NOTE: While you are reading this paper, reflect on the citation errors this student  made when writing this paper..

Your paper is due tomorrow, and you haven't even typed a single letter. You waited till the last possible minute and you are now out of time so you cut and copy your entire paper from the Internet. Bingo, your paper is done and no one is the wiser, except that your professor is the one who wrote the paper you just plagiarized. Thanks to the Internet it is easier than ever to just cut and copy your way to a complete paper. This is a situation that many college students find themselves facing, but is it really plagiarism? Some would argue that it isn't because they simply put the idea into their own words, henceforth it is not stealing. Webster's dictionary definition of plagiarism is, "to steal or pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own." This is just the basic definition, and there are many more tangents that go along with this basic concept.

Plagiarism is not just cut and copying someone else's work and passing it off as your own, using someone else's idea is also considered plagiarism. If you were once unfamiliar with a topic and decided to write about it then basically you need to cite everything you type because none of it is your own. Stated in the Code of Behavior on Academic Matters "it is better to over-reference your work than not have enough references." It then goes on to say that common knowledge is excluded from being cited. If that is the case then I would need to make reference of what I just stated? Common knowledge is such a broad term, and can mean something totally different to everyone. Something that I consider common knowledge, would not be considered common at all to another. This is where students fall into the trap plagiarism. Passing someone else's idea off as your own is also considered plagiarism, even if it is reworded so it is not a direct quote. This is also another trap that students fall into easily. "Often punishment for plagiarism consists of a failing grade in the class, expulsion from the class, or even expulsion from the college, depending on how serious the offense" (Schaaf, 1997).

Most of my information on plagiarism came from Dr. Humphries when she gave my class a presentation and explained to us what needs and doesn't need to have quotes, footnotes, or sources. I found the presentation helpful, but created clashing opinions. I have looked at several papers now on plagiarism and almost all of them vary in their definitions or instructions on the proper ways to cite work.

Preparing the "perfect" paper seems almost impossible, and after my near "F" experience with my most recent paper I have seen the light. The excuse that "I didn't know that had to be in quotes" just won't cut it anymore. Before I sat down to write this paper/thank you/apology, I read up on plagiarism, mostly by looking at other college's definitions and warnings to the students. I learned that direct quotes and word-for-word statements must be put in quotes. Paraphrasing needs to be footnoted with the proper source, page number, and so on to give the author his dues. Using a idea that you had no clue about also needs to be cited, so that everyone can know that you didn't figure out that "What goes up, must come down," because that credit should go to Sir Isaac Newton.

With that said I thank you Dr. Meyer for giving me this opportunity to finally complete our paper the right way. For taking to time to explain to Do's and Don'ts of plagiarism, and I apologize for this inconvenience to you and the extra work we created. "Stay well, all" (quoted from Dr. Meyer's emails to the class listserve).

Schaaf, Lauren. (1997, Nov. 13). Northern Notes from Northern Illinois University.