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It is very important to tell your students that what is more important than having good grades is to acquire the skills to show those grades.

It is very crucial for them to have researching and writing skills because these make them very visible to the one assessing their abilities. Students can be encouraged to improve their own capacities if you stress to them that improvement is an essential part of the grading.  One of the reasons why students are inclined to plagiarize is because of the reason that others are doing the same thing. They think that it is a good excuse for plagiarizing just so they could keep up with their peers. They are confronted by the dilemma whether to spend a lot of time working hard, be faced with a possibility of having an average grade, and have lesser time for other subjects, or having high grades by just copying from some source, and being left with a lot of free time in their hands.  The best way to handle the matter is to catch the students who plagiarize. By doing this, those who do not want to be behind their fellows and want to work fairly will have lesser weight of their shoulders.  The thing is, students do not always have the idea of the amount of time that they should spend completing their assignments.

It is either they do not realize that there are a lot of work involved in making their research paper, or maybe they think that the work is just too overwhelming that they procrastinate and start working when the deadline is near. When they put off doing their assignments, there is not much time to make their own original work.  A very effective way to take care of this situation is to have a schedule for each progress on their  papers. Specific dates before the final draft is submitted, should be given for each portion of the assignment so that they will be aware of the extent of the work. This way, it makes the task less daunting for students, and they can have a proper schedule to work on the assignment.   Sometimes, writers plagiarize the work of others without them realizing that they are doing it. This happens when they do not know the different types of plagiarism and when the sources are not cited properly. Being unaware of the proper citation forms is the most common cause of unintended plagiarism.  Students are often confused whether they are plagiarizing or paraphrasing.

It would be very constructive if you are going to pass around passages that are paraphrased and plagiarized and explain to your students the differences. Emphasize that important points of the original must be kept, but in order for those points to fit in subject of their argument, the style and the structure of the grammar must be notably altered.  Since the mixing up of the ideas of the students and their sources creates confusion when they start to write their papers, teaching them techniques in note-taking is very beneficial. An example is the use of colored pens and “post-it tabs” to serve as marks for the pages. This method will save them more time, and everything would be clear regarding the references.

1. The Real Deal about Plagiarism
   Most of the time, students may say that they already have a good understanding about plagiarism. However, in reality, it seems as if they have not actually captured the essence of what plagiarism is truly all about. It may even be hard for some of the students to ascertain whether a particular act is plagiarism or simply paraphrasing. One should be able to cite sources properly and not just put the sources just for the sake of placing these sources. It would certainly be best if the moment that the course starts, details about plagiarism should already be discussed in order to avoid problems relating to this.

   One of the ways which would certainly make things easier in terms of being able to identify which is a plagiarized work and which work has been properly cited with the corresponding sources, is by providing examples of works which are considered to be plagiarized and those that have proper citations.

2. Clarify Why Plagiarizing is Not Appropriate
   Most students may not be able to grasp fully why it is definitely not appropriate to plagiarize if they would not be given proper guidance which in turn would make it difficult for them to comprehend the gravity of it. You should try to make your students understand that plagiarizing is actually a fraudulent act since one is doing an act of stealing in terms of using another person’s ideas or concepts without asking permission or without proper acknowledgement of where these ideas were taken, to the point of even considering it your own. By plagiarizing, the students would be able to hone their skills in terms of being able to think critically as well as writing the things or ideas that they have in mind in the best possible way. It would also be unfair for those who students who really work hard and put their own thoughts and ideas on whatever is asked from them and not just simply copy from another work.
3. Inform the Students Regarding What You Expect From Them
   You should make it a point to inform the students what you expect from them in terms of how they do what is asked from them. Discuss about how important it is that every paper or task that they do should not be copied verbatim from a particular source. Aside from this, the students should also know that it would certainly be more interesting on your part to read new ideas coming from themselves, instead of just using some other person’s ideas. This would also help them learn how to strategize in order for them to come up with a well-thought-of kind of work, which would eventually make it easier for them to value of doing something that they could truly call their own work.

   Aside from discussing the importance of being able to come up with an original work, you should also inform the students about certain rules, which may include a rule regarding placing a bibliography, the number of sources and as well as the kind of sources that may be used.

