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Madison Langston

Professor Wolfe

ETEC 424-01W

08 February 2020

Disc #2 Video: “Why Plagiarism is not in Student’s Best Interest.”

I think in terms of plagiarism, it should never be O.K. for any type of work to be

“reimagined”without the consent of the original creator. We see this all the time in the media,

such as with music, and even more so in Hollywood with newly reimagined Disney “classics,”

which are actually based on fairytales, children stories, mythology, etc. So, plagiarism is a part

of life, but unhappily a part of life. We see it in political scandals, such as the infamous First

Lady Melania Trump’s somewhat plagiarized speech, or accused plagiarized speech, of former

First Lady Michelle Obama. However, plagiarism happens most often in a classroom, and,

ironically enough, it happens sometimes without a student knowing it.

With four types of plagiarism (mosaic, self, accidental, and direct), a student can

plagiarize themselves, or accidentally plagiarize a work previously read by them, the teacher, or

both. We even teach children about the greatest plagiarizer in English class: William

Shakespeare! However, in his defense, plagiarism was considered the norm during the Middle

Ages, so, sorry-not-sorry? What makes it worse the amount of work the teacher/professor has

to do to ensure that a student’s work isn’t plagiarized. Yes, it’s not just the student who has to

work hard, however, most teachers/professors have software to tell whether or not a paper or

assignment is original text or not.

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With the discovery of new knowledge, as well as the discovery of already known

knowledge, plagiarism will continue to be a part of the life of a student, as well as a professor’s.

There’s no way around it, besides thinking of an extremely original thought that wasn’t read,

heard, seen, or thought of by another individual in this world of 7.5 billion people. Terrifying,

isn’t it?

Works Cited

Pennsylvania State College of Liberal Arts. (n.d.) Types of Plagiarism [PDF File]. Retrieved

from https://la.psu.edu/current-students/documents/TypesofPlagiarism.pdf

Kennedy, A. (n.d.) A Short History of Academic Plagiarism [Blog Post]. Retrieved from

https://www.quetext.com/blog/short-history-academic-plagiarism

Bailey, J. (2018, July). 5 Things You Didn't Know About Plagiarism [Blog Post]. Retrieved

from https://www.turnitin.com/blog/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-plagiarism

Scan My Essay. (n.d.) Consequences of Plagiarism. Retrieved from

https://www.scanmyessay.com/plagiarism/consequences-of-plagiarism.php

Ayton, K. (n.d.) How to Alleviate the Problem of Plagiarism in College. Retrieved from

https://plagiarismsearch.com/blog/how-do-professors-check-for-plagiarism.html