Reading Response #4: Plagiarism Article

Reading Response #4: Plagiarism

    The New York Times article addressed how most college students (40%) turn in their papers without giving credit to their sources, or some students flat out copy and paste their whole paper. The article discussed numerous cases where students plagiarized their papers and don’t seem to think it’s a big deal. Some professors and educators studying plagiarism cases blame the internet, and how it’s too easy to copy and paste. The articles discusses people who support plagiarism (Helene Hegemann) and people who despise it (Sarah Wilensky).  

          I’m honestly kind of on the fence about how I feel about plagiarism, because I see both sides of the situation. I see that high school students do go into college with no idea on how to write a paper (hints why I’m personally taking this class), and the best solution is to look at other people’s ideas.  Sarah Wilensky stated in the article, "The main reason it occurs, she said, is because students leave high school unprepared for the intellectual rigors of college writing." I did say look not copy. I do feel like completely copying and pasting a whole paper that is someone else’s is wrong, it’s pure laziness actually. That is time that someone else took to write that paper, and the fact that someone copied that whole thing and didn’t give them any credit whatsoever is ridiculous. I understand putting a couple sentences of someone else’s paper or from a website, but you should always give credit to your sources. I feel like technology is affecting our willingness to write papers on our own, but I’m my own person and I have my own ideas. Plagiarism isn’t something that I would personally do, but people who don’t take a class like Writing and Composition in High School I could see it being acceptable.

 

  This picture demonstrates that teachers can tell when you’ve plagiarized a paper, and you should receive credit for something that isn’t your own work.