would say something. They obviously knew that my work came right from the textbook since they are the ones that gave me the book.
    I stopped doing this or I started citing the textbook every time I use it because after sitting in on of my English classes, I realized what I was doing was plagiarism. I would never deliberately plagiarize in my papers by copying and pasting somebody’s work from online and use it as my own. There are really serious consequences that could happen if one were to get caught doing this and it honestly isn’t worth all of that. I would rather just write my own paper and get an A on my own terms.

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  21. Nadia Radwan
    I think that a lot of the times people only plagiarize because they think they can get away with it or they feel like they have no choice. I'm thinking about how I feel about other subject like math and science. I hate them to my core and I am rather bad at them. I know that even when I would study really hard I would do below average. So when I was little I would just cheat. I would think “oh i'm not gonna do good on my own so there's nothing else I can do”. I knew I couldn't fail and I knew that my best wasn't good enough. So in order to appease my parents, my teacher, and the pressure to get above a C I didn't do the right thing. All of these overbearing forces working together was enough to make 14 year old me crack under pressure and do the immoral thing. However I have never plagiarized any of my english or history assignments because I was innately good at those subjects. When I have to write about something I am already interested and am excited to put my ideas onto paper, to expand my writing skills. I enjoy researching and being able to say “ I found this out!”. I like developing my thesis and seeing my paper transform right before my eyes. I get a certain sense of satisfaction when I put my everything into a paper and I get good feedback from a reader whether it be a teacher or random people. So when I see people plagiarize papers while I can't necessarily directly relate to them I can definitely understand the feeling of hating a subject and succumbing to the pressure of wanting to pass a class.

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  22. Dr. Rich,
    The topic of plagiarism has been around for so long. We all learned about plagiarism at such a young age that it is almost like second nature to me not to copy someone else’s work. Whenever I had to type a term paper or essay, I always made sure I would cite any information that I used for help in any paper because I did not want to get in trouble with my professors or even the source, I used information from. Plagiarism happens in everyday life too. Whether it’s clothes, shoes, bags, furniture, art, etc. someone’s work manages to get copied and they aren’t credited for their work. Yes, we can get inspiration from other writers and artists, but it is important to credit them in your work as well. Unfortunately, some people are still lazy and do not want to do their own work and put in the effort. I would rather do my own work and get it wrong, so I can go back and revise whatever it is I did wrong. I will edit my work until it is right. I think it’s great to be unique and have your own ideas. It’s what makes the world special.

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  23. plagiarism has been around for so long now yet people don't care much about it even though they should. It only bothers you when you get plagiarissed but when you do it , everyone feels like its ok because they want the easy way out. In some cases I know people think that the teacher will never catch on and they always end up finding out. With media and the internet making it so much easier to post ideas and papers , it's become alot easier for people to fin stuff to plaigerise which is very sad. Hopefully they will find a way to stop that.

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  24. It is so common for students to plagiarise, not only of essays, but on homework, classwork, and especially online homework. Many of the children now a days feel pressured and think that they need to cheat in order to get a good or passing grade in a class. I am not sure exactly why but, I do have a few theories. I could be because of pressures at home to do well in school, with parents like mine that would “whoop my behind” if I ever got anything that was lower than a B. There could also be the pressure to do well in school if they are involved in extracurricular activities, because you need a certain grade in school to keep being on a school team. And there is also the pressure from fellow classmates, who are all already cheating that they are sharing the answers with each other and you do not want to feel left out. But no matter what ever the reason is to cheat, no one should ever cheat because of not just the fact that it is wrong, because people do wrong things everyday. But to not cheat because although you look super smart on paper, you are only making yourself dumber and dumber and that will only come back and bite you in the butt.
    Grace Carranza

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  25. The quote at the top saying plagiarism is the fear of a blank page I would add it is the fear of being wrong. I loved learning that the phrase plagiarism came from the Latin plagiarius which translates to kidnapping. Because that is exactly what you are doing kidnapping someone else's ideas and words keeping them for your own. I always wondered that as a student how the teacher could find exactly where students plagiarized in the wide web. I get how a teacher could tell it was not work that related to anything else seen from the student but I find it hard to get exactly where the student took it from. I agree that even if you are looking to other sources for help when in doubt if it is plagiarism it is best to cite. It is rude to take someone else's work and pass it off as your own it shows disrespect. I wouldn't expect that of an adult, get over that fear of being wrong and just be true to yourself and write what you believe in. I understand writing does not come easily for everyone but there are ways to help yourself.

