Why Plagiarize?

As college students, there are many assumptions we make about what is and isn’t acceptable when turning in your work with the potential of it being plagiarized. Many people have gone through different experiences with plagiarism whether or not they’ve committed it themselves; so either way, it’s a pretty relatable subject for all college students. These two articles we were asked to read were very thorough and made cohesive arguments about how to avoid plagiarism even if it is not your intention. One section that drew my attention in “What is Plagiarism?” was the idea of having your roommate write, or at least help out, with a piece of work. In fact, last week, I had a paper due for Shakespeare and wanted one of my hall mates to read over it as another pair of eyes. As the master of the paper, I made sure that she was indicating her edits with a different color font and wasn’t searching for any other sources. It was my job to control the essay while letting her use her perspective on the paper. It’s definitely an essential as a college student to actually understand WHAT plagiarism is and HOW to avoid it correctly. Especially going to a high-performance research institution, citing your work (from quotes in a book to short footnotes in an article) should be done efficiently. Just a tip for everyone citing their work as they start writing research papers: don’t wait until 4am the morning your paper is due to write your works cited/bibliography page! Chances are you may forget a couple of websites or articles that you came across, and you’ll definitely get docked points. As you research each day, make sure you create a works cited page as you write your essay.