The Internet and Plagiarism Essay -- Internet Plagiarism Essays Cheati

The Internet and Plagiarism The World Wide Web is larger than any one person can imagine. There are an infinite amount of links to libraries and other sources of information. There are numerous search engines, such as Yahoo, which make researching really easy. We can find anything that we want on line, because there are no boundaries to our explorations, and there are no laws to stop us. You can find anything from socks to guns. People can even find completed research papers online; they simply copy and paste it to a new document, make a few adjustments, and it is ready to turn in. Un-honest people do this every day, and it has become a common problem among high schools and colleges. This is a serious problem known as plagiarism, which has become easier through Internet access. The Internet has negative and positive effects on plagiarism in today’s society. What makes a person steal another person’s work? What makes a person copy lines from an article, essay, book or an encyclopedia? Plagiarism, what is Plagiarism? How do people know if they have plagiarized? We live in a fast pace world, and a little boost now and then to help us get our job done faster won’t hurt. Truthfully, it can hurt you more than you know! Plagiarism is defined as using someone’s words and ideas without giving proper credit to the author1. It is actually taking credit for a research and thought process that you never attempted. It is pretending to have knowledge of a subject that you don’t have a clue about. Did you know that you could get in trouble for plagiarizing from yourself? It is possible. That old paper that you revised for a new assignment can get you in some deep trouble. Plagiarism has been a problem among high schools and colle... ...s can be caught on the web. The Internet also has great web sites that teach you how to paraphrase a paragraph and, how to avoid plagiarism: http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/wts/plagiarism.html, and, http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html. Not every person that plagiarizes will be caught, but hopefully people will become more aware of the consequences they may face. In our present society, people are effected daily by plagiarism from online sources. It is an unjust way to get a task completed, and is unfair to the author. Sites that offer easy way outs plague the Internet, and they are infecting students of all ages. Luckily, sites are being formed to help professors and teachers to stop such acts. There will never be a way to totally control plagiarism but we can only hope that the consequences for plagiarism will keep honest people honest.