Plagiarism
By ayeeesha
@ayeeesha (1127)
Philippines
April 12, 2013 2:12am CST
I have been writing from quite a number of years, whether academic and creative. Recently, I've been doing freelance writing jobs that requires some research too. Whenever I do my assignment and research on the web, I noticed that there are a LOT of duplication of articles -- exact content, word per word.
I understand how hard it is to come up with ideas especially when you're not an expert on a particular field. Like for me, I am not familiar with skin problems and the like that's why I do research first before making my articles. However, there is no harm in citing the sources and acknowledging the hard work done by other people, right?
I just don't see the point of copying something and making it as your own. Of course you can get some ideas but try to make something creative out of it by putting your own twist and at the end, cite the author you got the idea from.
After all, plagiarism is still stealing.
4 people like this
8 responses
@Pegasus72 (1898)
•
14 Apr 13
There is a girl I know on another site and I noticed that all of her recipes and pictures come from facebook and other blogs and she does not give the source.
@Pegasus72 (1898)
•
14 Apr 13
I don't think she realizes what she is doing is wrong but if someone flags her then she could get in trouble. I know when I use recipes from online I give the source, and if I make it I use my pictures and what I used in the recipe.
@dream_ozn (1754)
• Singapore
12 Apr 13
Hey ayeesha,
iknow what you mean. plagiarism, is indeed stealing and we should not steal even if it is just words. We should always give credit if we take ideas form someone else. I'm in my final semester for college and therefore have a lot of paper to complete. Ever since my first year in college, we have already been taught that when writing a paper, we need to give due credit to the person whom we took the words from.
I think people who plagiarize has no morals and should not do that. However, maybe we should also give them the benefit of doubt becuase some of them might not know how to cite articles.
@dream_ozn (1754)
• Singapore
12 Apr 13
Hey ayeesha,
you are right, 'according to' is just one of the many ways that we can use whne we cite a paper.
I've jsut submitted a paper this afternoon and i'm glad that i've been taught to use references :)
@ayeeesha (1127)
• Philippines
12 Apr 13
One can simply say "according to... " then put the site where they got it from on the bottom part of the paper. There are schools who incorporate citing sources and plagiarism in their curriculum to teach the students on what and what not do when it comes to writing research or term papers or any academic articles.
@Frederick42 (2024)
• Canada
12 Apr 13
Yes, I agree that plagiarism is stealing. Somebody comes up with creative ideas and slogs hard to write a large article based on that idea and then somebody just copies the whole article word by word It is certainly unfair.
It is also true that it is difficult to come up with original creative ideas, but once you get used to creative writing, then gradually it becomes easier in the long run.
@ayeeesha (1127)
• Philippines
12 Apr 13
It can be hard to come up with ideas to write about and somehow, one can get inspired by other people's work. But t least put your own twist into it and not simply copy everything that was written. That's why I'm really surprised to find out several articles in the Internet about certain topics that have the exact same content.
@Bluedoll (16774)
• Canada
12 Apr 13
Why would someone just paste and copy, well they are criminal simple as that. People are being lazy might be another reason? I think plagiarism is just wrong but looking at this issue from another perspective it gets somewhat more complicated.
For example I wrote as was instructed by the requester, bible quotes with some additional slightly personal adaptations. That is what the requester wanted. Instantly the machine checker spit it back because it found a few identical phrases on the internet. How can you write direct quotes from the bible without it doing that? You can't.
@Bluedoll (16774)
• Canada
12 Apr 13
To be honest I am not sure how copyscape works either except it was rejecting me. It is so important to cite sources I agree and why not it is just one step and shows who you are as well. I like seeing sources in other peoples writing. Suppose giving credit to the original author if using bible quotes is good too. 
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not steal.
@Angelpink (4035)
• Philippines
12 Apr 13
I'd rather write with some mistakes than copying others' work. I don't know why others are not afraid of doing this when they knew that it will be discovered because nothing can be hidden in the internet but still having guts in publishing it. I have one experienced similar to this. Once my profile was being copied by a certain member of Triond and i discovered it by myself and i wrote to that man and then he change some words . See even a profile can be copied ? So horrible , better not join writing site if one doesn't know how to write by their own sweat and effort.
@sshdage (30)
• Beijing, China
12 Apr 13
I am a researcher in the optic field. Based on my observations,nowadays some students are accustomed to plagiarize other's achievements so that they can fulfil the tasks teachers assigned before deadline.and even a part of professors have done this, it is a shame.how can science develops healthily if everyone just copy out the intact?i think institutions concerned is suggested to take more steps to ramp up awareness of intellectual property.and for us,greater consciousness.
@ayeeesha (1127)
• Philippines
12 Apr 13
Luckily in the school that I went to, plagiarism is considered a punishable offense. I even know some people who got kicked out because of this. Harsh but true. But at least the school is taking the necessary steps in order to train their students not to copy other people's works without giving credit.
@Professor2010 (20162)
• India
12 Apr 13
Thanks for sharing
I write research papers that are published in journals of international repute, i also check PhD thesis of scholars, after all research is re--search, you have to read tons of books, journals to get the idea; next compile them; use your own words, if you do copy paste you must mention the source and acknowledge it.
But i have seen total copy-paste stuff and the author claims it is his/her; this is nothing but plagiarism
I write research papers that are published in journals of international repute, i also check PhD thesis of scholars, after all research is re--search, you have to read tons of books, journals to get the idea; next compile them; use your own words, if you do copy paste you must mention the source and acknowledge it.
But i have seen total copy-paste stuff and the author claims it is his/her; this is nothing but plagiarism
@srisahara (4508)
• Indonesia
12 Apr 13
Yes, I think there are many people who be plagiarism, they just take advantages from others' creation. doing research is okay but we have rewrite with our word and give note when we take from a source.
