Plagiarism-Alex Solomon

Plagiarism has become extremely common over the past few decades. It is very easy and convenient for a student to simply look up the topic that they are writing about, click a link, and then copy and paste whatever they find on that link. A lot of students think that because they found the information that they have the right to use it as if it was theirs. Fortunately, schools are finding ways to crack down on plagiarism. Websites like turnitin.com have the ability to calculate how much of an assignment is plagiarized. The problem is that very few teachers ask for assignments to be uploaded on turnitin.com and therefore plagiarism is common for all but the very big assignments. Two particular subjects that plagiarism is extremely common in are history and the arts. History is an easy subject to plagiarize due to how much of it is opinionated. Because history can go so far back in to the past, a lot of what is written on websites and in textbooks are speculative ideas that were invented by the brightest of historians. If students agree with these historians, which they tend to do, it is very common that the students will post the opinions of another historian without giving the historian proper credit through the use of citations. Art is probably the easiest thing to plagiarize. There is no turnitin.com for paintings or drawings. It is very easy for someone to purchase a painting or drawing and call it there own. The unfortunate reality of schools today is that teenage students have become very competitive and will do whatever they can to save time and get the best possible grades.