Writing about plagiarism is an important lesson that we all should experienceAnd when I say we.

I mean students because we are confronted with it whenever we write an essay. Even if we are aware of its implications we still can misinterpret it. And why is it such an important lesson? Because when writing about plagiarism we are less tempted to cheat, we are less tempted to steal somebody elses ideas and put our name on it, we are forced to think, to be creative or if its too much to say that .we are forced to respect other people work.

Whats plagiarism?
Almost everybody thinks that they know what plagiarism is. Considering this true, why so many people plagiarize? Maybe it has to do more with ethics than law, but Ill still mention some definitions of this term: 1. The action or practice of plagiarizing; the wrongful appropriation or purloining, and publication as one's own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas (literary, artistic, musical, mechanical, etc.) of another. 2. A purloined idea, design, passage, or work. (According to OED- Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition) The acts of passing off as ones own the ideas or writings of another. (According to Honor Council Document) When students submit work purporting to be their own, but which in any way borrows ideas, organization, wording or anything else from another source without appropriate acknowledgment of the fact, the students are guilty of plagiarism.

(According to The University of Kentucky) I wanted to give a defition of college plagiarism representing a different situation of plagiarism because inspite of the seriousness with which student plagiarism is treated by academics, their collective efforts seem to be inadequate to the size of the problem (Karlins, Michaels and Podlogar, 1988). The same institution added: Plagiarism includes reproducing someone else's work, whether it be a published article, chapter of a book, a paper from a friend or some file, or whatever. Plagiarism also includes the practice of employing or allowing another person to alter or revise the work which a student submits as his/her own, whoever that other person may be. Students may discuss assignments among themselves or with an instructor or tutor, but when the actual work is done, it must be done by the student, and the student alone.(The University of Kentucky)

College Plagiarism

Its very hard to avoid plagiarism because our knowledge is based on others contributions, on others discovered and organized information. This information is now part of us, we forgot that we read it in our books or discussed it in class, so we treat it as common-knowledge we dont cite it every time we use it in verbal communication, we dont name every author that generated the idea merely because we dont remember so many names. But in written communication things are different. Here we must try as much as we can to avoid plagiarism. How to do that? Quotation. We need to use somebody elses words maybe because they illustrate better the concepts or as a sign of respect for a great author that we really admire. We also need to show the interest in the subject, the research and all the reading we did. Placing in quotation marks the whole paragraph according to a standard documentation style, we can avoid plagiarism. Paraphrasing. When fully understanding a piece of information, without the risk of misunderstanding, we can use the ideas in our own words. This is the case when we demonstrate ourselves that we did learn something from other sources. Even then we should the source of information.

For more reliable information and clear examples in avoiding plagiarism students should read Earl Babbie- Plagiarism(Social Sciences Research and Instructional Council).

Why do students cheat? (Regarding plagiarism as a way of cheating) Due the fact that they are not interested in the subject and find it useless. Due to the fact that there is so much to be done and so little time. Due to the fact that they cant make or arent able to do a complete useful research. Due to the fact that some students dont have writing abilities Due to the fact that everyone wants a good mark taken with little efforts. Reasons can be found but excuses not. As I said it before its all about ethics where background education and ones character plays an important role. What should be done?

Students do cheat. The measures that have to be taken depend upon the university because this is merely an in-house problem depending on the seriousness of the fraud. There is plagiarism with intent. An example of this is buying a paper from the internet or just lending it. In Romania there are sites like www.referate.ro where you can find whatever you like free of charge. This is mostly for high-school students but still there are sites where for a substantial sum of money you can buy or order your license paper.and they are not sanctioned by anyone for encouraging plagiarism. But how to blame them if university professors allow plagiarism without severe sanctions? In other countries things are different. For example Ill cite the penalties applied in case of such an offence at The University of Kentucky. Assign a grade of E for the course in which the offense occurred (the minimum penalty).Recommend to the Dean of their college or to the Dean of the Graduate School, if appropriate, that the student be suspended, dismissed or expelled.

