The Plagiarism Problem

After reading the assigned article on copy right, I became aware of the seriousness of stealing someone else’s ideas and words. The article showed me how there are indeed tools out there that are accessible for me and other students to receive the same information without the risk of plagiarizing. These tools detect plagiarism and show how to properly site sources that are used in assignments. Most students are not aware that they plagiarize. If they do, they are not doing it out of any sort of malice but out of convenience or lack of knowing how to express the idea in their own words. Stealing ideas can be done mistakenly since many people could have similar ideas.

                After making the stop animation video, I realized that I would be personally upset if someone took my video and used it in their classroom without my consent or permission. If I were to place it on youtube or any other video sharing site, I would be doing it with the understanding that others can watch, download, and share as they wish. However, if I were to keep it in a secure website and have a copy right on it, then I would be doing so to protect the hard hours that were involved in constructing the stop animation video. With this project, I learned that I should check twice on the legality of utilizing a particular work before simply claiming it as my own.

                In the future, I will teach my students the importance of restraining from claiming another’s work as your own. How I will do so specifically is still unknown, however I think students would understand best if they were shown a real-life example or given an exercise. For example, you could tell other students to write a paper that will count as 50% of their grade. After everyone works very hard on their paper, you could say that students may read others student’s papers and hand select ideas out of the papers of their peers. They may then compile the ideas from their peers and have a final draft. Hopefully students will see that seeing your original idea in someone else’s paper or even in multiple papers from your peers make it sound less original and more common knowledge. The hard work that was placed behind coming up with the idea is gone when others can easily take it and call it their own. With this exercise and scenario, students will hopefully understand the importance of restraining from plagiarism.