Plagiarism disscussion 1 wk 4 - Assignment Example

Plagiarism Plagiarism makes a susceptible to multifarious professional, academic, and personal consequences. Professionally, plagiarism jeopardizes the writer’s integrity and reflects badly on the writer’s image in the social circle. It portrays the writer as an irresponsible and careless person, if not dishonest and inconsiderate. Academically, plagiarism makes a writer vulnerable to disciplinary action, and in extreme cases, expulsion from the school. Plagiarism is interpreted as academic theft and most schools deal with the plagiarizing writers very strictly.

Having been expelled from the school on the basis of plagiarism may darken the individual’s academic and professional career thereafter. Students dropped out of school for such reasons find it hard to get admission in reputable universities or get recommendation letters from their former teachers. Personal consequences of plagiarism include compromised ability to think creatively, and poor academic writing skills. Unless an individual learns how to avoid plagiarism, his/her writing lacks the standard that is appreciated among the academicians and professionals.

The most fundamental way of avoiding plagiarism is thoroughly reading and comprehending the guidelines given by the American Psychological Association (APA). In addition to that, one should practice writing following those guidelines. The more the practice, the better the chances of zero plagiarism. Some writers think that if they write an excerpt by themselves without actually plagiarizing, they can use it multiple times anywhere because it is their property. This is termed as ‘self-plagiarism’ (iThenticate, 2011).

A writer may reproduce his/her own writing in the future but not without citing the previous source that he/she had written in the past. References:iThenticate. (2011). The Ethics of Self-Plagiarism. Retrieved from http://www.du.ac.in/du/uploads/research/06122014ithenticate-selfplagiarism.pdf.