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Mitchell Fratrik
Megan Keaton
ENC1102-01
02 June 2014
Plagiarism and Originality
Plagiarism is a common practice by many students today at every level of education.
When identifying plagiarism, an individual would look for the writer using another person ideas
or thoughts in a way that they are claiming them as their own. Therefore, plagiarism can be
defined as using another individuals ideas or thoughts without showing proper citation of the
source of the ideas. Essentially, any person who plagiarizes is stealing another persons work for
their own benefit. When examining what plagiarism exactly is, its important to take into account
that plagiarism can occur both intentionally and unintentionally, and that many people question
whether original material is still able to be produced with all of the rules about academic
dishonesty and plagiarism.
One of the biggest problems is that plagiarism can occur both intentionally and
unintentionally. This disparity comes from the fact that you cant plagiarize common knowledge.
Since something is common knowledge, it might not have to be cited from a source when writing
a research paper. It can be intentional if the writer knowingly doesnt cite particular information
that they may get from an outside source. While intentional plagiarism occurs, it is much more
likely to find unintentional copying of other ideas. This is because it is difficult to draw a line on
what exactly common knowledge entails. Most would argue that common knowledge is anything
such as historical facts and general ideas that the majority of the audiences a paper would be
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directed at would know to be true (Bishop124). Since the audience is different for every essay
that is written, this makes it difficult to narrow down and specify what exactly would classify as
common knowledge in regards to dealing with issues of academic plagiarism. Due to this fine
line, there is still much discussion among the educational community as to how rules on
plagiarism should judge future works as more information becomes available online for use in
academic research papers (Howard).
As more information becomes available for public use, it is valid to argue that it is
becoming increasingly difficult to develop completely original ideas. As new ideas are being
formulated, it is more difficult to come up with a completely original idea because anyone can go
on to the internet and likely find an idea that is at least similar to that of their own. In the case of
writing, it is much easier in modern times to find an article that is posted either online or in text
form that has at least a similar idea to that of what is being written about. When writing a
research paper, the ideas that are used to support the thesis are not completely original because
they are being supported by previously written words. These ideas are thrown together in the
essay in a manner that makes the thesis of the paper appear to be the most original. Others argue
that the modern times are flourishing with completely original idea because so much information
is now available (Eilola,Johndon,Selber387). Much of this idea centers on the thought that
individuals who are writing for the purpose of originality will use the outside information as a
way to avoid plagiarizing anothers ideas. The rules of academic dishonesty and plagiarism are
in place in order to promote for original thinking and for students to have set guidelines for what
plagiarism exactly is. This is the best way to lower cases of plagiarism as well as find many more
completely original works.
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Consequently, plagiarism comes down to understanding the rules and definition of what
would fall as an offense for copying, as well as actually pushing to develop an original idea.

















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Works Cited
Bishop, Wendy. Reading, Stealing, and Writing Like a Writer. Elements of Alternative Style:
Essays on Writing and Revision. Ed. Wendy Bishop. Boynton: Heinemann, 1997. 119-30. Print.

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan, and Stuart Selber. Plagiarism, Originality, Assemblage Computers
and Composition 24 (2007): 375403. ScienceDirect. Web. 18 Jun. 2014.

Howard, Rebecca. "Membership." Educational Leadership:Literacy 2.0:Plagiarism in the
Internet Age. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2014. <http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-
leadership/mar09/vol66/num06/Plagiarism-in-the-Internet-Age.aspx>.

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