{"id":489,"date":"2020-05-31T12:37:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-31T12:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writemyessay.services\/blog\/?p=489"},"modified":"2020-05-20T12:40:12","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T12:40:12","slug":"why-is-plagiarism-illegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writemyessay.services\/blog\/why-is-plagiarism-illegal\/","title":{"rendered":"Could a Student Go to Jail for Plagiarism?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By that point, you\u2019ve probably heard about plagiarists once or twice. You know about these people who can treat your work as if it belongs to them completely. They don\u2019t bother asking for permission and prefer to live a life where words \u201cintegrity\u201d and \u201cethics\u201d means next to nothing \u2014 having principles and beliefs makes everything harder, after all.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nwould seem that the average student or pupil doesn\u2019t have much common with such\nkind of opportunists, but the world is not that simple: if you\u2019ve ever used\nother person\u2019s ideas in your paper or essay without proper citation, you can\nprobably tell a story about resorting to plagiarism from your own experience.\nSo, here&#8217;s the kicker: there is a way to be a bad guy even without intending\nto. In order not to let that happen, let\u2019s talk about plagiarism and think\ndeeply about how to avoid it in your writing.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;So,\ncould a student go to jail for plagiarism? Technically, yes, but that is\nunlikely. If you\u2019ve plagiarized a work protected by copyright and the owner\ndecides to sue you, there are a few scenarios that could occur. Paying a lot of\nmoney is among them, by the way, but that depends mostly on whether the author\nlost something because of your actions. The topic is extremely large, but\nanswering the questions raised, a student COULD go to jail for plagiarism, but\nit\u2019s uncommon. By no means should you think that every idea you\u2019re introducing\nin a paper is another step toward imprisonment? What kind of world would that\nbe, anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Other things to consider<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Even\nthough going to jail is not the case most of the time, there are still a lot of\narguments in favor of staying away from plagiarism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First,\ngetting used to plagiarizing at school and college will do you little good \u2014 it\nmay affect your future life both directly and indirectly. For instance, if the\nharshest punishment for plagiarism you\u2019d faced in your student years was a\nfailing grade, you might think that the stakes will always be as low\u2026 but they\nwill not. In the education field, the rules are a bit more forgiving than in\ngeneral because a student doesn\u2019t reap any financial benefit from his or her\ncheating; most of the time, their professor is the only reader they get.\nHowever, once a piece is publicly available \u2014 if it\u2019s published in a scientific\njournal, for example \u2014, any spotted plagiarism will become a serious problem\nthat may even result in expulsion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second,\nrefusing to learn how to present other people\u2019s ideas and introduce your own\nones might make the road to graduation almost unbearable \u2014 impossible, even. An\nexperienced professor spots plagiarism without much effort, as least as long as\nwe talk about student\u2019s papers and essays. After the spotting, bad grades\nfollow. If you\u2019re trying to cheat over and over again, a hearing is more than\npossible, as well as a suspension for a semester (or several ones). The thing\nis, once you\u2019ve crossed a line, you have no control over whether you\u2019ll\ncontinue your studies or not. There are better ways to start an adult life than\nputting your fate in the hand of people you barely know; that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>But why is plagiarism illegal? Why is it a problem at all?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Plagiarism\nis illegal because there isn\u2019t much difference between stealing and using\nanother person\u2019s intellectual property without citation. The discussion is not\nfinished by that moment, however, and some people insist that it\u2019s not stealing\nwhen the previous owner has access to the item that has been stolen.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An\noversimplified analogy exists: if a person has three apples and you take one of\nthem, there are only two apples left; but when you use ideas that are not your\nown, they don\u2019t cease to exist in other people\u2019s head. The problem with this\napproach is that plagiarism is not about using ideas by itself \u2014 it\u2019s about\ntaking credit for them. There is a lot to lose for an author whose work isn\u2019t\ntreated properly, including money and career perspectives.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another\nproblem with plagiarism is that a professor can\u2019t really check your sources if\nyou don\u2019t even cite them (not all of them, anyway). An academic paper, for\nexample, is not a matter of your opinion. A middle schooler has a point of view\non basically everything in the world, but a college student works with facts,\nnot \u201cI think\u201ds of every sort. When you reference a source properly, any reader\ncan find, check, and analyze it, has an opportunity to evaluate its accuracy\nand reliability. It makes fact-checking much faster and simpler, and if the\nprocedure shows that everything is alright \u2014 that information you\u2019re\nreferencing to is proven and definite \u2014, then the conclusions in your paper may\nbe taken seriously.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Okay, plagiarism is a problem. How to avoid it?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If\nwe talk about college papers and essays, to avoid plagiarism mostly means to\ncite every source you\u2019ve used while writing. Thanks to Fair Use, a student is\nallowed to reproduce other people\u2019s work in cases related to the education\nprocess. There still is a lot of limitations in order to prevent a person from\nabusing the system, so don\u2019t try to play smart and write an essay fully\nconsisting of copy-pasted materials. Nonetheless, the fact remains: as long as\nyou don\u2019t try to pass off every material you use as your own original work,\nyou\u2019ll be fine.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The\ntricky part is that it\u2019s not always clear just how many times you can quote\nother authors\u2019 words in a paper, as well as what percentage of your work may\nbe, well, not yours. The general recommendation is not to rely on quotation \u2014\nwhether direct or indirect ones \u2014 too much. Re-read your paper yourself: is\nthere you, an author, in the text? Please contact your professor to learn more\nbecause accuracy is extremely important in such cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before\nwe go to the conclusion, here\u2019s another point to remember: even you have an\nauthor\u2019s permission to use his or her work in any means necessary,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>you\nhave to acknowledge the work in the reference list and body paragraphs. Nothing\nchanges: a professor still needs to know the original source of information so\nthey could check it, a reader still deserves to know every book and article\nyour paper is based on, and consequently, an attempt to hide that information\nis still cheating. Plagiarism and copyright violation are different concepts;\nan author\u2019s permission could save you from the latter\u2026 in some cases.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Feel a bit overwhelmed. Is there anyone I can ask for help?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It\nseems the current education system fails to explain how to avoid plagiarism, which\nmay be a reason why it\u2019s still so common because a large number of people feel\nthe same as you. Some students feel as if one either writes a decent piece of\nacademic paper or does everything by the book to avoid plagiarism. In some\ncases, the system may frustrate a student to the point of turning in an\nassignment just for the sake of\u2026 turning it in. Or to put it another way, to\nthe point of not trying at all.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A\nprofessional writer\u2019s help will be useful if that\u2019s the case. A specialist who\nhas written hundreds of academic papers for their life has a perfect\nunderstanding of what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. What is even more\nimportant, they are ready to share this knowledge with you \u2014 there is no more\nefficient way to become a better academic writer than to learn from people who\nwrite academic papers on a professional basis.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By that point, you\u2019ve probably heard about plagiarists once or twice. You know about these people who can treat your&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writemyessay.services\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writemyessay.services\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writemyessay.services\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writemyessay.services\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writemyessay.services\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/writemyessay.services\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493,"href":"https:\/\/writemyessay.services\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489\/revisions\/493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writemyessay.services\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writemyessay.services\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writemyessay.services\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writemyessay.services\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}