The Problem of Plagiarism Essay -- Definition Essays

Plagiarism is bad isnt a definition, but (coming from a public high school) that cleverness be all youve ever been taught. Theres not much being done to keep students from plagiarizing in their high school courses. Teachers of junior and senior English classes institute the hardest at stopping plagiarism. Still, most of us have no concept of why we shouldnt plagiarize. Then we come to college where we are faced with things like academic honestness committees and honor courts those days of cut and paste writing assignments are over. So, what is plagiarism, other than bad? What do you do to keep from plagiarizing? And how might your professors bust you? Plagiarism is fundamentally theft of written intellectual gracefulty. Whats intellectual befittingty? you ask. Dictionary.com defines intellectual property as the ownership of ideas and control over the tangible or virtual histrionics of those ideas. Use of another persons intellectual property may or may not involve roy alty payments or permission, but should always include proper credit to the source (http//www.dictionary.com). If you fail to give proper credit, then you have plagiarized. Wilson Mizner once said, Copy from one, its plagiarism copy from two, its research, (Campus Planner). At first, this seems purely humorous, but if you gestate about it, it makes a lot of sense. If you write a paper, and all you do is copy the thoughts and opinions of one person, then you are plagiarizing. Even if you avoid plagiarism by siting your resource properly, youre not getting a good grade -- all you are doing is copying someones work. If, on the other hand, you take the ideas and opinions from multiple sources, give proper credit and make your own connections with the... ...ation. If you are looking to learn lessons for life, then learn how to play fair and give credit where credit is due. If you are in truth in college to learn from books, then you wont plagiarize because your teachers and text bo oks tell you not to. And even if you are only in college to have a good time, consider this, the party is over if you flunk out or are expelled. Works Cited1999-2000 Campus Planner. CSA Inc. Dayton, Ohio. Hinchliffe, Lisa. Cut-and-Paste Plagiarism Preventing, Detecting and Tracking Online Plagiarism. May 1998. Online. http//alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/janicke /plagiary.htm (12 Oct.1999) Hults, Pat. Plagiarism. Online. http//www.cobleskill.edu/Irc/Ethics/plagiarism.html. (12 Oct. 1999) Intellectual Property. March 27, 1997. http//www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl? marge=Intellectual%20property. (28 Sept 1999)