Plagiarism and copyright regulations

Plagiarism is not hard to do and at the same time it is simple to avoid. When I was in elementary and middle school, plagiarism was not heard of in the classroom. I can remember copying, word for word, out of the encyclopedia whenever I had a report due during Black History Month! I was not told that it was wrong and I did not have a teacher who said anything about it. I did not get hip about the "P" word until high school and that is when everything changed. It forced me to expand my vocabulary and read for understanding. Since I had not put things in my own words previously, the transition was a bit daunting but I quickly got over it. It was easy for me but for some it was not happening quick enough or not happening at all! Plagiarism is something that should be explained early on in a students' educational career :) How can you penalize them for doing it when they have been doing it for so long? I am not saying I am for plagiarism at all but all I am saying is that teachers should be held accountable for stressing he in's and out's of plagiarism in elementary and middle school.

In saying that, plagiarism is WRONG!!! Those who you copy from and give no credit to , worked hard to put together and publish their thoughts and it is immoral to write it as your own. As I said earlier, plagiarism is easy to do if you do not know the rules for citing someone's work. Simply changing a few words with your handy thesaurus is not good enough. By the same token, your work should not be one big quote either. Students in college get in serious trouble if they are caught plagiarizing. You risk getting kicked out of your program and not receiving credit for that class. It is not difficult to read something and formulate your own opinion about it. Simply said, if you are unsure about whether or not you are plagiarizing, give credit where it is due just to cover yourself.