Types Of Plagiarism Essay Example

📌Category: Education, Learning
📌Words: 1064
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 06 February 2022

The dictionary definition of academic plagiarism is “the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.”  It's the theft of someone else's intellectual property, for being rewarded for a performance you haven’t truly devised. There are many different types of plagiarism but they’re all a combination of cheating and falsification 

Plagiarism itself is disrespectful to one’s capacity, an insult to the school, and if not a consensual agreement; a spit in the face to the original creator's intellectual labor. It's dishonest to the institution that has chosen to enroll you in their academia while also making the academy look like a joke. To have others think “Your students aren't capable enough to make their own individual thoughts?” Isn't anything any school wants.  It's also remarkably misleading, you have a level of trust with your college now that you have been enrolled. That college expects your own words, to cite the creator, and to not pass off plagiarism in a casual manner. Students are in college to further their learning, what does a student learn from plagiarism? All colleges across the nation expect honesty, they expect the student's information, thoughts, and creativity, and when they are faced with the fact that some of those students simply don't bother to be fair, there are consequences. The site Natureofwritng.com says that “If you value original thought, personal integrity, and scholarly research, then you will naturally want to avoid plagiarism.”

Sometimes students don't know what to write, sometimes the words we are thinking have already been spoken from someone else, what we want to say has already been said, so we have the idea and thought process that “it can’t be a big deal, its what I wanted to say!” The big deal is the lack of originality of those very said words, those words can't be exactly what you had in mind, it's an issue of authenticity. When you limit yourself to someone else's writing, you're entirely restricting your understanding. You restrain yourself when you don't let yourself dive deeper into your prompts and themes, and you don't let yourself truly explore the topic. The thought process behind that might be that you don't want to deal with the fact that it's going to be a lot of work, but it's also going to be rewarding. 

The blog Copyleaks.com states that “There are four official types of plagiarism; Direct, Self, Mosaic, Accidental Plagiarism.” Direct plagiarism is often said to be directly copied someone's work without quotation marks, without giving any credit, it's considered the most serious offense. Mosaic plagiarism is most often accidental when you don't put the quotations in the right spot or source incorrectly. Self-plagiarism is described as “Copying your previous work when a student turns in the same work for different classes”. Last but not least, accidental plagiarism; copyleaks.com again states that “When the plagiarist misquotes the phrases or parts of the text he/she has taken from the source material or does not cite the source even or adequately or cites a wrong source, they that is considered as plagiarism. For incorrect authorship, even though the name of the work gets cited, the original writer can take disciplinary actions against the plagiarist, even though accidental plagiarism in no way intended.”

There are many degrees of academic plagiarism, ones that can be argued and more clear ones. From taking a sentence for taking an entire essay; it’s the intentions and the actions that prove the severity of the plagiarism. How did the author of the essay plagiarize? Was it Mosaic? Had they just misplaced a quotation of forgotten? Was it self-plagiarism? Did they just happen to have a similar topic they done before and reuse it? How severe is that type of plagiarism? These levels of plagiarism all can be debated. There are also blurry lines, what if something may appear as direct but is Mosaic? Or accidental? There’s a lot of room, unfortunately, for gray. Paraphrasing itself is considered plagiarism, even when all the words are swapped out; this can confuse a student who lacks an understanding of why plagiarism itself is wrong. The student’s intentions were just to finish the paper, the student will ask “what’s the big deal?

Not only would you have to deal with the consequences of not learning anything, but also the fact that you know are spreading this information you haven't done research on; ultimately trusting it. Plagiarism seems to be on the rise with access to the internet, with online sources you can steal stuff from blogs or private posts and no one will know. You must now have faith in this information as you didn't do your research, and this trust can have dire consequences, you could be spreading blatant misinformation and you wouldn't have a clue. The education site aplustopper.com states that “Professionals releasing plagiarized work into the public domain can ensure lawsuits often running into millions of dollars as copyright law applies to everyone.” the student’s school could also suspend or expel the student after a single offense. 

Many people don't expect to deal with the shame that comes to plagiarism, from reading your essay and seeing that not much or only some of it is actually from your own mind, your intellect, it's a spit in the face to your integrity. Instead of a feeling of self-accomplishment, you'll feel like a fraud, you’ll realize that you didn't put effort into your work, and it will leave you with a sense of emptiness and lack of confidence. There is a true feeling of self-confidence and accomplishment when you finish your work, your academic assignments, or any responsibilities; And when someone else has done it for you, regardless if it's consensual or appreciated, you won't have the same feeling. 

Of course, it's also unethical and problematic, you are being rewarded for someone else's intellectual labor, for someone else's ideas, their thoughts, and because of that reward, it's a moral issue. Copyleaks.com states that the legalities are clear; “The offense of plagiarism can result in punishment as it comes under the copyright laws that protect the right of the lawful author or the owner of the text or content. Writing must have its essence, and therefore the writer needs to put in his own words and emotions to sound genuine.”

There is a true “good and evil” side of academia, plagiarism is on the sinister side. It's a destructive vitally that stifles imagination and creativity, it limits your capacity and interests, and mutilates the urge motivation to learn. You, yourself are going to have to deal with the consequences that you didn't discover anything in a semester, that you paid for an education, and left with a feeling of a void in your determination. The professional site Aplustopper.com says just “Simply keeping track of the sources, paraphrasing, credit the original author, and use a plagiarism checker are a few ways to avoid plagiarism."

+
x
Remember! This is just a sample.

You can order a custom paper by our expert writers

Order now
By clicking “Receive Essay”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. We will occasionally send you account related emails.