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  26. I am very protective of my work because I stay up all nights most of the time to complete it. So when others tell me to send them my work, I decline and ask them how I can help them with their paper. I am glad that my material is not on the web for people to take and not give credit. I would be very devasted, but as Dr. Rich, this is happening to a lot of authors, researchers, etc. Their work is not being properly credited and even in most cases credited all which is such a shame.
    I always run my research papers on websites like Turnitin or Grammarly to see if any signs of plagiarism show up. Because sometimes, things that I see as common knowledge is something someone worked hard on. I have never wanted to plagiarize. It is such a shame to want others to work for yourself. When I look at the all the papers, stories and poems have written, I feel proud because I know how much work I put into them. Citations make me feel knowledgeable about my topics because it means I know enough about it and what others had to say about it. Citations are a blessing we should be grateful for.
    Priscilla B.

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  27. Now plagiarizing is easier than ever. There are so many sources, both online and in text that people can take ideas from and try to pass as their own. However, sometimes students use ideas from a source and try to give them credit but do so incorrectly, in the wrong format, and then still get accused of plagiarizing even though they tried to give credit where it was due. Yet, there are plenty of sources that teach you how to cite correctly so not knowing how to do it should not be an excuse. A lot of people would rather take ideas from someone else who has been published and is successful rather than coming up with their own that they do not know how it will be received yet. So copying is the easy way out for them. But again, writing is about taking risks. More than likely you will not be wrong, your idea will just add a new light to something.

    - Madeline Romero

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  28. When I was in elementary school, we had to make up sentences for each of our vocabulary words. I was at my friends house and we were doing this homework together. We could not think of a sentence to make for one of our assigned words, therefore, we looked it up online. We didn’t know at 10 years old what citing was, or how borrowing others work wasn’t okay. We were so young, we didn't learn that yet! We found a good sentence, changed up a few words, and still got caught. I am so grateful for getting caught, because I learned a valuable lesson. We didn’t get in trouble, but we then learned all about plagiarism.
    It is absolutely insane how easy plagiarizing your work can be today. However, it is equally as easy to cite your work! There are so many websites and resources that can teach others how exactly they can incorporate someone else's ideas and writings into your own, and make it okay to do so! I will never understand why people think it is ever a good idea to steal someone else’s hard work? Cause I sure as hell wouldn’t want someone to be stealing mine after working so hard on it.
    This blog post is very informative and insightful! I can believe how many students are plagiarizing today because they are lazy or don’t feel like thinking of their own ideas. Then again, it is extremely unfair if they are getting away with it because others are working so hard on forming their own ideas. Research papers in particular, are ones that can easily detect plagiarism when posting it on turn it in, but having correct citations and always crediting the author of the work you are borrowing, will cause no harm! Please credit your work!

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  29. Seanette Martin
    April 13, 2019
    Dr Rich
    Eng Sem 4817
    Plagiarism in the Digital Age
    This is such a great blog because plagiarism is something that is done all day everyday because people feel they won’t get caught by doing this. I heard my professor say a few weeks ago that a student sent her a paper for her to look over and when she opened the paper her computer alerted her that the paper 100 percent plagiarized. The student didn’t even change the font of the the things she copy and pasted like that is extremely crazy. Technology is something that gets better by the day so of course it would pick up on the fact that this paper was copied straight from Google.
    Students have to learn to cite where they are getting these ideas from when using another person’s work there is no need to copy and paste someone else’s work at least give them credit. I know we all have a life and sometimes school is overwhelming with the workload but there is no need to copy someone’s work. Find time to focus on your work that’s what college is about writing papers with your own thoughts. Don’t be lazy because you want to take the easy way out. Then getting caught isn’t on your mind until you get caught and get kicked out of school. There are ways to incorporate someone’s words into your paper and copy and pasting it isn’t the way. I fear plagiarizing because I don’t need anything bad on my transcripts, I don’t like getting in trouble and my biggest fear is being kicked out of college. I would rather struggle with the paper get it wrong and seek help before plagiarizing.

