Ok, do similar ideas constitute plagiarism? Lets say I wrote an essay using a personification that the plants I have sown are my like own children. If this kind of idea has been used previously in a college essay, will me using that similar context be considered plagiarism?
Please reply, HELP IS APPRECIATED.
If you come up with an idea on your own, and someone else comes up with that same idea on their own, then it is not plagiarism.
…but if you read a ‘successful’ college essay online that has that topic and your essays share material similarities in structure, key points, etc, it might get flagged and you would then be in a defensive situation
The thing is I realized the idea used is similar to one successful essay online
but the personal examples I use is different and my reflections of it is different. @collegemom3717
No idea whether this is a guilty conscience at work, but you are probably overthinking it. Everybody gets the same ‘idea’ for Common App essays (the prompts), and the essays are wildly different.
Seriously, it just means you’re not as original a thinker as you thought you were.
^like many college bound seniors are, so no worries
I think it doesn’t. The idea of plagiarism means that they used the same words you did but didn’t give you the credit right? If it’s the idea we are talking about that might actually fall under the intellectual copyright, right?
However there is no plagiarism through online plagiarism checkers, so is it much of a concern?
sounds like a terrible idea. VERY VERY FEW students can pull off “comparison” essays.
If sentence structures and essay structure can be traced, you’ll be blackballed.
I think that using other people’s ideas as a jumping point can quickly cross the line to plagiarism. It would be terrible to be rejected and always wonder if things would have worked out differently if you had trusted your own voice.