Plagiarism Paper

Plagiarism Paper

Introduction

Plagiarism may be understood as a form of cheating whereby a person uses a content written by another author and presents it as his own work. There are several other names for plagiarism such as close imitation, wrongful appropriation, and purloining and publication etc. This act though not considered illegal is highly immoral as the person taking a though, words or idea from another person has the moral responsibility of acknowledging the person and giving them credit for their work (University of Alberta, 2012).

Plagiarism is a very common phenomenon and has been banned in most colleges and universities around the world. With the increase in penetration of desktop computers and the use of information technology and internet, the way students did their homework and made assignments has changed drastically. Students of today Google for absolutely everything in their life. This has become so common that the search engine name Google has overshadowed the English word searching. How often do we not hear someone say “Google it”?

Discussion

Though the definition of plagiarism is very difficult, universities and colleges today have made all the efforts to assure that students are clear on the concept. In spite of this students continue to plagiarize. There are various reasons for this. Some students do not have good research skills. They fail to find material that they need on a certain topic. Hence, the little material that they get they end up using it word for word. They think that the access to university library gives them the license to use the material as it is which is wrong. Another very common reason why students plagiarize is that they do not have the ability to write. Writing is a skill and not all students are good at it. In fact, research on business communication reveals that about 98 percent people are good either at oral communication or written communication. It is only two percent people who are skilled at both (PennState, 2012). This plagiarism is not always intended. Hence, there are both intended and unintended plagiarism.

Intended plagiarism refers to the act of copying without credit whereby the student that he is doing it and he is clear on the college policy against plagiarism. The percentage of plagiarism in this case may be fairly high. Unintended plagiarism takes place without the knowledge and intention of the student. For instance, the students may make a ...