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  30. Due to sneaky people, I do not share my work with anyone. I don’t care who you are. Only myself and the professor have access to my paper. In high school, my friend took my entire thesis paper and handed it in as her own. I was working on it and she asked to see it, I wasn’t fully ready to hand it in, and she said she just needed help getting started, so being the good friend that I was, I sent it to her. A few days later I finished editing the paper, and when I submitted it to turnitin.com (a website that immediately pulls out plagiarism) my paper came out to I think 90% plagiarized. I remember wanting to throw up because of how high the number was. It turns out that my friend took my entire paper (unedited) and handed it in. My teacher obviously knew my work, so the girl got a zero on her thesis paper, but since then, I do not trust anyone. It is such a shame that people feel the need to plagiarize. We all have such perfectly healthy brains that can form their own opinions. There is no need to steal someone else’s work when you are so capable of doing it yourself. I do not understand nor do I tolerate people that think it is okay to plagiarize work. Personally, I believe that it's inhuman to do something of that nature. You’re stealing someone else’s work that they took so long on. Especially in today’s society, you will be caught so quick.

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  31. The route of instant gratification can be very tempting and is seen to be heavily used in the current technological society more than ever before. Specifically, with the variety of educational resources the internet provides, plagiarism is a prevalent form of instant gratification used my students today. The millennial era is notoriously correlated to a decrease in one’s attention span and coupled with the busy schedule of an everyday student, often leads to procrastination. The end result is a teacher reading a paper that has the diction and flow of a professional writer; an immediate red flag for the use of plagiarism. In the blog “Plagiarism in the Digital Age”, Dr. Rich cites the potential reasoning behind plagiarism as the “fear of a blank page.” To expand on this argument, it can be assumed that the reliance on technology in everyday life has had a direct impact on our own thoughts, or lack there of. With the heavy use of social media, students of the millennial age are victims of endless comparisons. Whether they strive to look like an Instagram model or become as rich as Bill Gates, it is undeniable that the abundance of internet use has had a direct effect on the thought process of this nation’s typical adolescent student. The lacking self conscious has these very students fearing their very own thoughts and ideas and therefore they become afraid to use them in their work. The internet is filled with literature from many different critically acclaimed writers who are already proven in their craft. The lack of self belief often leads to procrastinating tendencies. When the fear of a blank page starts to look like reality, copy and paste become the student’s best friend and the professor’s left with one less passing paper and potentially one less student in his class.
    The consequences of plagiarism can be extremely serious for a student and is never worth risking for the sake of self doubt. A good practice to incorporate in writing is to create a full length rough draft without researching anything at all. When researching material without staring your paper, it becomes a subconscious tendency for students to incorporate the use of plagiarism even if the intent is not to do so. By having a draft done first, one’s own original ideas are already physically displayed. From there, with the proper use of citing online sources, the student no longer fears a blank page, and the professor no longer fears grading another cheated paper.
    Marilyn Hernandez (Shakespeare Survey 3215-04)

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  32. Plagiarism is a huge dilemma in today’s academic society. Many students are constantly relying on others or the internet to support them. Students do not realize that this is wrong because they are more nervous to hand in a blank paper than something that someone else wrote. This is so sad because students are truly so scared to fail a paper and would rather risk their academic career to copy someone else. It is wrong and students need to start being more responsible. Cheating is not acceptable is dumb. If you do not know the answer or do not understand what is happening go to your teacher or talk to other classmates. Teachers might be scary but they rather you aggravate them than cheat. They want you to succeed no matter how much their body language says they do not. You might not always be right with what you say, but at least you are trying. You could write the completely wrong thing, but showing a professor you tried and you are working hard to do better is all they can ask. The actions of dealing with a student that cheats I completely agree with. They need to know what they did was wrong and to never do it again. Taking someone else’s words and taken credit for them isn't right and is the last thing anyone should do. Teachers need to voice more that they rather us be wrong than us feel like we have to cheat or take someone else’s words.

