What is Plagiarism - Essay Example

It is a serious problem in academic work because it defeats the valuable essence of education, which is to make students grow intellectually and prepare them for all the challenges life may bring. Also, educators cannot fully perform their duties because they cannot thoroughly assess the potentials of their students as they are deceived by the output of plagiarism. There are many common causes of intentional and unintentional plagiarism, and experts believed that there is no common antidote for all these grounds.

For instance, stress and time pressure are among the common causes of plagiarism; therefore, to avoid these causes, I need to start doing my research papers/assignments as early as possible so that I will have ample time for researching and for rechecking proper citation usages and documentation (e.g., using quotation marks for a direct quote & paraphrasing). Another cause is ignorance of documentation; hence, I need to take notes carefully, understand not the words but the information so that I can use my own words/ideas, and be keen on using quotation marks for a direct quote.

Also, I need to put automatically all the sources that I have used in my research paper on the reference page for me to avoid neglecting those. I can also check my paper to the school’s online plagiarism software to make sure that I did not fail to credit some sources or if I have copied words/ideas of someone else without any acknowledgment.