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The Basics about Plagiarism

One of the major problems not only in the academe but also in the corporate world, entertainment arena, and all other avenues is plagiarism. There are various problems arising on the grounds of the critical issue of plagiarism. This stems from the reason that he notion of plagiarism to many people is still vague or unclear. Plagiarism being an act of intellectual dishonesty is defined by the acts of stealing the ideas and innovations of others and trying to show ownership of these. Here are relevant facts to learn about plagiarism:

1. Plagiarism is a crime regardless of whether or not you are consciously or unconsciously doing it. There are copyright laws violated if this is committed.
2. It is of much importance to go over your work many times to check if plagiarism does not take place. Properly cite your sources to be able to avoid the consequences of the crime like paying a huge amount of fine.
3. Active participation of teachers in the research paper made by their students help minimize plagiarism. Most participative teachers are also active in discouraging students to engage in such crime. Furthermore, students are enthused if their work is recognized and are given considerations by the teachers.
4. There are some cases wherein the research topics given by teachers are not that appealing to students thus, leading to a unenthusiastic study. When students donТt have the drive to know more about the topic, there is a big chance for plagiarism to occur as students find less initiative to do an intensive self-study.
5. The consequences of plagiarism are not only felt by those who do it but also by other people most especially the original writer or inventor.  It is a violation of oneТs right to his/her own intellectual property when people do not give due credit to the creator of the original work. The teachers and students around you may also be affected, so as their views about you.
6. In the academe, students who plagiarize are given disciplinary actions through punishments. Such punishments may take form as violation charges, suspension and worst, expulsion. This is to strongly address the almost habitual acts of plagiarism.
7. Rules on plagiarism and sanctions to it are introduced at the very moment students are admitted to the schools. The promulgation may take place during school orientation.
8. Plagiarism mostly occurs in good schools based on statistics. It was found out that about half of the student population in US find it hard to distinguish plagiarism from research. This serves as an excuse for them to continue using the ideas of either as their own. There is even a misconception among American students that in order to do well in their classes and school work, plagiarism is needed.
9. Not all articles in the internet are protected by copyright laws and some contents in the certain websites are totally accessible to the public but these are not valid excuses to still plagiarize. These do not give a leeway to copy the work of others.

Internet connection is available worldwide and more and more people use it either for good or bad purposes. With this, rampant plagiarism comes along. But there are also some ways to minimize this problem of intellectual dishonesty.

1. The innovations of softwares that could help limit plagiarism are already available now.  Example of these softwares is www.duplichecker.com.
2. There are some instances wherein unplanned plagiarism happens even though proper citations are already done.

A Closer Look at Plagiarism
There are a lot of people who may still be having doubts as to what does plagiarism really mean and how it is really defined. The act of plagiarism is not only constrained to copying the work, but it may be considered as stealing someone else’s idea, which may truly be frustrating for someone who has devoted a lot of time and effort to really establish the work and even shared it to others, most especially if it is readily available once you browse through the Internet. Bear in mind to always cite where you were able to get that particular information in order to avoid getting accused of plagiarizing someone’s work.

The Constraints of Plagiarism
No matter what the extent of plagiarism has been done, still, the fact remains that another person’s work was copied, which are of course considered as an act that is truly unlawful. Even if there may be various types of doing plagiarism, there are penalties as well as negative consequences that may occur once you commit it.

Plagiarism Has Negative Consequences
There are definitely corresponding punishments or penalties to those who would be plagiarizing and these punishments are regulated and may also be based on various aspects. Plagiarism may be categorized depending on the particular level where it occurred, like for instance it is considered to be low level if plagiarism took place at an educational institution. However it would be considered a high level if it was committed by a professional.

Proper citation Avoids Plagiarism
If for instance sources were not properly cited in the work that has been made, it may immediately be considered as a plagiarized work since the referencing is not appropriate. In order for you to properly do so, it would be convenient to simply browse through the Internet in order for you to know how to properly cite the sources that you have so as to avoid getting your work labeled as a plagiarized work. The moment that you disregard placing quotation marks, then it would immediately be a plagiarized work.