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  33. When you said, “What they do now is to scan summary sites such as Schmoop and Monarch Notes for themes and ideas, or they harvest them from Google hits and compile them to form their papers.” I can actually admit that I have utilize this strategy for my OTHER classes. Not yours, because I know I would not get away with it and I was not planning to attempt trying to take that approach. But I am also in the same category with others who believe these ideas are common knowledge and it is fair to use. Sometimes when I have ideas of what I want to say or express something, I can never get the words together to express myself, seeing my feelings being put out into words from another person, I feel as though it is considered fair to use and common knowledge. I also believe the information is there for us to understand better what literary piece we are analyzing. I also believe it did spark some juices to flow for me to write out my papers. But, I can say that my paper does not go fully based on the information that was given because my opinions as well as the next person, are totally two different things. Also if I do take an idea, I always give credit to the person who came up with it, because it is the nice thing to do and legal way. Overall, whenever I use someone else’s idea or work, I always give them credit, for those who don’t, I guess they are not fully developed within themselves to come up with original ideas.

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  34. Plagiarism is something that I have always heard of now that I am in college. When entering the classroom on the first day of college, I can state that all of my professors went over what plagiarism entailed. I didn’t think this mini lesson was needed as I have heard about it in secondary school but unfortunately, there are students that still decide to plagiarize knowing that they could face serious consequences. When speaking with these students, many are friends of mine, that plagiarize it has been brought to my attention that they plagiarize because they do not have the time to write a lengthy thoughtful paper. I find that this relates to your concern that was mentioned at the end of the blog post. Many students have a hectic schedule, therefore, after coming home they do not have the time and/or energy to write a paper that is due the next day which also shows their procrastination. There are numerous websites that students go to and copy and paste other’s ideas. There are even websites that allow one to get a paper written for them if they provide money. I never understood this as it is still seen as plagiarizing someone else’s work. I don’t think summary websites or websites that write papers for students will ever leave the internet as there are individual’s that are willing to take the risk of failing rather than writing their own work especially since that is zero dollars coming out of their pockets.

    Bailey Vick

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  35. I’ve always looked at plagiarism as if even if it’s your own idea, if you took a sentence from a different source to help explain or enhance the idea, then it needs to be cited. No professor has ever explained the common knowledge part- I had no idea that existed back then. I’ve always been bothered when a teacher would assume that your idea was borrowed and needed to be cited. It’s a slap in the face for a teacher to assume the idea is not your own and needs to be credited to someone. Some things are not common knowledge because everyone thinks differently but I don’t think the person who has the most views should be credited for our independent thinking. I have never plagiarized but I have used ideas of other writers. I credit them I just always cite them wrong within the paper. The book “they say, I said” has helped me organize those ideas that I found and expand on them with the evidence I found and with what I came up with myself on that idea.

    I have used shmoop in my other courses and I love shmoop as a site to learn about what the context mean. I’ve never used shmoop for paper writing ideas. That site was strictly for readings that a teacher never really explained to an understanding that I can grasp and accept fully. Shmoop helped me learn, with those one sided professors, what a poem means.

    Since you gave us the freedom to write what we wanted on how we felt there was no need to use shmoop or any other internet related source. I actually liked being able to write a paper and not have to search different sites for the interpretation. Anyone who plagiarizes in your class is just lazy because you paved the way and made it easy for us to want to write. As long as the ideas are expressed clearly and backed up with your train of thought or text evidence, we’ll be fine.

    The internet has come a long way. It goes to giving us ideas to giving us papers for a few bucks. (Not sure how much- I’ve never purchased).

