Plagiarism in College Term Papers
Plagiarism in academia is a misrepresentation of the authorship of someone else’s work. As for written work, Copyright law allows that once original text is written, copyright protects it. This allows an author to sell, lease or use her original material in any way she deems appropriate. Any writer, who willingly copies or uses another’s written work in any way without proper acknowledgement, puts himself at risk of dire consequences. He may also jeopardize the original author’s credibility and/or financial opportunities. Another cultural phenomenon that has rivaled the increase of student body populations in terms of the significance of the challenge to academic integrity has been the widespread advent of the Internet. Never before has such a wealth of data been available to be accessed by the general public. Although the implications of the Internet as an academic research tool are extremely beneficial, the inevitable downside of the Internet resources being exploited in various ways that defy the spirit of university academic misconduct policies.
The penalties for infractions against academic integrity can vary depending on the severity of the offense, ranging from a written warning placed in the student’s permanent school file to expulsion from the University. Plagiarism rides a razor’s edge that doesn’t always make a clean distinction between what plagiarism is and what it isn’t. Therefore it is up to individuals to discover the parameters of plagiarism in their institution or profession. The Internet offers over 500,000 sites on plagiarism and over 100,000 on plagiarism and the law, so ignorance of plagiarism’s consequences in inexcusable.