4. Discuss the Grounds for Plagiarism
   Discuss to the students that there are corresponding penalties or punishments for those who would submit a paper that is not an original work.

Rewording and Summing up

Rewording and summing up are very synonymous. It engages in obtaining thought, words and phrases from someone else and making it into new sentences within your writing. Rewording is getting the idea and changing the words used, and summing up is obtaining the idea and making it into a shorter version. Either rewording or summing up, acknowledgement is always given to the original writer.
Here is a part of John Anderson’s “How We Misjudge Other People.” Psychological News 122.6 (1992): p747.
When we talk with others well, we should know what we can and cannot do during the process. A person should not think of others as if one really knows the other inside-out. On the other hand, one should also not think he knows completely nothing of the other. This could result in misunderstanding and embarrassment. As a popular line says, “you should not assume.”
A line that could be categorized as plagiarism is:
In communicating with other people, we should know what we can and cannot do during the process. A person should not think of others as if one really knows the other inside-out. On the other hand, one should also not think he knows completely nothing of the other. This could result in a lot of embarrassment. (Anderson, 1992).
A lot of the words of the writer, Anderson, has been used and this amounts to plagiarism.
Here is a better example:
Anderson (1992) suggests that to effectively converse and avoid embarrassment and misunderstanding, you should not assume too much about the other person (p. 747).
In this write up the writer re-words Anderson’s words and still maintain the gist of the passage. Moreover, he cites where specifically he got the words from.
Another acceptable passage:
Anderson (1992) states that when you converse with another person, you should be wary not to assume as it could result in confusion and misunderstanding (p. 747).
In the better examples, the writer rewords Anderson’s ideas about what and what not to do when in a conversation. Summing up is not easy. If you are in doubt that your summing up may end up as plagiarism, you can ask you instructor to check it for you.

A Plagiarized Work

Some people may not be able to fully comprehend as to what is considered to be a plagiarized work. One may not know that committing the act of plagiarism is a n act of corruption. This act is already becoming an issue to a lot of people since there are now guidelines or rules relating to copyright, which means that every person should always be careful with regard to what they right and if for instance they rely on a particular source, they should not take it as if it is their own work. You may be surprised to know that even if you are a still in school, you may already be charged with doing a plagiarized work.

Why Should One Check For Plagiarism?

Checking for plagiarized work has already become rampant, in a way, wherein even at various sites over the Net, certain website contents are now verified just to be sure that it does not contain plagiarized work. Educational institutions should also be given utmost importance in terms of making sure that students would not develop the habit of copying another person’s work, whether they were given permission to do so or not. Plagiarism is also increasingly becoming an issue in the world of professionals wherein knowing the right person to acknowledge for a particular concept would now be difficult to decide. Because the Internet continues to evolve and develop, the number of sites which may possibly contain plagiarized work is already becoming great in number, which is why it would be to your advantage to check, at all times, if a particular content is actually plagiarized.

How to Check Plagiarism?

There are some areas wherein plagiarism has already been considered that is criminal in nature, which means that the person who would be doing such act is going to be penalized. However, it would still be best to check for yourself and see if a particular work is plagiarized. Through these means, you would now be able to verify for yourself. There are articles on the Internet that may only be accessed if you pay for it. This in turn would help minimize the percentage of plagiarized work that you would be able to browse through on the Internet. However, this may give constraints to everyone in such a way that the actual purpose of the Internet, sharing of information or knowledge, would no longer be possible if certain contents would no longer be easily be available. You may also consider taking advantage of different kinds of software that you would be able to get without any cost. These kinds of software would help you verify if a certain work is original or not.

Copyright has made it possible to prevent the duplication of a particular work. This simply means that once a paper has been registered, the author would no longer have to worry about someone who might copy his or her work since there may already be a corresponding penalty if someone would try to own that work which is already registered to another person. This would surely encourage more and more people to put into writing all their great ideas without having to think whether someone would be able to steal what they have definitely spent time and effort for.