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  36. Its a shame that a blog post on this sort of topic has to be posted, however there are a lot of students at my University that just flat-out have NO idea what it means to plagiarize. Coming into college, I was fairly certain I had an understanding of how plagiarism works, however I did learn that college takes it a litttle bit more seriously. In high school, you would probably just get a slap-on-the-wrist, and have a chance at re-writing the paper. In college, that stuff does not fly whatsoever, and could result in immediate failure, along with other meetings (and, from what I heard, it is a long and grueling process that results in a lot of extra nonsense). Knowing this, I always try to cite anything and everything, even if I did not even look up anything, just to be sure is my work is even similar to someone else's. This happened to me back in freshman year of college, when I was writing a philosophy paper. The professor approached me and threatened to fail me even though I did not go out and search up any information on the topic. I went off writing this paper putting information that came from my brain and my brain alone, however the idea I was writing about was similar to someone else's that was posted online, and the professor was VERY thorough. Even though the wording was also completely different, he thought I grabbed the information from that exact site. (I thought this was a stretch, complete nonsense) Now I learn to just look things up in general and prepare to cite anything similar.

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  37. Dr. Rich,

    I totally agree with the idea that plagiarism has become more of a
    multi-faceted problem since students gained access to unlimited sources through the Internet. It is so easy to just Google a topic and come up with pages of ideas that are not your own. The temptation is so easy to pawn these ideas off as your own, because they are so easily accessible. Even though this readiness of information and resources should be an advantage to students, it is becoming a disadvantage, because we were not taught to pursue knowledge with respect. Students are not taught to respect the knowledge and ideas of others, and, most importantly, students are not taught to respect themselves enough to let their own ideas develop. I think this is what the issue of plagiarism boils down to for me: respect and laziness, born out of discouragement. I often find myself not pushing the limits of my creativity, because I am lazy. I know that most of my professors will accept what I can easily give them: knock-offs of someone else's work. This type of term-paper-writing does not require much effort from me, at least not much creative effort. This approach is an easy escape from taking risks and really exploring what I can find in a piece of literature or really any topic, if I go deep enough and give myself enough time. So when I revert to this lazy procrastination, it is really also a lack of respect for myself. It shows a lack of belief in my abilities to contribute something original to the conversation surrounding any given topic. I think the most important thing is to be aware of my need to grow in respect for myself, so that I can find the motivation to really put more heart and time into the work I do; this class is the beginning of this process for me. :)

    -Kathleen Peregrin

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  38. Not giving credit where credit is due is rude and insensitive. I've created things that I see get reposted with no credit and it doesn't just hurt my feelings but makes me think that I'm not appreciated because I put effort into something and if someone wants to use it they should give credit. They don't want to put the effort into creating something of their own and they don't want to put effort into giving credit where credit should be. Maybe no one has used your works before and you have never been in the original persons shoes and you think they won't mind, well they do. Cite where you get your work from even when it is paraphrased.

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  39. Dr.Rich
    I do nor know why people would risk plagiarism at this point. We all have access to the same sites as you stated in this blog. I'd rather be original and miss points than to steal from someone else. I think of myself as a creative person and dislike when my ideas are used and I haven't gotten the credit for it. If all that is being asked is that you cite the source and do it correctly it would eliminate a world of trouble especially for us students.
    Najeeah

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    Replies
    1. I totally agree with you Najeeah. When you become your own voice, you mentally grow. Moreover, if you are using some one else voice and doesn't mention the author name, this is a crime first of all and secondly you as a person will never grow mentally. It is better to be a creative then to be criminal and someone else voice,

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  40. Wow, that was a very powerful ending for the blog post, Dr. Rich and it really made me feel how much you dislike plagiarism. I can say that throughout my education, I have never plagiarized and always cited work that I included from other people. I am very possessive about my work including essays, short stories, novels, etc. that I have written or am in the process of writing. As a writer, if someone asks me to use my work or look at my work to get an idea, I don't mind at all. Instead, it gives me great satisfaction and pleasure to know that someone looks at my work as a model to follow. However, even if they were to use a line or idea from my paper, I would appreciate to be given credit. Last semester, one of my classmates wanted to see my short story in order to write one of their own, using most of the same details. But I did not trust them and was hesitant to give my work, something that was created with a lot of hard work, to someone who did not want to do anything and use mine as their own work.

