PLAGIARISM

Plagiarism

Every year many students are suspended from universities. Why? they Plagiarise. The University of Indiana defines plagiarism as “using others’ ideas and words without clearly acknowledging the source of that information”(Indiana par.1). In other words, stealing people's ideas is just like stealing their property. Writers spend a lot of time crafting their work, but plagiarists spend only a moment to complete their work by copying other's ideas. Plagiarism affects both the plagiarizer and the person whose ideas are being stolen. Plagiarism is very common. There is a long history of plagiarism with many famous examples. Modern technology has made it mach easier to plagiarize. Fortunately, there are many ways to avoid plagiarism.

Plagiarism has a long history. Many people used to plagiarize and nobody cared about that. Plagiarism was a normal practice for a long time. Even Shakespeare plagiarized in a lot of his work. Plagiarism is stealing others' work and ideas, and that is what makes it a bad behavior. According to Malcolm Jones, "As concepts go, plagiarism isn't that old. The Oxford English Dictionary cites the Elizabethan playwright Ben Jonson as the first person to use the word plagiary to designate literary theft--and he was making a joke. That was at the beginning of the 17th century, when everyone, including Shakespeare, still borrowed other people's work and remade it" (par. 10).

Plagiarism only became a serious issue after the American revolution, about 200 years ago. The U.S congress passed a law “to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries”(qtd. in Masterson 632). They started to legislate against plagiarism. For example, in the United States an author can sue plagiarists in federal court. Also, Plagiarism in college is never acceptable. In the 1980s, there has been a significant increase in the amount of litigation in courts in the USA concerning punishments imposed by colleges and licensing boards“(Standler "Cases Against Plagiarists in Colleges" par.1). To save authors' and owners' rights, all books are now protected from plagiarism by copyright. Plagiarism is a violation of the copyright. After March 1, 1989, “ any work created in the USA is automatically protected by copyright, even if there is no copyright notice attached to the work “ (Standler "The Law of Plagiarism" par.3).

Many people plagiarize to reduce the amount of work they have to do and to make their work more attractive. Even though plagiarism is popular around the world, it is not legal. Plagiarism is prohibited because it is stealing someone else’s ideas without permission. Plagiarism is the same as stealing someone’s car or stealing someone's money. There are many famous examples of people who plagiarized and were caught plagiarizing.

Stephen Edward Ambrose, a famous American historian and biographer of U.S. Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon, was a professor of history in several universities from 1960 to 1995. Many people first became aware of who he was when he was kicked out of Kansas State University because he asked lots of annoying questions to President Richard Nixon during a speech. Ambrose wrote many popular books, but he was caught plagiarizing in one of them ("Stephen Ambrose" par.2).

Ambrose was accused of plagiarism in his book, The Wild Blue. He took several passages from Thomas Childers’s book, Wings of Morning, without including any quotation marks.

According to Fred Barnes, “The two books are similar in more than just subject. Whole passages in ‘The Wild Blue’ are barely distinguishable from those in ‘Wings of Morning.’ Sentences in Ambrose's book are identical to sentences in Childers's. Key phrases from ‘Wings of Morning,’ such as ‘glittering like mica’ and ‘up, up, up’ are repeated verbatim in ‘The Wild Blue.’ None of these--the passages, sentences, phrases--is put in quotation marks and ascribed to Childers” (Barnes 1).

Modern technology has made plagiarism much easier to commit. For example,there are now a lot of websites that provide free articles or essays and help people to plagiarize easily. The Internet helps plagiarists get millions of sources in just a second. In fact, there are many websites that sell articles, essays, and whatever the plagiarists need for just a few dollars.

There are many other ways to commit plagiarism, such as copying and pasting others' ideas, or by sharing these ideas with friends online. A bad way to plagiarize is to steal others' ideas by translating them from another language to English to make it difficult for readers to notice the plagiarism. According to the website plagiarism.org “Plagiarism has never been easier than it is today. Before the internet, cheating was labor-intensive and obvious. Potential plagiarists had to find appropriate works from a limited pool of resources, usually a nearby library, and copy them by hand” ("Plagiarism.Today par.1"). Now, it is very easy to find articles in any language and translate them in just a few seconds.

plagiarism is more bigger problem than most people think. It is an ethical problem. It means degrades who reads your paper. Nowadays, there are some organizations and websites that help to detect plagiarism .These sites may help reduce plagiarism. According to plagiarism.org, “Turnitin and iThenticate offer plagiarism detection services that address this growing problem of intellectual property theft and dishonesty. Organizations around the world have found that an effective plagiarism detection service when combined with plagiarism education serves as an enormously effective deterrent to digital plagiarism” (par.6).

There are a lot of people who plagiarized unintentionally. Joe McGinniss, who is an American writer, has plagiarized Accidentally. He took several passeges from the work of William Manchester, the historian who wrote the definitive account of John F. Kennedy's assassination. People ask if Mcginniss is “a plagiarist or ... just a lazy reporter?” (Painton par.1). William Manchester plans to sue Joe McGiniss, “after pinpointing 187 instances where he claims the author largely lifted his prose” (par.1).

Another example of unintentional plagiarism is Kaavya Viswantan who claims she unintentionally “copied portions of her novel ‘How Opal Mehata Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life’ from two adult novels by Megan McCafferty” (Smith). After that, Viswantan apologized to McCafferty for her unintentional plagiarism. She said, “I sincerely apologize to Megan McCafferty and to any who feel they have been misled by these unintentional errors on my part” (The Harvard Crimson par.5).

This unintentional plagiarism could happen to anyone. But to keep from being a plagiarist, writers need to know ways to avoid it. While writers are searching for information, they must write down the name of each of their sources. Another way is for writers to give themslves "plenty of time to research and write" their essays (Depauw par.22). In this way, writers will have time to know if their topics are suitable or not, and they will know whether or not they can write about them. writers also need to trust themselves and not say they don’t have ideas. All writers have ideas, but they are afraid of plagiarism. “Even the best writers are often unaware of their good ideas, and think they have nothing” (Depauw par.27).

In conclusion, history has shown that plagiarism is common.Even though plagiarism is a crime and a disrespectful deed, many famous and ordinary people were accused of it. Unfortunately, modern technology helps people to steal others’ ideas more easily whether they intend to or not. However, there are several ways to avoid plagiarism. Students should be careful not to plagiarize because it can ruin their academic career.

Works cited


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Barnes, Fred. "Stephen Ambrose, Copycat." The Daily Standard. 1 May 2002. 13 Apr. 2007<http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/738lfddv.asp>.

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Masters, Salathiel. California Law Revier
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Painton, Priscilla. The LAST Brother. SIMON & SCHUSTER, 1993. Find More Like This Teddy, we hardly know ye. 16 Apr. 2007 <http://web.ebscohost.com.pallas2.tcl.sc.edu/ehost/detail?vid=9&hid=105&sid=f7098673-96cc-4774-aca9-266d30dc9b77%40sessionmgr108>.

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Smith, Dinita. "Find More Like This Novelist Says She Red [sic] Copied Books Several Times." New York Times 27 Apr. 2006: pa 16-a 16. Academic Search Premier.EBSCO. Unive. of South Carolina Lib. 16 Apr. 2007
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