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

Here's the scenario. A college student, named Bill, has all semester to think of a topic for a term paper, but what does he do? Like any average student, he probably waits until the last minute. Bill jumps on the computer the day before the assignment is due, and starts to research his topic. By the time he finds valid information, Bill's mother is screaming from her bedroom, "lights out, go to bed!" This is not good. What can this poor, hopeless student do? Bill can go against his mother's will- and write a paper, he can take a zero, or probably do what any person would do in this situation-- cut and paste right off the internet.

Wait a minute, what's not right with this picture? Is this student doing something wrong? I guess we'll just have to wait until he gets his paper back.

Two weeks later, Bill, the internet plagiarist, is sitting in his Law and Society class, when the professor asks to see him after class. Bill receives his paper, and there's a fat "F" dead center on the top. Bill, all confused, questions the professor, and vice versa. Bill was not sent to the ethics committee, but he was told that what he did was extremely unethical. "Plagiarizing" is what the professor labeled it. Bill was caught off guard, and did not know what to say, but that he was sorry. As a reminder for the future, Bill took it upon himself to find out what plagiarism involved, and how it could be avoided.

What is plagiarism? As defined in Webster's dictionary to plagiarize is, "to steal or pass off the ideas or words of another, as one's own" (Plagiarism, 1997). What this is simply saying is, taking credit for something you did not do, or even come close to. Plagiarism is without a doubt one of the most serious offenses that occurs in everyday life (Plagiarism, 1997). Plagiarism occurs mostly at school, but it can as easily occur at work (Plagiarism, 1997). Stress, and whatever else college students are under, tempts them to cheat in the worst form of cheating. Plagiarism can be a federal crime and is not taken lightly in certain cases.

For example, it you are caught copying from the internet, or from another reference, that is all that is takes to get expelled from a university. Once you get expelled from one, it is hard to get into another decent school. Equally important, the workplace has many incidents of plagiarizing as well. For example, if you work for a big company like AT&T, they will make you sign papers before they hire you. This paperwork states that if you leave the company and go to another one with their ideas, you can be sued and/or even imprisoned. Copying someone's ideas is not as easy to hide as it might have been.

If people are losing jobs and getting expelled from school for plagiarizing, how can they avoid this life-long punishment? The simplest way is just not to do it. When people plagiarize, they know that they are doing something wrong. They are just better risk takers than writers. Secondly, immediately state the reference as you mention an idea that you know is not yours. Otherwise you might forget what is yours and what is not at the end. Thirdly, even if you paraphrase and reword an idea, it is still necessary to reference everything you are paraphrasing from. Fourthly, taking precise notes will help you determine what are your ideas and what are not, so the correct ideas could be referenced. Finally, do not take chunks right out of someone else's writing. Take a few words and expand on that. This will make your paper more unique (Halt!, 1997). Similarly, some of these suggestions would work in the workplace, but some do not apply. The main way to avoid plagiarizing in the professional world is by checking if something has been patented. Believe it or not, some people actually do think alike. Before you start running around and telling other people your idea, and later finding out that it was someone else's, it is better to check from the start. This will help you avoid the embarrassment.

At the completion of Bill's research, he concluded that plagiarizing is a serious offense that has occurred for decades (Plagiarism, 1997). It is more the act of temptation, rather than wrongdoing. Without punishment, people will never learn the true severity of plagiarizing. Before it gets worse, Bill decided that he will never, ever, do it again.

REFERENCES

Halt! This is the Copyright Police! Plagiarists Will Be Shot! (1997). <http://www.naples.net/~dugast/research/week13a.htm>

Plagiarism. (1997). <http://www.niu.edu/newsplace/nnplagarism.html>

NOTE: This student also decided that she needed to make amends to society for her wrongdoing, so she decided to volunteer at a soup kitchen for an afternoon and write a paper about it. I don't recommend that plagiarizers serve self-imposed "community service sentences," but I include her paper as proof of her remorse. She was asked to think of an appropriate penalty, which I expected to be more along the lines of writing a paper on plagiarism. She didn't think that was enough, so she sought out our local soup kitchen in addition to her above paper.
 

Here's the scenario. Outside of the soup kitchen, hundreds of people are patiently waiting on line holding a number that will allow them a mere bag of food that will save their family from hunger. Anticipating that the door will soon open, the parents are wondering how happy their young, already fatigued babies will react to the food. Meanwhile, inside the soup kitchen, volunteers are bagging food and can hear the large crowd that they expected piled in front of the door. And then, there is me, a plagiarist who was asked to think of a punishment, and who decided to help out at a local soup kitchen. Before volunteering my services, I had no idea what was the true purpose of a soup kitchen.

A soup kitchen is a place where disadvantaged people can go to get food that has been provided by the city or other agencies. It was that day that a mere two hours helped me realize how bad poverty really was in Camden. I encountered handicapped people, homeless individuals, and even families that had a home, but were still misfortunate. I looked in the bag to see what kind of food was being given out and there wasn't one item that I would have eaten. But, the eagerness in the people to get their hands on the brown paper bag, showed me that it didn't matter what kind of food was supplied when you are poor. That one bag meant the world to the poor parents. I felt so bad that these people had to eat such stuff, but what could I possibly do.

In my two hours of volunteered service, I was asked to distribute the bags to the people as they came in with a number and to ask them how many people were in their household. I also had to ask for identification while an older man asked the people if they were on food stamps. As time elapsed, I realized that the disadvantaged people were so friendly and had great stories to tell. One man decided that he wanted to tell me about his life on the streets. He said it wasn't that bad, but it got extremely cold during the night time. I didn't know how to react, but I smiled as he smiled. Towards the end of my two hours, I recognized a lady that had been there earlier, but came again for another bag. No one recognized her except me. I obviously didn't say anything because I couldn't bring myself to snitch on her. As the lady picked up the bag and exited, I felt bad because that meant one less family would have food, but I probably would have done the same thing if my children were hungry at home.

Finally, we were up to our last bag. All the volunteers were happy because that was the sign to go home, but they neglected to see what I saw. There were still some people remaining in line. After serving about 100 people, four were sent home emptyless. I felt like reaching into my purse to give them money, but I didn't even know if that would help. As the four people left, the volunteers cleaned up and were allowed to leave.

Driving back to school, I was determined that every free time I had, I would donate it to help the poor. The mere two hour experience was so sad that it touched my heart. I just couldn't stop thinking what if I was poor? What if my children were starving? And just, what if?