    Plagiarizing to me, is the same thing. People who are not willing or not able to put the time in to write a paper of their own ideas or even if they use someone's else's idea, cite it. There's nothing wrong in citations, and that's why there are websites out there to help cite correctly. There's absolutely nothing wrong in using information out there if it helps. Why reinvent the wheel? Just use what is there if it helps, but give credit. Do not take ideas and words from someone and pass it off as original work, because that is lying. I can say with confidence that no one likes to get work taken or used from them without getting the credit, and even the person plagiarizing will fall into the same category. One thing people need to understand, is treat others how you would like to be treated, whether it be in relationships with people or in writing papers.

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  41. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  42. There is nothing more anxiety inducing for me, than the word plagiarism. I dread each and every time a teacher goes over their syllabus and reads the harsh guidelines and repercussions that are associated with plagiarism. Now, I have never plagiarized, but the mere thought of every having a teacher think that I did, or the mere thought of accidently not citing something correctly gets my heart beat to skip a few times. As I am submitting a paper to the turn it in scanner, I am breathing into a paper back, at the dreadful ever so slowly loading of the scanner to tell me if I have anything in my paper that is not my own. Often times, it comes back with a small percentage of something that was accidently cited correctly, or a quote that another student used in their paper – and every time I have a panic attack that my whole college career is going in the drain.
    As a student who would never intentionally plagiarize, I don’t understand why students do try to pass someone else’s thoughts or works off as their own. One, it’s like being in a group project, and one partner not doing their work or pulling their own weight, and they get the grade – if you know how mad that makes you, why would you do that to someone intentionally, when you know what you are stating is not your own.
    Just the other day in one of my classes, we were peer reviewing our classmates work, and the teacher stated: “Please don’t take someone’s research paper, and copy it attempting to pass it on as if it was your own”, I was shocked that she even had to make the statement aloud to a class of older college students, but the fact that she did reminded me that people do stuff like this all of the time, and steal other student’s work because in the end it is easier for them to use someone else’s opinion, rather than their own. But as your graphic and blog post state, “Stop copying others, and think of your own ideas!”

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  43. Dear Dr Rich


    Plagiarism, a tricky situation. I admit I am somewhat sympathetic to it in a way? I know it’s cliche but a famous line does some up an issue I feel many feel about this.

    “There is nothing new under the sun”

    Originality...even in our thoughts is difficult, often the best one can hope for is to remix what has been said into something new. Plagiarist perhaps take this a step too far but I have always been someone who sympathies for the person in the wrong. ( Trump Bearing exclusion, no sympathy for that creep.)

    Plagiarism should be punished, but as a student the amount of work makes people do dumb things, despration breeds either good thats or bad actions.

    James Patti.

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  44. Dr. Rich,
    I do not sympathize plagiarism at all, because I imagine it's me at the other end where I am not given credit for my work, and I cannot begin to explain how furious I would be if somebody just took my words and my thoughts and "passed" them for their own. But I must say this, in many instances during my education (elementary school, high school, and college) I was told and taught to believe that my opinion and what my mind had to offer to furthermore contribute to a work was incorrect, I was taught that facts matter and my own opinion was unnecessary and therefore useless. With my statement I just want to incorporate how important it is but us students to start believing that our opinion is the most precious and important thing in our possession, and even though the easiest way to get rid of a "blank page" is to plagiarize, that will never lead us to anywhere intellectually and it will not add any knowledge to our minds.

    Arianni Rodriguez
    12/03/19

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  45. Very insightful commentary on plagiarism. You pointed something out that I never considered when thinking about plagiarism, and that is the act of how disrespectful it is. Whenever someone plagiarizes they probably just think "Oh I'll just copy and paste from this website and pretend I wrote it!" and while they might be able to get away with it, I wonder what the person who put effort into researching and coming up with their own idea would think about this person stealing their work as if they came up with it.

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  46. Plagiarism is stealing. Whenever I have to write a paper and use other sources I write down the sources I use as I write my paper so I give paper credit to all the sources that helped me. It is disrespectful to plagiarize and it is also illegal. Just like in The Big Bang Theory the two characters lost their chance at a nobel prize because their plagiarized their thesis. Every paper I write I write it with care and I would hope that others would respect my paper and cite their sources.