Copyrighting One’s Work

In order to effectively prevent one’s work from being taken by others, copyrighting one’s work would surely be a clever way in order to do so. A copyright law would help a person secure his or her work from being stolen in the sense that someone else would get acknowledged for something that he or she has not actually done. Once this happens, this would surely be very frustrating since you know for a fact that you truly worked hard for it, and then someone else would get credited for what you did. Once you decide to have your work protected, you just have to register in order to gain a copyright for it and if you find out that someone else is using your work, then you have the right to accuse that person of plagiarizing. Those who are in the music industry as well as those who produce videos would also be able to get a copyright for their work, which simply means that as long as you have an idea that has been publicized or has been made visible to everyone, then you would be able to have it copyrighted. When you register, you may request to get the trademark which would show that your work has a copyright.

The Law of Plagiarism is something that has created quite a stir at some universities and colleges. Making some students, who have committed plagiarism, assume that what they have done is not really something that could, affect their studies, or even somewhat be an event that would affect their status in school.
The law affirms that any educational institution, like that of any college and / or university, decrees that these educational institutions would have to deliberate on the student’s conduct, and at times, is noted to say that plagiarism is an academic offense, not a legal offense. This simply is a misconception, and which is something that has to be corrected for all to know.
Professional organizations, schools, and colleges undoubtedly have as much authority to punish plagiarists, including letting go of the students from that specific institution, or even to a point of retracting a degree that has already earned, but which was done so by the use of plagiarism. One has to be aware that plagiarism is also a legal issue.
Copyright Law, on the other hand, gives authority and jurisdiction to the original author of the article, or any document, that has been used without his / her consent, to sue plagiarists. It is also stated that any work that has been created in the United States of America after March 1, 1989, is inevitably protected by this copyright law, even if the document or work created does not contain the copyright notice, affixed to the work.
Be assured that any entity who creates his / her own is protected, to which, individuals, who seem to think that copying and assuming as his / her own work, would be taught discipline. With these laws that help govern the limit, and hopefully, discontinued use of plagiarism, less and less individuals would resort to fabricating documents.

Line between Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement
Plagiarism and copyright infringement are more or less given the same meanings by most people. There might be some similarities between the two terms but they should not be used as perfect synonyms for each other because they are not. They also have big differences which make them imperfect synonyms. Here is how these two are defined.
Copyright infringement only happens to works which have been covered by copyright. The particular act of infringement happens when someone else, someone who has not asked permission from the creator of the copyrighted work used it. When you would ask permission from the creator of a copyrighted work, you would likely have to pay the creator. This is why committing copyright infringement would involve the culprit paying what he owes the owner of the work he has copied.
Plagiarism has something in common with the laws on copyright infringement. However, the major difference would lie in the fact that once a person copies the work of others, even without being covered by a copyright, that person is said to have committed plagiarism already. Thus, it can be said that someone may commit plagiarism but not necessarily committing copyright infringement. On the other hand, copyright infringement is always an act of plagiarism. Plagiarism without copyright infringement can be done by copying the works of others without the copyright license but not acknowledging the real source of the work.
On a stricter and legal note, anyone who is suspect of doing copyright infringement will be subject to pay the owner of the plagiarised work that the suspect has obtained without the latterТs consent. Many countries advocate for upholding copyright which is why legal prosecutions are held for those who violated it. Another payment may also be demanded from the plagiarist in cases when the plagiarised work has earned while claimed as the plagiaristТs work.  If your country is quite strict about copyright infringement, violators may even be imprisoned.
Plagiarism is once again different for it involves more moral fiber in the people more so than with law. By simply forgetting to put in the name of the source of the idea in your work, you are already committing plagiarism. Thus, you have to be conscientious and conscious in doing your work. There are some who can easily replace the names of the original sources and put in their own names as the original creator and thinker of ideas.
Committing plagiarism might not put you in prison but you will still suffer the negative consequences of this act. You will lose your credibility and every work that you do might be casted with a shadow of doubt that they might also be plagiarised works of yours. No one would easily trust you again for plagiarism is a telltale sign of oneТs laziness. It also means that you may not be able to produce work out of diligence. This smeared character will not pave your way for easy jobs to come. You would have to endure these effects for you once chose to lead an easy though, wrong way in life.

