What is Plagiarism? Essay
What is Plagiarism?, 497 words essay example
Essay Topic: plagiarism
Plagiarism is the act of adopting and reproducing someone else's ideas or thoughts and representing them as your original work without proper citation. The concept of plagiarism remains problematic with there being no clear definitions nor rules.
The modern concept of plagiarism emerged in Europe in the 18th century, mostly with the Romantic Movement. The Romantic Movement was characterized by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorification of all the past and nature the latter also being celebrated. Plagiarism is a violation of journalistic ethics. These comprise of principles of ethics and of good practice as applicable to the specific challenges faced by journalists.
Plagiarism is only punishable by the institution to which the plagiarist belongs to because no legal action can be taken against the plagiarist as it is not a federal crime. It is nonetheless a serious ethical offense in academia and can constitute copyright infringement. Plagiarism is closely associated with copyright infringement but not many instances of plagiarism can be classified as copyright infringement.
Using digital media in a piece work you are producing without receiving permission from its copyright's owner or providing proper citation is also considered as plagiarism. This can happen in a number of ways
Copying images or videos from other websites to post them on your own blogs or websites.
Making a movie using footage from another video or using someone else's music as the sound track for a movie without proper permission from the owner of the copyright.
Performing another person's copyrighted music for example playing a cover song.
Writing musical lyrics that borrow heavily from another musical track.
There are also cases of self-plagiarism where you copy work you have previously presented and try to pass it off as a something new. It will only result in a violation of copyright laws if the previous material had been copyrighted.
Plagiarism most often occurs in student projects (written or oral) that require independent work. Though plagiarism could also occur in an essay examination, it is usually not thought of in this context. The pressure of time during an in-class examination makes adequate acknowledgment of sources difficult moreover, frequently the purpose of the examination is to check on what a student has absorbed from lectures and readings rather than to provide an opportunity for the student to argue a personally endorsed thesis thus this form is plagiarism is never considered.
Most cases of plagiarism are easily avoidable by simply admitting that some of your material has been borrowed and properly citing your source even if you are the owner of the material that you are borrowing from. Else this will result in self-plagiarism.
The best way to prevent plagiarism is to properly cite all of the materials you have borrowed information from(even online resources).Also when you paraphrase don't forget to cite the original document even if you have changed all of the words in the statement or just a few provided the content is the same.