Listed below are the current neat facts about plagiarism:
Based on the research conducted by The Center for Academy Integrity, there are approximately 80% of students in the tertiary level who confessed to have cheated at the minimum count of once.
Psychological Record survey revealed that 36% in the undergraduate level have owned up to commit plagiarism of papers.
There are 90% of pupils who supposed that those who cheat are those who have either never been fittingly confronted of their actions and those who have never been seized of doing so according to US News and World Reports survey data.
This information comes from the State of Americans: This Generation and the Next (Free Press, July 1996), 58.3 % of secondary level students allow their fellow s to cheat their assignments and other school work. Moreover, this percentage increased to 97.5% in year 1989.
From the office of student affairs all over the country, there are 257 key persons who assume that there is still a lack of effort in the part of the schools in combating the problem of plagiarism; this is based on the case study done by Ronald M. Aaron and Robert T. Georgia titled УAdministrator Perceptions of Student Academic Dishonesty in Collegiate InstitutionsФ.
Gallup Organization (October 6-9, 2000) declared two main streams of problems. these are in the fields of education and in the ethical behaviour of people. These two give more problems than all the other problems gathered all together.
Education WeekТs poll result showed that 74% of pupils had divulged doing УseriousФ or УgraveФ plagiarism; 54% of pupils had committed plagiarism in internet; and 47% of pupils think that those in authority like their teachers lack the initiative to give disciplinary actions to cheaters.
Furthermore, most teachers find less urge in ceasing such dishonesty in students though it is already an obvious fact.
It was found out that 55% of instructors are not really interested in exerting effort to address and record accounts of plagiarism among students, this is revealed in the study, УFaculty responses to Academic Dishonesty: The Influence of Honor CodesФ by Donald l. McCabe.
A San Luis Obispo once said that he would rather turn a blind eye on cheating rather than recognize its presence.
A Stanford University professor also said that some would not bother acting like  detective just to double check whether the paper being submitted is a plagiarized work or not. If you do want to check, you would be scouring millions of Internet sources.

Another source said that even the academe purposely does not take notice of the issue of plagiarism. It was like everybody knows that it is present but no one wants to acknowledge this bitter piece of truth.

There are some statements and arguments that justify the act of plagiarism. In fact, there are some people that make the act of plagiarizing somewhat acceptable. But is there really a good side about plagiarism?

There is an argument that plagiarism should only be a concern when someone caught doing it is making money out of copied articles. With this, there are some people that are guilty of plagiarizing that can be tolerated in doing such an illegal act. Students submitting their final requirement or blog entries that do not make money out of it cannot be considered as plagiarism if the original idea be followed. But should this be the only scene of plagiarism that can be condemned and refuted?

First of all, we should define what plagiarism is all about before we delve into the very details of plagiarism, ethics, and morality. Plagiarism is the act of claiming someone else’s work as his own. This means that buying an assignment paper from an anonymous source, borrowing a friend’s paper to submitted to the professor, posting someone else’s article in a blogsite without citing the original author, and using direct quotations without proper citation are all acts of plagiarism. This act is against the law. Also, conducting this is immoral and ethical because of the social and personal impact that it can cause. Even if the one committing these acts does not make serious money from doing these, the moral and ethical issues that go beyond these acts are more disturbing. Moreover, committing these acts has great impact on the identity of the perpetuator.

There is more about plagiarism than just rebuking those that make money out of it. Even if the people that are caught doing it are not castigated by the law, the internal repercussions that the act is bringing are more alarming and upsetting. What can a student get from passing his way through college yet submitted a plagiarized requirement? What can a rising author benefit from claiming somebody else’s work as his own? The student will just find himself unprepared with life’s reality when at work. A rising author will not find sense of accomplishment even if he becomes a world-renown writer. Moreover, when the act of plagiarism will be revealed, bigger consequences will be along the way creating more effect on the part of the perpetuator.

What is about writing his own work that stops some people from learning this craft? Like any craft, writing one’s own articles can develop a lot of good output for the writer. This craft can teach good habits and can give a sense of pride to an individual. Moreover, there are so many lives that can be changed with the simple crafting of words.