Systematic Plagiarism: Repeated Plagiarism
Plagiarism has become widespread because there are more temptations now, with all the ready-made and readily available information just lying around in the Internet.
There are different kinds of plagiarism, one of which is systematic plagiarism. Systematic plagiarism is the type which is intentionally and all-knowingly committed. This is so much unlike the accidental plagiarism which is not knowingly done by a person.
Systematic plagiarism has plagued the gates of the learning institutions because this is usually resorted to by students time and time again for the papers that they were told to make. Even the newspapers have cases wherein they have fallen victim to this type of plagiarism. There were writers who had used this to get through with their jobs, which should be avoided because journalists are supposed to be one of the streams of truth.
Plagiarism is not good. It mainly involves the usage of somebody else’s work without giving them the credit of being the first ones to come up with the idea. There are obvious plagiarisms and there are others which are committed subtly. Once a writer or any person becomes tainted with the mistake of committing plagiarism, every literary work and other work that he may come up with might also be tainted with the thought of being plagiarized. Thus, he will lose his credibility. This type of cheating is said to allow laziness take over you and your performances. If this temptation would come after you and you entertained it, this might become one of your habits and you may already be unnoticeably commit systematic plagiarism.
However, since someone is not guilty until proven otherwise, those who were caught of plagiarising might be forgiven as yet and might be given the chance to redeem himself by proving that plagiarism will not find its way again to his other works. If once again, the plagiarist would be caught doing the same act, he would be called a systematic plagiarist. For a professional, credibility would surely suffer.
There are very wise plagiarists who can hide the fact that they have committed plagiarism. This might only be discovered way long after the work was passed as that of the plagiarist. By then, he might have already enjoyed the fame of taking credit after other people’s works. In the newspaper industry, both the whole editorial staff and the writer would suffer from this act. This might forever wipe away the face of dignity and credibility that any newspaper should have as goodwill.
In an effort to stop plagiarism, schools, newspapers, and other institutions have tight rules about plagiarism. The usual convention is to give several warnings before the plagiarist will be punished, like expelling him from school or firing him from work.

Some people already have their own definition of plagiarism. They even know the depth and strength of the action, including the punishment for this act. However, there are still some that continue to plagiarize. Why do this happen? What should be done to avoid this?
Among anything else, every individual should be reminded that plagiarism is an act of stealing. When one plagiarizes, he is already stealing someoneТs intellectual property. More so, everybody knows that stealing is prohibited by the law and it demands a certain punishment once caught. In addition, dictionaries define this act as some form of theft in the literary world wherein the perpetrator claims the stolen property as oneТs own.
Despite the definition and punishment that the act of plagiarizing may cause, there are still some people that continue to do this prohibited act. It seems that they, mostly students, are not afraid of getting a failing mark or be expelled from school. Especially on the case of the student, what follows are the most common reasons why plagiarism is performed:

1. There is no enough time to work on the paper.
2. There are already other people that do it but are not caught
3. It is difficult to rewrite someoneТs work and put it into own words.

Even if the concept of plagiarism is quite complicated and takes a lot of forms, there is an easy solution to it. The basic solution to avoid committing plagiarism is to cite the references. It is a necessity that the writer be able to know how to indicate in the paper who are his sources of information.  Moreover, in paraphrasing, the writer should remember that he does not have to just change the words of the original text. He also should change the sentence structure and use his own words. In the end of the text, citation is still a necessity.
Just to reiterate the basic idea of plagiarism and be able to inculcate it to most writers mind, one should remember that it is still an act of stealing. Whatever forms of plagiarism is done, one is still committing an act of theft. With this, one should always remember that stealing is prohibited and it is punished by the law. If one does not want to be punished, he should follow the rules properly and take some time and effort in writing the paper properly. After all, doing the right thing is still for the writerТs own benefit.