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  47. Dr. Rich,

    Ever since high school, the word plagiarism has given me extreme anxiety. I always see the words in my head "WE HAVE A ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY FOR PLAGIARISM." This anxiety has increased since I have gotten to college and learned the consequences for plagiarism, especially the one stating that plagiarism can lead to expulsion. As if writing papers didn't cause me enough anxiety, I now have this paranoia in the back of my mind reminding me that I can get kicked out of school for possibly, accidentally including someone else's word in my writing and forgetting to cite it.

    I am not someone to copy others words. I have too much of a guilty conscience to ever do that, but I often get stuck trying to express what I am trying to say into words and sometimes turn to a quick Google search for some "inspiration". But I give credit where credit is due. I would never steal someone else's work and claim it as my own.

    As you stated in the post, to give credit is to show respect. I imagine myself on the other side of the situation and how I would feel knowing someone else was getting credit and praise for my own hard work. I would be devastated.

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  48. I don't understand why people do plagiarism. We were taught not to do plagiarism since high school as far as I remember. We were also taught the risk of using plagiarism and how it can affect our education and career very badly. However, some students still do it. I never did plagiarism and even if I feel like if I am doing plagiarism somehow, I quoted the statement and put citation on it. Moreover, I go to the writing center for them to read my paper before I submit it . Also, for them to tell me if i have done plagiarism or quoted something wrong. After reading your blog, I remember a story of when I was in college, our professor told us about his student that did plagiarism. The professor told us that the first time he did plagiarism, the professor told him that he did plagiarism and he is giving him a second chance to fix it. However, in his chance, he plagiarism again. This time he did plagiarism from another source. As funny as it sounds, that is the reality of some of the students. I liked to be my own voice and if I need to prove my point of view then I used an outside source. Additionally, I quote and cite them and then paraphrase it for the readers to understand what is happening in the quote. I have also seen some students doing plagiarism and easily get away from it. My best friend, friend did some plagiarism once in his research paper and surprisingly he got a B on his paper.

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  49. Greetings Dr. Rich & Fellow classmates,

    Plagiarism can be a terrifying when not only are we threatened with expulsion if done, but also are often strapped to the confines of summarizing someone else's work, or writing a cookie-cutter essay that falls into the format of A-B-C. As someone who enjoys originality, I try to avoid the internet as much as possible. No facebook, no smooping, no late night web-md symptom searching, and certainly no diddly-dooding. To be honest, this is really hard, but it has allowed to be focus more on my internal thought that my external search.

    Your statement, "And in a world where ease of assessment and statistical comparisons is increasingly more important than intellectual and personal transformation, the temptation is to just write derivative term papers that border on plagiarism," really shook me! What could possible be more important than "intellectual and personal transformation"? Well when it comes to fulfilling the same monotonous rubrics, we choose Netflix and a comfy couch, of course! But in all seriousness, it is unfortunate that speed and basic guidelines are expected and often lead to plagiarism. Positively, your blog post is infecting and reminding minds of whats important, and that is first and foremost originality.

    Thanks,
    Ellen

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  50. Dear Dr. Rich,
    Plagiarism is something that is on every students mind as they write a paper, no matter what kind. I always try to be careful not to plagiarize and am often scared that what I have written will be seen as plagiarism. When I start writing a paper I make sure not to have the internet open so as not to give into the temptation to make it "easier" by looking up other peoples' ideas. But so many things are written and posted online that sometimes, even when it is your own ideas, another person has already had the same ones. I remember my friend wrote a paper for her history class, and was so happy with her paper because she had some very good ideas on it but her professor found plagiarism in it and made her rewrite it. She was very distraught because she didn't use any other peoples' ideas and thought what she wrote were her own but someone else had the same ideas and since they were posted online it looked like she plagiarized. It's difficult to go through and I always make sure to have someone else read my papers and even use a plagiarism checker to make sure that my papers are original and properly cited. The temptation to look up ideas and plagiarize is there for any student who is, as you said, "afraid of the blank page" but I also know that the fear of being caught plagiarizing is also there and the fallout is not worth the risk.
    Sincerely,
    Stacy Santos

