Plagiarism
Plagiarism involves the copying of someone else’s original ideas, writing or words and passing them off as your own, without their consent or without acknowledging that it is not originally yours. It can be broken down into eight common types that include; complete, source-based, direct, accidental, mosaic, inaccurate, and paraphrasing plagiarism. Quite often, plagiarism occurs accidentally when the student does not possess sufficient academic skills to avoid over-dependence on the work of others.
Our documents were found to contain plagiarism. This was due to the rush that we had experienced in an effort to beat the deadline for its submission. This led us to focus on finishing the assignment rather than taking our time to assess what could have come out as a photocopy of someone’s work. We had wasted time on other less critical matters, and by the time we realized the deadline was close, we had not yet begun the writing. The research was not all-pervasive, leaving out the essential parts that would have helped us create a thesis of our own.
Also, we were much disorganized in our approach to the work, which made us unable to distinguish what was originally our idea from what was obtained from a secondary source. Therefore, we failed to put in a quotation, the ideas that were sourced from our research, but instead quoted the wrong statements. Our priorities on the assignment were ill-advised and misled, focusing on less significant issues. We were under-informed about the citation, and on the research, we were conducting. The academic base we held concerning the topic assigned was scanty. This meant we did not have enough words of our own to base the arguments upon, and thus the alternative was to use another person’s ideas.
One of the ways we can avoid plagiarizing in the future is by using plagiarism checkers to assess our writing. These are effective and can inform us of the statements that had already appeared in someone else’s work that we have copied and not acknowledged by checking against lots of databases worldwide. Additionally, we could ensure that we put in quotes, all the words that have been sourced from a particular reference. Lastly, understanding the context of a paper will have a significant boost in avoiding plagiarism.
Plagiarism is wrong, and we should not be associated with it. This is because it caused others who did honest hard work to feel that it was in vain, resulting in discouragement of our fellow learners. Moreover, it is considered a crime in particular areas. A student could be failed in a test or the course, fined or even worse expelled from the institution of learning if caught plagiarising. We should not get involved in plagiarism because it is unethical. It can be viewed as a form of theft when the students take someone’s intellectual work without his/her consent. Similarly, it is also unethical when the student could also stand to benefit from the theft if they get away with it without being reprimanding
Conclusively, plagiarism disrupts the learning process. If students are allowed to push on with it, it will lead to a lazy workforce in future that heavily relies on the work of others. They will not be capable of coming up with their own ideas but will instead steal from others and not even have the guts to admit it. Therefore, as students, we should put in more effort, in our research and study, to avoid the repercussions. Evidently, plagiarism does more harm to the learner and to the society at large if it is not contained at the root.