Plagiarism is a major problem in schools everywhere. All teachers in a variety of grades can relate to this subject. The problem has only been increasing. The more the internet expands, the easier it gets for students to find something to copy from. Though that is true, the internet also provides help for teachers in catching plagiarism. It is very important for all teachers to be able to identify what constitutes plagiarism and what causes students to do it, to catch the methods that students use to pass getting caught, and how to stop the act dead in its tracks or before it even starts.
Plagiarism is the act of trying to take credit for using another person’s work. It is really just cheating a way out of work. There are many reasons as to why people plagiarize. Many students find themselves unable to write about a subject they are given, whether it be an essay or a book report. In most of those cases the students try to plagiarize in attempt to save their grade. Other students are lazy and feel that they’re too good for the work and decide to plagiarize so they have more time to do what they wish. Most plagiarism can be identified on online search engines like Google. Typing in one sentence could make their entire paper pop up and prove how and where they plagiarized from. Some sites post perfectly written papers fro people to copy from. Other sites have been more recently brought up that have you pay a fee to have a paper written especially for you, or so they say, to make it undetectable as plagiarism. Sometimes a student may have had an older sibling that had already taken the class. The current student may copy down their older sibling’s work from his/her past class term and try turning it in as their own work. On some occasions, he teacher may recognize the paper, check to find that it had been previously used, and the faux author would then lose all credit for the assignment. There are many opportunities for students to plagiarize.