Know Plagiarism in Internet Essays
Since information becomes readily available through the Internet, it has become one of the fastest sources that plagiarists can turn to. Many have taken advantage of this widespread availability of information and instead, let on their laziness and eventually, did plagiarism given that resources are easily accessible.
One form by which plagiarism has taken place is through Internet essays. These Internet essays can be bought from people who will make the essays for the buyer. There are now available websites which openly advertise their services in making Internet essays for students who need them. This makes the temptation to plagiarise work stronger for students and weaken the desire to instead sweat out and burn candles to make the essays themselves. This is one of the problems faced by schools because plagiarism has admittedly reduced the quality of education and the quality of work that these students receive and give, respectively. Even if these websites claim that this is not plagiarism, it really is.
There is a noted increase in the number of plagiarism jobs done through the Internet. Advertisements for this kind of service may appear on the websites of the writers who can provide the service. This is how open the ads for plagiarism are being posted. In return, the student who wants to have an essay made will have to pay a fee. This is the image of plagiarism in a business transaction. Whatever subject or topic you may want to tackle, these websites for Internet essays can tap numerous writers who from all over the world, depending on the match between your topic and the writerТs field of expertise. Thus, for a fee, you might ensure that you will receive a well-done essay which will possibly earn you good grades from your teachers. If the teachers and other essay checkers are not watchful enough, they would surely be convinced of your writing prowess.
What adds more to this plagiarism problem is that these plagiaristsТ sites are not rendered illegal, or if they are, they are not given much notice and attention by the authorities concerned. No one has yet made the move to eradicate these sites from lending their service to the students and those who need essays. Even if there might not be a specific law for plagiarism, there is the copyright infringement law which is surely violated by these websites. Since plagiarism also falls under cheating, it is also morally incorrect and unethical.
However, there are also newly-developed software which are programmed to carefully run over the essays submitted by students under their names in order to double check if these are plagiarised works. Thus, students should become very wary of submitting plagiarised papers. On the other hand, the Internet essay websites would warn their customers to alter the words used by the paid writers so as to validate the work as theirs. But would you risk being caught and then be expelled, lose face, lose money, and lose your chance at education? Plagiarism may not be worth all these.

Students and Plagiarism

As information technology advances and as internet connection is becoming available worldwide, people find it easy to access on information they need. Students have the convenience to just click and drag the mouse to move the cursor to the desired information they need from the internet websites. This is one benefit of the high technology we have. But there is also a downside to it; this stimulates the increased practice of plagiarism as students get use to convenience. The corporate world and the academic world have problems on plagiarism. There are some who benefit from it.  The students for instance can be saved from the hassle of accomplishing school work through it. They can also save their time and effort. Though unwise, many are still doing this. Plagiarism is again copying the concept of others and taking the credit of making it. And this act is not right in any angle. This is mostly observed in the academe too.

Causes of Plagiarism in the Academe
Unawareness about the issue of plagiarism is a big problem which is somehow not appropriately addressed by many teachers. Most teachers lack the initiatives to help minimize the problem. Teachers are tasked to let the students know how they would do their research and how they would gather data to prove or support their points. This is one hard task for it takes much time, effort and patience to go over each student’s work and check it if it is original or taken from someone else’s work. Many teachers just find it convenient to only scan through the pages and rate them. Plagiarism is one act that depicts lack of interest in the subject matter, lack of time and laziness of students who do not want to exert effort. Ready- made analyses from the internet and helpful reactions from the different sites are considered and misconceived by students as a big help to their careers. But what they do not know is this act of plagiarism forfeits the purpose of studying and is not part of learning. Being a big help to their hard school tasks, students mistakenly adhere to such action and develop it as a habit. The drive to know things through their own perspectives would be lost among students. As more and more sites which make various data available, it makes it hard to find out which is copied from which.

Eradicating Plagiarism among Students
Schools impose disciplinary actions to students plagiarizing the work of others. One way is to give punishment like fines, suspension and expulsion. However, the problem that plagiarism is a vague concept makes it uncontrollable. The thin line that demarcates research from plagiarism is rarely recognized by students. Another problem in controlling it is that it is sometimes hard to validate the copying of ideas especially when these ideas are not published formally and are not protected by copyright laws. For instance, one student copies the idea of another student; we cannot seek the help of software in this matter. It is very hard to trace then who copied from whom.  There are two types of copying then, one is text copying and the other is idea copying. In some cases, those who cheat get higher grades compared to those who truly construct the ideas. Lack of confidence in one’s self also contributes to the cause of plagiarizing and the fear of failing in a subject gives one the urge to copy the work of others. In the part of the instructor, the lack of apt consultation period and less interest in the research of the students make it easier for students to just plagiarize. Less feedback and lack of disciplinary actions from teachers somehow validates the notion of students that they can get away with the crime they did.

