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Plagiarism Essay

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"I think there was far more plagiarism in the last century. It was almost an accepted part of writing. The ethics of writing has changed. Nobody gets upset about whether Shakespeare plagiarized something. But I think the standards have to be pretty high now, particularly for non-fiction writers." [1]

Introduction to Plagiarism

According to most leading authorities, including The Office of Research Integrity, plagiarism includes "both the theft or misrepresentation of intellectual property and the substantial unattributed textual copying of another's work." [2] Because plagiarism is considered to be a factor of a particular culture or a time, identifying plagiarism is not always easily performed. For example, in some cultures, as well as …show more content…

In a research document authored by Macdonald in 2003, any resolution to this dilemma rests within the perceptions and opinions of the students. [7]

For example, during a study reported in the Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, there were twelve students involved in the study who then reported their own individual feelings about plagiarism. According to some authorities, much of the ideas concerning plagiarism, in fact, are learned early in life, when students have no choice but to use what others say to depict their own thoughts. [8] In the aforementioned study, the twelve students responded to specific questions concerning plagiarism and each group of students developed different opinions and thoughts concerning the dilemma; these ideas were developed into three major areas of interest with respect to the students.

In the first set of students, each one experienced anxiety concerning the morality of stealing another person's work for individual gain; the second set of students reflected upon academic development as a movement towards a dependence upon more respected authors to help promote their own gain; and the third set of students were art majors and therefore, they had a self-reliant discipline when it pertains to using another person's art in the promotion of individual

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