Utilization Of Technology To Plagerise

Utilization of Technology to Plagiarize

Plagiarism is nothing new, only the means by which it is accomplished are. The invention of the internet and affordability of personal computers has been considered by most to be the impetuous for plagiarisms proliferation. “The Internet is a vast, rapidly growing network of over a billion electronic pages that are fully accessible to our students. It is an incredible resource for young, bright minds. However, not all aspects of this resource are positive. One of the primary concerns facing teachers is that millions of computer-savvy students find it easy to use this massive library of information to plagiarize material, to use someone else's intellectual property as their own without citations or credit.”(Owens, Atkins, & Nelson. (2001)

Plagiarisms most common infraction occurs when students “cut and paste” articles from online sources into personal word processing documents without giving proper credit to the original authors. “Four in ten college students surveyed said they intentionally cut and paste material from the Internet without citing the source of that information, according to a 2005 survey by Don McCabe, founding president of the Duke University-affiliated Center for Academic Integrity.” (MacMillan March 13, 2007).

The second largest source of technological plagiarism comes from internet companies that create term papers in return for payment. Jane Rawe writes in Time magazine “Affordabletermpapers.com charges a minimum of $9.95 per page for a custom-written essay. Rush jobs cost $24.95 a page. The site, which dutifully states that its papers should be used for "assistance purposes only"--uh-huh--guarantees that customers won't run into trouble with plagiarism or they'll get their money back and a free rewrite.” (May 28, 2007).

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