Importance of Copyright Laws
Many people are gifted with creative thinking and the ability to cook up revolutionary ideas that would sweep the world on its feet. Examples of these people are Isaac Newton, who discovered gravity through the apple that fell from a tree; Nicolas Copernicus, who insisted that the world is round which caused him to be labelled a heretic; Leonardo da Vinci, who had many sketches of inventions that was way beyond his time; and many other people. Thus, it would be a waste when the geniuses behind totally creative ideas would be delegated to the background and ignored while those quick imitators would be noisily clamouring for attention that they did not deserve. Now that it seems like there are already leaks everywhere due to the fast communication of information from one Internet at home to another, there are more incidences of plagiarism. Easy communication and an equally easy accessibility do have their disadvantages too. But there were steps taken in order to restore and bestow the right recognition to those proven as true discoverers, scientists, and owner. These preventive measures are the copyright laws. These laws would serve as grounds to punish the violators of the sanctity of idea ownership.

Basics of Copyright Laws
Copyright laws consist of legislations that generally prohibit anyone to copy, use, or apply anybody’s work or idea without the consent of the owner. This would be to contain the spread of the whole idea to the wider public because if this happens, then the exclusive right of the owner would be woefully disregarded. Right then and there, the owner would not be able to enjoy the pleasure that the initial hours of exclusivity of these laws have given her. Amongst the field of people who would be claiming for the idea, the one with the copyright would be hailed as the rightful owner.

Identifying a Copyrighted Work or Idea
Those ideas or work pieces which are duly copyrighted by the thinker or inventor can be identified by the ©, which is called the trademark symbol. If this is so, you can classify as to which toys, shirts, bags, and other things for sale have copyrights. Another wise tip as to how to identify materials with copyrights is that most of them are not for free. They might be accessible through the Internet but before they are laid out for you, you will be asked to subscribe to their newsletters or you would be required to pay a certain fee. When you do research where plagiarism usually occurs, you may be surprised to find sites which have contents that you cannot copy. Another thing is that books are also prohibited from being photocopied for a particular number of pages. If you would exceed that number, you have to ask permission from the owner.

Consequences of Violating Copyright Laws
Since these are laws, it is expected that they have twin punishments. When someone is proven to be guilty of violating the copyright laws of another person’s idea or work, she might be fined for doing so. There would also be other punishments, as consequences of being stubborn. In this way, copyright laws would help lessen the number of plagiarism cases. Just considering the money that you might spend once you would be apprehended for your violation, you would better be off avoiding this kind of trouble. Let out your own style and creativity out.

What is disappointing, nowadays, is that students are lazy and almost always forget to cite their references when they have written reports.

It is important to remind the them that they should not only concentrate on finishing their assignments.

Teachers should also stress to their students writing down the source of their information as they begin to jot down notes from materials.

Reminding them about writing the bibliography, most especially in thesis and term paper writing, will make them be mindful of writing sources every time they have written assignment.  Due to the widespread use of internet and its great influence in our everyday lives, students are now depending on the web as their source for their research.

Published journals and articles are now left alone and undisturbed in the library. It is very easy to use the web because with just a few clicks on the mouse, information is easily accessible and they are able to copy texts from the web without sweat.

Frequently, the rights of an individual over his intellectual property is violated. Students distinguish knowledge that is free to all from a knowledge owned by an individual. So, it is best to cite sources of any work you have borrowed idea from.  The purpose of researching is definitely not clear for the students.

They donТt know what it entails to do some research.

What they do is that they only give an account of their assignment and just take on the information from others.

Teachers should point out that analyzing and discussing a topic do not merely mean reporting what the students have read. Teachers should also highlight the need for the students to give some thought and ideas about their research. Originality in writing is very important. Making assignment that is entirely based form the idea of others is absolutely a no-no.

Because cultures are diverse from one another, there are different views and opinions regarding plagiarism. In class, this topic should be tackled and explored. A good example is that western people are very particular and very much informed on their right to their intellectual property. Whereas in other places, they think that information should be shared to all.

Going deeper with this will surely give students a broader prospective on plagiarism.