Copying one’s work should be a pride for the original author. This is another argument used by some people in the hope of justifying plagiarism. But this does not still refute the fact that plagiarism is an illegal and unethical act of stealing someone else’s work. No matter how we justify plagiarism, the truth remains that it is still an act of stealing. We should always remember that stealing is a sin.

During the old times before internet was invented plagiarism was already widespread. But potential plagiarists  are more focused then, because they need to do researches to a limited resource in the library and dedicatedly copy them by hand. During those times cheating through that way has a very high risk of being discovered.

Now through the internet, plagiarists are able to do their researches in a wide variety of links and websites. Without much time and dedication they can copy and paste different information and put them altogether to create an entire term paper or essay. Because they copy the information from different links and websites which was done by other students, it would be difficult for anyone to really identify plagiarism.

Searching the internet for matches of essays or term papers, to prove plagiarism by an instructor can be a formidable task. Search engines are very useful but they are also limited, because some links or websites are password-protected in the plagiaristТs favor. It would be difficult for a suspecting instructor to prove plagiarism.

It may be hard to accept but the fact is plagiarism has become a booming industry. Would-be plagiarists have so many resources to use such as Уcheat sitesФ that are being created for the purpose of providing students with the easy task of copy paste and downloading term papers and even home works. These sites and links have become profitable ventures, and even have their own paid advertisement.

A plagiarism prevention system is what we need. If you are an instructor or an educator would you want your students to become plagiarists and accept term papers and home works that were made out of plagiarism. An automated plagiarism detection can be an effective way to check and determine the paper works being submitted to you. It would be easier for you to detect which of the paper works are made out of plagiarism and the ones which were made out of hard work and real researches done by the students.

Knowing the different types of plagiarism is a significant step towards the prevention of plagiarism.

Some people define plagiarism as the copy or borrow of other person’s work, but the words “copy” and “borrow” could actually conceal the gravity of the offense of plagiarism.  The types of plagiarism wherein the sources are not cited are: “The Poor Disguise”, “The Ghost Writer”, “The Photocopy”, “The Potluck Paper”, “The Self Stealer”, and “The Labor of Laziness”.

The Poor Disguise. What the writers do in this type of plagiarism is they change how the source looks like by altering the phrases and keywords, while keeping the significant content.

The Ghost Writer.  In this type of plagiarism, the work of another is copied verbatim, and pass it of as the writer’s own.

The Photocopy. This is the type of plagiarism in which important parts of a particular work of another person are copied by the writer without changing anything.  The Potluck Paper is what you call the type of plagiarism in which the sentences that are taken from various sources are altered so that they would fit together, while the original phrasing is retained. These are done in an attempt to conceal plagiarism.

The Self-Stealer. In self-stealer, the writer borrows, not from other person’s works, but from his or her prior works. This is a violation of the policies regarding the originality expectation that is adopted by nearly all of the academic sectors.

The Labor of Laziness. Here, rather than spending so much effort in doing the original work, the writer spends his or her time rephrasing the sentences from other works and making them fit together.

Types of plagiarism in which the sources are cited are: “ The Misinformer”, “ The Resourceful Citer”, “The Too-Perfect Paraphrase”, “The Forgotten Footnote”, and “The Perfect Crime”.

The Misinformer is a type of plagiarism wherein finding the sources are not possible because the information given regarding the source is wrong.

In the Resourceful Writer, all the sentences from other sources are rephrased, the sources are all properly cited, and the quotations are used correctly.

The problem is everything is not original. This form of plagiarism is difficult to be detected because it is just like a well-reaserched paper in appearance.  The Too-Perfect Paraphrase. The source is cited, but the text that is copied exactly are not put in quotations.

The Forgotten Footnote. Though the author’s name is mentioned as a source, the particular details about the location of the source is disregarded. By hiding the locations of the source, the plagiarist is trying to cover up the many forms of plagiarism.  The Perfect Crime. The writer gives sources to only some of the information, and rephrase the other sentences without sources. The writer presents the rephrased words as his or her own evaluation.