A real case of college plagiarism at University of Virginia

All began in spring 2001 when physics professor Lou Bloomfield heard that some students had copied their term papers in his introductory physics class. Bloomfield devised a computer program to detect duplicated phrases and caught 158 papers during the four previous semesters. The Charlottesville school's student-run Honor Committee finished the last plagiarism trial on Saturday after a 20-month investigation. In all, 109 students were exonerated and 48 others were either convicted of cheating or left school admitting guilt. This wide-ranging probe of student plagiarism at the University of Virginia has ended with the dismissal of 45 students and the revocation of three graduates' degrees. "It's never a happy day when 48 students leave," Honor Committee Chairman Christopher Smith said Monday. "But it shows the system worked." Two students challenged their dismissal in federal court this year. Smith said those cases were dismissed. Founded by Thomas Jefferson, the University of Virginia ranks among the nation's top public universities and has one of the oldest collegiate honor systems. On every test, students pledge not to lie, cheat or steal. The only penalty for breaking the code is dismissal from school. ( The text is extracted from The Associated Press with little modifications)

Other types of plagiarism

In his article Plagiarism- a misplaced emphasis published in the Journal of Information Ethics (1994), Brian Martin talks about different plagiarism in society that is accepted and practiced.

First he mentions ghostwriting-When a politician, famous sports figure, business executive, or movie star gives a speech or writes a book or newspaper column, frequently the actual writing is done by someone else. This is the case in Romania too when politicians who usually dont write their own speeches due to the fact that they read entirely from the paper, they do not speak from the heart and just glaze at the paper for ideas. Then he mentions authorship- In typical cases, a supervisor or laboratory director, who has done little or none of the research, is listed as co-author of a research paper. For some academic textbooks, the official authors are chosen for their market value, but do relatively little work. The actual writers of such "managed texts" may receive little or no credit. He also mentions the authorship that occurs in bureaucracies, including government, corporate, church and trade union bureaucracies. Work that is done by junior workers is commonly signed by higher officials. This is a well know fact in Romania that everybody know and few admit it. Lets face itjuniors are exploited. And the author gives here an example that hardly bares any comments. Many people treat the official structures as reflecting the underlying reality. For example, in parliamentary systems, a minister is an elected parliamentarian in charge of a government department. When someone writes a letter to a minister, they receive in reply a letter from the minister which is almost always written by someone in the department and seldom seen by the minister at all. The letter writer seldom thinks of the interaction as having been one with a junior bureaucrat.

ANOTHER TWO REAL EXAMPLES OF PLAGIARISM 1. Britain Admits That Much of Its Report on Iraq Came From Magazines
Shocking or not this was the title that appeared in New York Times on 8th February, 2003. The article talks about how information can have life and death consequences! The British government issued a report on Iraq, praised by Secretary of State Colin L. as "a fine paper" in his speech to the United Nations, had been lifted from magazines and academic journals." (Sarah Lyall-NYT). In some cases, the critics said, parts of the articles or of summaries posted on the Internet were paraphrased in the report. In other cases, they were plagiarized to the extent that even spelling and punctuation errors in the originals were reproduced. "This is the intelligence equivalent of being caught stealing the spoons," said Menzies Campbell, the foreign affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats. "The dossier may not amount to much, but this is a considerable embarrassment for a government trying still to make a case for war." "The government's reaction utterly fails to explain, deny or excuse the allegations," Mr. Jenkin said. "The document has been cited by the prime minister and Colin Powell as the basis for a possible war. Who is responsible for such an incredible failure of judgment?"

2. Young journalist from New York Time Fired because of plagiarism

Jayson Blair, a young journalist from New York Times was caught both plagiarizing and making up information from other newspapers - most notably in stories about Jessica Lynch and The Washington D.C. As New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines told the Washington Post today, "Frankly, no newspaper in the world is set up to monitor for cheats and fabricators." When an editor gives somebody a notebook and pencil and tells him to go out and report, it's a little bit like giving somebody you barely know a loaded gun. You expect him to use it wisely and honestly. But one slip, and there's hamburger all over the wallpaper! Hence, most reporters don't make things up because 1) they're as ethical as Jesus Christ or 2) they know they'll get caught. (Jack Shafer, 2003)

REFERENCES

William Harris - Prof. Middlebury College PLAGIARISM IN ACADME www.middlebury.edu/~harris Robert Harris Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers (November 17, 2004) Brian Martin Plagiarism: a misplaced emphasis (Published in Journal of Information Ethics, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1994) Earl Babbie Plagiarism (Social Sciences Research and Instructional Council) http://www.chem.uky.edu/courses/common/plagiarism