Saturday, April 30, 2011

Why is plagiarism a problem?

Millions of college students are trying to earn a college degree from many universities, community colleges, and in state colleges across the United States. The truth is that only a percentage of those college students will complete their requirements to earn their degree.  Have you ever noticed how irritating it is for instructors to keep warning you about plagiarism? Many students are accused of plagiarism, causing them severe academic problems. Besides the financial and personal problems that deny students of a college degree, plagiarism is another chronic issue that is taken seriously.

Why are colleges strict about plagiarism? What does it matter whether the resources are theirs or another? Plagiarism is a relevant issue because colleges want to protect the integrity of their academic institutions. Condoning plagiarism demonstrates that students can continue to steal content in the professional world. This becomes a problem when authors who publish books are sued for borrowing content without properly crediting the author.

Plagiarism is identical to trademark violations and cybersquatting. The guilty party is forced to pay fines, attorney fees, and may be forced to hand over a valuable asset such as a domain name. All this could be prevented with teaching college students that one must credit any ideas or content. Most people want to receive credit for their hard work. It's not fair when another borrows the work and receive monetary rewards in result of your ideas.

Instructors want to inform students that academic honesty is protected in the same manner as laws are to protect trademark and literary content. People spend a lot of money to copyright content, whether they write a screenplay, a book, or create an invention. Allowing a student to borrow sources without properly crediting the original author shows such behavior is acceptable in the professional space. Plagiarism is a problem because students have access to an abundance of information on the Internet, procrastination entices one to rush papers, and students lack the motivation to write original papers.

In essence, students who plagiarize think they'll never get caught. Don't ever assume a future instructor will not detect your unoriginal work. It's not worth the risk to ruin an academic career based on one paper, essay, or even a review. Thousands of students are accused of plagiarism every year. You can fail a class, receive a blemish on your academic record, and even worse - be expelled from a college.  Plagiarism is a serious matter. Instructor warn their students to properly cite sources because plagiarism is a common problem. Nevertheless, colleges seek to lead their students into the right direction. Thanks for reading.

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