Plagiarism has been with us forever and will continue throughout the future. However, that does not make it right or fair or legal. As more and more people feel the urge to write and publish their work either on the internet or in paper form, the temptation to copy someone else’s work is high. After all, it saves a lot of time to just cut and paste instead of actually researching and writing. However, it is not legal and is called plagiarism.

Plagiarism is taking the words, phrases, or sentences of someone else and trying to pass them off as your own work. When you fail to attribute your source material and don’t give credit to other people, you are stealing their work. When you are caught doing this, there are consequences to deal with depending on the type of work you submit. In school, it means a lowered grade and possible expulsion from college. In the workplace, it can mean the loss of your job.

The high stakes involved in academia of meeting deadlines and the requirement criteria for sometimes multiple assignments of research material is pitted against the time, discipline, and detail required to strive for the highest grade possible. In these situations, sometimes the attention to detail loses and papers are turned in without proper citations of sources or just outright copying.

No matter what the reason, it is plagiarism and could have devastating consequences. It isn’t enough to simply know that you need to cite all your sources accurately. You need to be aware of the ethics and significance behind these policies. The copyright laws are specifically designed to help each person legally keep the rights to his or her material.

The sad truth is that most people do not set out to steal someone else’s work. However, by the time the deadline is looming closer and closer, shortcuts are taken. Given the fact that most students are very computer savvy, they are able to search for sites that offer completed papers for sale. Not only is that, in itself, cheating; in addition, the student does not learn the necessary research and writing skills that the assignment was supposed to teach.

You might argue that everything has already been written, and there is nothing new that can be added. In one sense that is almost true. However, in the sense of a written research paper, all that knowledge can be written with new insight based upon the viewpoint of the individual writing it. You have to take all your research knowledge and re-write it in a fresh, new way. Those parts you copy word for word need to be acknowledged as such and citations properly recorded.

It is, indeed, a dilemma for most students to be able to take the time to read and study their chosen subject in enough detail to be able to write it all down in sufficient clarity and within the boundaries of time allotted them and make it sound new and original. But that is what has to happen to avoid the charges of plagiarism and suffering of consequences.

These skills are not limited to students striving for the various degrees. Once the person has left schooling behind and entered the workforce in whatever their chosen field, they become more susceptible to the demands placed on them to succeed. With the explosive growth, through the internet, of articles and documents being posted, it is imperative that sources be listed to assure proper quotation of those sources.

People who depend on their writing abilities for their income face even greater challenges because of the greater numbers of articles and features being written for internet, magazines, and books. Each person is responsible for his or her contribution to the world of writing. Do the research. Keep accurate notes. Know your subject. Write with a new, fresh twist. Cite your resources.