The Problem of Plagiarism Plagiarism is the process of using others' ideas or words without giving proper credit. Each time you copy and paste a sentence or even a phrase from any source into your paper or research paper without proper citation, you are plagiarizing. Plagiarism is not limited to students. In fact, renowned writers and university professors have been caught stealing others' ideas and claiming them as theirs. That explains why schools often usea plagiarism checker and plagiarism detector to check their students' work. In most western cultures, plagiarizing is a serious offence that is not dealt with lightly. Many are not aware that to use others' work without giving proper recognition to the owner of the original idea is without any doubt an act of. Something as simple as modifying a copyrighted image or piece of art is in fact
plagiarism. J.K. Rowling, author of the popular Harry Potter series was said to have stolen content for her popular book series from Adrian Jacobs' story The Adventures of Willy the Wizard. Whether this is a reality or false accusations, it proves how protected intellectual property is in America.
This year, a number of academic institutions in America and Canada have been using plagiarism checkers in order to see if new applicants have commited
plagiarism. These schools are taking these measures as a result of a growing number of applicants who are caught using essays that have been recycled or written by someone else.
There are some who are under the impression that copying content from sites such as Wikipedia is fine because that content has been publicly published on the web. This is a fallacy that needs to be corrected. Prior to delving into the complexity of this issue, it is necessary to to clarify an important point. Each time you write, is it key to explore resources from the Internet which might be of relevance to your essay topic. This is an important step in the process of researching your topic. Hence the expression "research". But it is of utmost importance to be clear on the basic sof doing research in order not to accidentally commit plagiarism. A good essay or research paper is judged by the quality of sources not the quantity. Each time you quote from low quality sources such as websites, you are negatively affecting the quality of your writing. Sites such as Wikipedia are supposed to be a jumpstart for your writing by providing you basic information and broad data on your topic. You are now required to investigate further into the subject matterby identifying high value information that would be appropriate for your study. A clear place to begin is the school library. Meet with a librarian and ask him to assist you in finding data that are relevant to your area of investigation. The librarian will provide you with books, academic articles, publications and online databases. These type of resources are quality references to employin your writing.
There are two ways to use references in your writing. The first one is direct quotes and the second one is paraphrasing. In both cases you are required to cite the original source, since if you don't, your work will are likely to be accused of plagiarism. Yes, even summarizing warrants giving credit to the person who wrote it first. Simply because you summarized an chunk of text You can't claim it as your property. Be sure that you are using the correct citing format that's adopted by your school. The main ones are MLA, APA and Chicago. Don't forget to create a bibliography or all the sources you used in your paper. The bibliography is a page where sources are placed in alphabetical order. There is also a specific format to citations, based on the formats mentioned earlier.
Once you're done with your writing, you must revise it to guarantee you haven't
plagiarized. Run your paper through a plagiarism checker to verify that all outside information paraphrazed has been properly cited. A plagiarism checker is an indispensible tool for every college students and should always be used before submitting a paper for final evaluation. Nearly all colleges and universities will check your work to make sure it's clear of any plagiarism using an online
plagiarism checker.Laila Elad PHD.