Now that I'm in University and everything I read from a book that I think I can use, I make sure first of all that I've got every little detail about that book written down because to be honest I'm really scared of being accused of plagiarism!!
When I was in college we never had to reference our work, so when I got to University, learning how to reference properly was a right struggle for me, but I think I've managed just fine!
However, many people do copy work from books and off the internet. With the growth and expansion of the internet now, it has been made easy for people to access a website about certain topics. Therefore people think that it will never be found that they have lifted some text from a website and claimed it as their own in an essay. But this is not true, there are numerous laws about plagiarism, it is illegal, to lift text from somewhere and not cite it.
On the website (link below) I found that there are, as for everything, many reasons as to why people plagiarise, and one was because of the thrill it can bring. People think 'can I get this past my professor' and they try to claim the work as their own. Another reason for people copying work is because they have left writing their essay to the last minute, so they panic and decide the quickest and easiest option is to plagiarise.
Unfortunately, some people unintentionally plagiarise, they may be under the impression that if they change every word to their own it will not be considered as copying however, even if you paraphrase a piece of text, you still need to cite it.
I think Plagiarism can be classed as 'being bad' because people who know they are doing it, know they run a high risk of getting caught and because it is illegal, there are and can be severe consequences! 'It doesn't matter if you intend to plagiarize or not! In the eyes of the law, and most publishers and academic institutions, any form of plagiarism is an offense that demands punitive action. Ignorance is never an excuse. '
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