Introduction: Our society today has become obsessed with plagiarism and how to properly cite source and

information. As I am sure that the majority of people would agree that taking other peoples thoughts and ideas and trying to make them your own is not right in any way. As Rebecca Howard argued in her article about plagiarism, that taking other peoples ideas and using them as your own can be considered a so called academic death penalty. It s as simple as it sounds, if you are caught plagiarizing or someone thinks you have plagiarized there are no second chances, no going back, just plain and simple you are done. I know that this is the way that the majority of people think about topic of plagiarism. After interviewing twenty people on their views and beliefs of plagiarism, nineteen of them said that any type of plagiarism is bad and that if caught the most extreme punishment should be handed down. To me this came as a great surprise. I have always had the idea that students really did not think much of plagiarism, and would never consider handing down the harshest punishment for it. I believe that people may be looking at the situation of plagiarism in a worse light than they should. Have you ever thought to yourself what is plagiarism? How bad is it really? And the damage that it can do to the wrongfully accused? From my research and interviews I have found that most people do not think about or have never even considered these important questions. These are all very important questions that people need to start asking themselves when talking about the topic of plagiarism. Howard states that while plagiarism may be bad, the rules can be revised to make the punishments not so harsh but still keep the general idea there. I believe that there is a solution to every problem, including the problem of plagiarism. Howard: Talks about the idea of patchwriting and its affects on plagiarism (par 1). Plagiarism happens because of one of two things, absence of ethics or ignorance (par 1). Patchwriting can be an important step in becoming part of the wrting discourse community for young writers (par 2). School policies on plagiarism leave no room for teachers to have exceptions or alternatives (pg 789). I will use this article to support my idea of how we are too strict about plagiarism in schools. Howard, Rebecca Moore. "A Plagiarism Pentimento."Journal of TeachingWriting 11.3 (Summer 1993): 233-46.

Edward M. White (in howard reading): Says that plagiarism is outrageous because it underminds the whole purpose of education. He thinks that it makes people not original thinkers and hinders the learning proses (pg 794). I will also use this to back up my ideas on plagiarism. White, EdwardM. "TooMany CampusesWant to Sweep StudentPlagiarism Under the Rug."ChronicloefHigherEducatio2n4 February1993:A44.

Porter: He gets at the idea of intertextuality which is the idea that all texts contain traces of other texts and that nothing is really original. I will use his ideas to show how almost everything you write can be considered plagiarism. Porter, James E. Intertextuality and The Discourse Community. Rhetoric Review 5.1 (1986): 34-47. Print. Plagiarism.org: On this website it gives me a definition of plagiarism and it talks about how to avoid it. It also goes into what plagiarism is considered and what we can do to avoid it. I plan to use this source to describe how our society is being to strict about what we consider plagiarism. And also how I believe that the idea the they are giving on plagiarism I do not agree with. I plan to use this source as what most people believe then go into my new idea. What is Plagiarism? Plagiarism.org. Accessed July 5, 2009. http://www.plagiarism.org/learning_center/what_is_plagiarism.html

Martin: He brings up the idea of is using a certain authors writing style considered plagiarism. Also goes as far as saying is the English language plagiarism. He also brings up the point of how hurt people really are when there ideas are taken by other people or there papers are used by someone else. I plan to use martins ideas to back up my point that almost anything can be considered plagiarism. Martin, R.G. Plagiarism and Originality: Some Remedies. The English Journal, Vol. 60, No. 5 (May, 1971), pp. 621-625+628.

Tribune article: In this article the writer discusses the problems of plagiarism at a high school on the north side of Chicago. There was a incident where the principle was giving a big speech and used a part of a previously given speech in his speech. After the school found out that he had done this, they decided that they were going to fire him. All because he used a part of someone elses speech. I will use this in my paper to prove my point that people are being to harsh about plagiarism and about what is really considered plagiarism. Kimberly, James. Plagiarism Allegations Jolt School. Chicago Tribune. May, 30 2008. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-05-30/news/0805300022_1_plagiarismschool-district-school-year

CBS News Article: In this article they talk about how Barack Obama was accused of

plagiarism during his campaign in 2007. He was accused of using a few sentences or phrases from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick. The accusations were made by Hilary Clinton who was running against Obama. Patrick backed Obama up by saying that they usually work together on speechs and come up with so similar ideas, so he was not surprised that his speech sounded similar. I plan to use this in my paper to show how people can blow the idea of plagiarism way out of proportion. Also I will use it to show how people will take any small similarities in papers or speechs to catch or convict so called plagiarists. Kane, Solly. Obama Accused of Plagiarism in Speech. CBSNews. February, 11 2009. http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-502323_162-3850012.html

Brian Martin:In his paper he discusses the problem that most people see with plagiarism and then he goes into maybe how people should look at it. This is the point of my whole paper so I plane to use some of his ideas. Martin, Brian. Plagiarism: a misplaced emphasis. Journal of Information Ethics, Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1994, pp. 36-47 http://www.uow.edu.au/~bmartin/pubs/94jie.html Posner: In his article the culture of plagiarism, he discusses the idea of ghostwriting. This is where a famous author or person has someone else write a paper or speech for them. When this happens the actual author get little to no credit for it. In todays society this is not considered plagiarism. I will use this in my paper to show if this isnt plagiarism then why is a lot of other stuff considered plagiarism. Posner, Ari. 1988. "The culture of plagiarism." The New Republic, 18 April:19-24.

New York times article: In this article the author discusses the idea that some kids even college students do not exactly know what plagiarism is. She says that some kids have no idea what plagiarism is because there high school teachers simply did not care if they plagiarized or not. I will use this in my paper to state how some of the punishments handed down for plagiarism are to harsh especially when kids truly dont understand what it is. Gabriel, Trip. Plagiarism lines Blur for Students in digital age. New York Times. August, 1 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html?pagewanted=all