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  51. The definition of plagiarism is something we are taught when we first begin to write essays, book reports, and research papers. As students, we should be aware of how to not plagiarize and give credit when credit is due. It is temping to use the internet to look for essay ideas, but you should not steal those ideas without crediting the author. My roommate is known for doing this. Copying other people’s work! Throughout the entire semester, she would ask other classmates for their assignment therefore she can complete her assignment. She would copy and paste their paragraphs on to a blank word document, reorganize the paragraphs a bit, and look up a few synonyms for a few words. If there were any sentences that did not read like her writing, she would just eliminate the sentence overall. I would constantly try to advise her to stop doing that and motivate her to write her own paper. The excuse she gave for doing this was that she was extremely busy juggling two part time jobs. I was always so curious about how she never got caught. Realizing what she was doing completely has made me choose to never give my paper to anyone. A classmate of mine recently asked me for my final paper for a class we have together, and I immediately knew I did not want to because I feared that he would copy my work. I think it is out of laziness and trying to find an easy way out when students decide to do this.
    Jacqueline Perez

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  52. Plagiarism is something that no one should be doing. The idea of not plagiarizing something has been instilled me throughout my whole school life, especially when I first began writing essays and papers for classes. There is a part of me that understands why people plagiarize, especially as college students who are very stressed with several other factors that affect their life, hence the “fear of a blank page.” However, it’s also not hard to credit people for the work that they put in to provide other people with information or different perspectives. Plagiarism is a lazy method that takes away all the hard work and effort that the original person put in. Like you said, “To give credit, even if it’s to write…is to show respect for those who have done the work of deep thinking before us.” I think that statement is very true and should be taken more seriously. It is extremely disrespectful to completely take another person’s work and credit it as your own.

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  53. Perhaps people feel the need to plagiarize because they are not confident with their ideas, but when push comes to shove, I do believe the blame can be put on laziness. Why come up with your own idea if you can type a few key phrases into a search engine and thousands upon thousands of ideas are already formulated for you? As our internet has become a database of everyone's ideas, from Aristotle to an internet troll on Reddit, it may seem as though your idea has already been published, and if it hasn't, it probably wasn't a great idea in the first place. This method, however, is the wrong way to go about things. Everything we absorb as a person- from what we refer to what we read to what we watch has all sprouted from an idea. Without fresh ideas, our society would be a constant cycle of the same old same old.

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  54. Plagiarism to me is incredibly disrespectful. We are all artists and creators, and the fact that some individuals intentionally steal the creation of another and label it as their own work is unbelievable to me. I don't know if people do it because they would rather not do the work themselves, or because they see how successful one individual is with their own creation that they feel the need to steal it to gain success for themselves. No matter what the reason is, it is never a good one.
    -
    Jessica DeLuca

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  55. Oh man, in your first paragraph my attention was grabbed instantly. Those “schmoop” summaries brings me back to a time in High School where I had to summarize a huge piece of literature that we had “read” mostly aloud in class, and then the rest had to be read on my own terms. That’s where schmoop came to my rescue! I feel I lost interest in literature because of the way I was taught how I was “supposed” to learn it. The typical 5 paragraph essay on what the piece was about, who the protagonist and antagonist were, and what I would do if I was in the story! You know, boring stuff. I guess I never looked at reading literature as music. It's interesting to think that the great Shakespear would neer truly exist if WE did not become the readers, the artists, the theater crafters. This same theory goes for teachers. Yes, we need teachers, but in order for teachers to teach, the students need to chime in and respond. They become their own learners.

    Different ways we can make literature into music is reading it aloud. I’ve noticed throughout my education career that reading aloud has helped me to better understand the information and it really puts me into the story as if I had been there when it was first created. I get lost in my own mind quite often so when I’m silently reading to myself, I tend to get distracted. I now have a different outlook on not just literature, but all future readings I will do.

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  56. Plagiarism is disrespectful in all aspects. As artists there is no reason that people should feel the need to use the same ideas that somebody else had. The idea of stealing somebody else's hard work and using it as your own without giving credit is completely disrespectful. I can not understand why people would do this.

    David Rivera, Jr.

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