03 Track 3

Unit 10

The Future of Education

Chapter 2

Plagiarism and the Internet

page 181

Plagiarism and the Internet

The Internet is the largest library in the history of the world and a great resource for anyone seeking information. But doing research on the Internet is not without its risks. In recent years, plagiarism from online sources has become a serious problem, especially among students.

Original written work and information are protected by copyright laws, like original inventions. Therefore, when you reference or use information you find while doing research, you should always give credit to the person or organization that produced it.

To plagiarize is to use ideas that are not your own without giving credit to the original source, or to claim that someone else’s ideas are your own. It is akin to stealing someone else’s work.

For example, if a student reads three articles and uses ideas from the articles to make his arguments in an essay without quoting or something from the original work, the student is plagiarizing.

Internet-related plagiarism has become such a problem because it is so easy to find and copy information online. There are thousands of resources for students who wish only to copy or cheat.

However, the Internet also makes it easier for educators to check for plagiarism. Often a simple Internet search for a quote will be enough to expose copying. Some educators are more concerned about unintended plagiarism.

Because copying and pasting is so easy, it is becoming more and more common for well-meaning students to mix up source material with their original ideas. While this kind of plagiarism usually happens innocently, it is still an offense.

In addition to being a dishonest practice, plagiarism is a lost opportunity for students. The Yale College Writing Center, which is part of the prestigious Yale University in the United States, cautions, “if you paste in someone’s words as your own, you will miss the opportunity to add your commentary, and therefore miss an opportunity to grow as a thinker and writer.”

The practice of writing is to share one’s own ideas and creative talent, but poor citation makes it unclear whether the writer is working out his own ideas or just playing with someone else’s.

When working on a complex research assignment, managing your sources can become challenging. Here are some tips to keep your sources in order and avoid plagiarizing:

Copy and paste important information.

The first step of researching is to gather information. Be efficient and keep a computer document named “References” where you can keep useful information.

Format the document so that each page starts with the citation, prepared in the format preferred by your professor, and then the important information you gathered from that source.

Copy and paste the material directly from the source.

Print out important articles.

When printing the whole document is not possible, print the first page of the article, which lists crucial details like the name of the writer and publication, and the date of publication. Then print pages that have the information you need and highlight the most important details.

Use software meant for managing sources.

Most universities and schools provide students with free or low-cost software that is designed to keep track of information. To save time, many programs will automatically format your citations so you don’t have to type everything out yourself.

Insert citations into your drafts.

Most word processing programs have a “comment” feature. This allows you to add notes throughout the document that aren’t included in the document’s word count and can be easily hidden.

Every time you quote a source, type the source’s citation into a comment box. This will save time when you have to compile everything into a bibliography.

Double-check your work.

In the same way that you review your work for clarity and mistakes, you need to check that you have matched the quoted information with the correct source.