Technological advances are making access to reference material as simple as it has ever been. A few entries of key words into Google or academic databases and you receive thousands of credible sources with relevant information. However, with the ease of access, many students are making the mistake of not citing their source, claiming other's work as their own, or even falsifying a sources work. The technology to find a correct citation or detect plagiarism has also been developed and results to decipher whether a student is being academically honest could be figured in the matter of seconds. According to Jeff Karen, even most honor students respond to the confrontation of academic dishonesty as "they did so because it was easy. "[1] On the other side of the argument, students will attempt to protect themselves by saying they were not correctly informed exactly what plagiarism entitles. Expanding on this idea, "the most commonly heard explanation for accidental plagiarism is that students lack knowledge about how to avoid plagiarism. "[2] In order to deplete the plagiarists from the academic community, we must first agree on a universal definition, inform students how to avoid plagiarism, and interpret the repercussions of academic dishonesty.
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Plagiarism is not always intended; regardless if you are caught, you will be reported and may even be subject to failure of that course. The Dean of Students threatening expulsion with a direct quote on your paper, which was not cited, is quite the predicament to resolve. [3] As a general idea, plagiarism is "the misrepresenting someone else's work as your own " (Lipson, 42). Related to this definition, the Toronto Star's policy statement defines plagiarism as "the unattributed use of material from another public source. "[4] Whether it is a direct quote, a paraphrase, or an idea of another's work, it must be cited. Plagiarism is also defined as borrowing someone else's ideas (Lipson 51).