There is a problem going on and not in our universities or schools, although that happens, but in our news and political forums. Areas where people should be particularly well informed on this issue, or at least well enough informed, so as not to fall into prayer. This problem is plagiarism, plagiarism is a problem that occurs most frequently because students, sometimes instructors, journalists and speech writers, more frequently in recent times, have run out of time and taken shortcuts, or did not take sufficient notes during their research. knowing when something is actually a direct quote, or not recognizing when they have an original thought rather than paraphrasing. In this article, we will define plagiarism, in a way that will hopefully clearly illustrate what plagiarism is. We will discuss research ethics, what is intentional and unintentional plagiarism. I will give some examples of recent authors plagiarizing and discuss the ramifications of plagiarizing someone's work. Finally, we'll discuss how to avoid falling prey to plagiarism in your own articles, publications, and speeches. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay When we discuss plagiarism, the first thing we need to know is what exactly plagiarism is. Plagiarism is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the act of copying another person’s ideas or words without giving credit.” This means that if the definition had been taken verbatim and presented as the author's personal definition, the author would have committed an act of plagiarism. Also, if the writer has no idea what plagiarism is, then looked up the word and paraphrased it (“…paraphrase means rephrasing someone else's words in one's own words” ) and presented it as his own definition, then once again the writer would have committed an act of plagiarism. But wait, does this mean that if the writer works, for example, in a school, newspaper or other profession where he has to be aware of what plagiarism is on a daily basis, then he must always remember where he gets this definition from? Well, it would be cool if they could, but no. In certain professions and certain subjects, tolerances are made for common knowledge. "Common knowledge is information that is widely known, such as the fact that the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776." Definitions are one of those topics that don't ALWAYS need to be researched, because they can be considered as public notoriety. One thing to keep in mind though is that citing the definitions and properly citing where you got the definition from eliminates some, if not all, of the doubts the reader may have about the definition, and therefore improves the reader's opinion of your credibility. The essence of plagiarism at its root concerns the ethics of the writer, and especially the ethics used when researching and writing a paper. If a writer stops and honestly asks himself, "Is this ethical, does this feel good (ignoring the feeling of relief at being done with it), or how would I feel if someone copied my work without recognizing the hard work I have done? put in? These questions will only really help put an end to the worst form of plagiarism; Intentional plagiarism, quite explicit but for the sake of clarity. Intentional plagiarism occurs when someone has taken someone else's work (published by definition) and attempted to pass it off as their own work in part or in whole.This is the only form of plagiarism that you cannot avoid, keeping in mind that it is not ethical and I should not do it! The type of plagiarism that is preventable is accidental plagiarism, this type of plagiarism occurs when someone generally has not taken notes well. enough, didn't paraphrase correctly, or believe their thought was 100% an original thought when in fact it was a paraphrase of something they read while researching the article that they write. We'll talk about ways to avoid accidental plagiarism later in this article. The last type of plagiarism that we will talk about is much less known and is in fact a relatively new concept that is still widely debated: self-plagiarism. The concept of self-plagiarism or at least the need to monitor and recognize it is so new that it was first mentioned in the 2010 6th edition of the American Psychological Association (APA). “Self-plagiarism is defined as a type of plagiarism in which the writer republishes a work in its entirety or reuses parts of a previously written text while creating a new work. » What, wait a minute, you can plagiarize yourself? But the definition of plagiarism involves using someone else's work. Well yes, that's true, but we need to think about two things here: The first is ethics. If I write a paper for Professor A and also change it to Professor B for a different class, is that ethically correct? The ethics get a little fuzzy here, since this is your own job, and some might say it's just a good use of your time and resources to complete both requirements in one assignment . However, this will depend on two things: your school's policy on self-plagiarism, if it has one, and whether your professors are both okay with you turning in the same paper for different classes. If you see an opportunity to do this and want to try it, you need to have this discussion with both professors and make sure they agree. The second thing we need to consider is that if the article is to be published, if that is the case then there are a lot more things to think about here, copyright infringement which we won't get into here, and publishing twice for the same subject. of work. This second point is where some professors may have a problem with you using the same document twice. Sometimes if you do well enough, they might want you to publish, and even if they don't, they are trying to prepare you for the job market also known as "the real world." Whereas if you were to for example have two jobs and you somehow got an assignment from both, it would amount to the same job. Well, wow, that would just be a mess of conflicts of interest and, more importantly, proprietary knowledge. This means that both companies will have a reasonable expectation that any work you do for them belongs to them and not to any other company. By sharing it, you are not only violating the contract you signed, but perhaps even some laws. In this example, your professors are your two bosses at two different companies. Do they agree with you sharing this knowledge with a potential competitor? Maybe if it's not something essential for them to maintain their market advantage, they might not care, but chances are they will care and will not want to share the project. As may also be likely with your teachers. Two of the biggest or perhaps the most well-known plagiarism perpetrators inrecent news were Melania Trump and Jayson Blair. In the case of Malania Trump, she is, as you know, a political figure. So, like many other political figures, she did not write her own speech. The one we're going to talk about today was written by one of her husband's collaborators, for her. When she spoke to the staffer about the focus and content of the speech, she had read some passages from Michele Obama's speech and mentioned that she considered her an inspiration. The staffer took this information and wrote the speech and, although not intentional, it contained parts that were almost verbatim from Michele Obama's speech. For the speechwriter, this could have been a fireable offense and the end of any career as a speechwriter in a political venue. In fact, the speechwriter offered to resign because of the mistake she made in not proof-checking the speech she wrote. against that of Michele Obama, knowing that he served as an inspiration. From a political perspective, this act of plagiarism could have distracted from what Trump actually wanted to convey to his voters, and even if that's exactly what he did, the Trumps simply saw it as a free press. Plagiarism in the political world is a fairly common phenomenon. More than it probably should be, but it's usually done with allies, and allies generally won't mind if an ally borrows bits of their speech. Allies also share speechwriters, who can sometimes reuse work that should not be reused. The reason Malania Trump's speech attracted so much attention, among the many other plagiarism offenses in politics, is primarily because Hillary Clinton's team was trying to cast an unfavorable light on the Trump campaign. Additionally, although Malania considers Michele an inspiration, they were not political allies, and both Democrats and Republicans seem rather territorial there. It could have been much worse for Trump and for the staff who wrote the speech, all of that was erased as bigger issues became predominant during the campaign. For example, plagiarism can really ruin you and your career. Jayson Blair was a reporter for the New York Times, one of, if not the, most respected newspapers. He had a promising career and had worked for the newspaper for four years, while plagiarizing from other newspapers, misquoting and fabricating facts. The New York Times viewed this not only as a betrayal of trust on Jayson Blair's part, but also as having betrayed their readers themselves by not catching him sooner. Because of his actions, not only did he lose all of his credibility, but the New York Times lost some of its credibility as well. With Jayson's loss of credibility, he was fired from the New York Times, but will likely never work for another newspaper again. Now that we know what plagiarism is and what some of the real ramifications of this act can be. Now let's see how to avoid plagiarism. As mentioned earlier in this article, to avoid intentional plagiarism, we weigh our actions against the ethics of what we do, or if your internal compass is that messed up, you still think it's a good idea, but don't do it. You may think you won't be caught, and that may not be the case at first, but remember Jayson Blair got away with it for 4 years. But he was still arrested, and so will you eventually be if you plagiarize.