When you copy other’s writer work without proper citation or documentation it is a called plagiarism. Whether you did it intentionally or unintentionally is not really important, the more important thing is how we can avoid plagiarizing.
Plagiarizing is stealing. It is the stealing of some other people’s work and intellect, therefore it is unethical and very unprofessional so it will be wise for writers and students to avoid it. If you are an aspiring writer or journalist it is better to start your career with the right way to write. It will build you up as a credible and trusted writer not to mention as a moral person.
Here are some few steps or tips for you to avoid being a plagiarizer.
First thing that you should remember, “Give credit where credit is due”, you may have heard it a hundred times used in many ways, but it also applies in writing. You should always credit the person where you got your sources from, regardless of the length of the source, short or long. People should know and be aware that it was his idea and not yours. Site the name of the writer and the publication, proper documentation is very important when you quote other people’s words. However if you have rephrased or paraphrase someone else’s work full credit is no longer necessary, but you still have to give credit and reference for the readers to be aware that you have paraphrased and that the idea is not yours.
What is paraphrasing?
It is the act of restating, re arranging or rewording the original literary work of someone else.
How to give proper credit?
There are a lot of ways to give credit to writers; you can also refer to MLA and APA for some guidelines.
Second, make sure that when you use quotes, make it proportional to your article. Do not choose to use a very long quote for a one page article. Because it will appear that the article is made up of quotes and not your very own work. If you plan to use quotes from one single person all throughout your work, it would be best to contact the person first and ask for his or her permission.
Third, is one of the most important thing to remember. Avoid copy and pasting. The internet is full of resources and information but copying and pasting is just wrong. You should try to rephrase or restate the information you got as much as you can. If you have to copy something, it should be in quotation and properly documented and sited as stated by our first two tips. If the name off the author is not present, try contacting the website owner, or write down and attach the website address so people know where to look for the said information.
Forget to do these and your work is just a stolen piece from someone else.
The final and most important tip, be original. What better way to express your concept and ideas with your own words. Sometimes you may want to quote and use other’s people idea, you can just make sure you follow the proper way of acknowledgement and citation. If you found other articles with the same concept and idea do not be taken down. Read it and use as a research material but do not copy it. Expound and use your own words.
With all these in mind you are on your way in becoming a good writer, not the one who just copies work or a knowledge thief. Remember, there is no better way to present your idea, but with your very own words, that is what makes a writer a good writer.

Not being informed about the law is not a way out of the problem you are in. Even if you don’t intend to plagiarize, there are sanctions that will still be given to you. However, the magnitude of the sanctions differ from intended plagiarism and unintentional plagiarism. The law is just and lets you have the chance to fight for your case because of the law of fair use. Because of this, you are able to prove that you did not intend to plagiarize and your penalty will be decreased.

The laws safeguarding copyrighted products still allows some of the ideas and concepts to be borrowed and this is by law of fair use. This law regulates how much idea you are only able to copy and use in your work without the permission from the author. These laws are created by the government of USA to make certain that copying certain concepts from original work is only justified if it is reasonable.

There are two factors that will be studied for considering fair use. First is the reason why and how it is used. Of course, if you simply copied the idea from the original, it is no longer considered as fair use. But if you make a new material out of your investigation and inference from another source, then it may be considered as fair use. But, you should always be reminded that the the lesser the idea you borrowed, the greater the chance you will have a good defense.  Second, what the influences of your work have over the original material. If by utilizing some parts of the original and a damage is done to either the integrity and profit of the material, it is not fair use.

You must see to it that no damage results from trying to challenge with the original idea whether it is intentional or not.   There are some concepts called public domain where you are able to borrow ideas without being concerned about plagiarism, only with proper credit to the author. These ideas can be accessed to and be borrowed by anyone who wants to use it.  How can a particular material be a public domain? A material published for greater than 75 years is a public domain.

During 1978, a law was passed that all published materials in this year and consequently will be protected by the author’s lifetime and another 70 years after he died. But, laws are quite complex for those materials published before 1978 but dated back less than 70 years. Usually, a material is copyrighted for about 28 years from publication and another 47 years if there is a renewal of the copyright. So, all in all, it is protected for 75 years after it was published.

If you are not sure if it is not a public domain, better seek help from a lawyer to sort these things out for you to avoid lawsuits and charges. It is better to be safe, rather than be locked up behind bars for being unaware of these things.