<p>Our school uses turnitin.com to submit all of our papers, and i think it's good at preventing any sort of plagiarism.</p>
<p>If the school thought it was serious, I would think that colleges would, unless you are a professor. Harvard had two law professors caught plagerizing this year with no noticable consequense.</p>
<p>Did your friend just forget to include some quotes around a word phrase or did he take an essay and change the vocabulary to pretend it was his? If there is any reasonable explanation, I would call or ask to meet with admissions to explain.</p>
<p>Plagerism is easier to commit than most people think, and this is one situation where a public school teacher grading 175 papers might have missed this. Maybe his school could give your friend and friends parents some advice.</p>
<p>i don't want to be too specific because this is actually fairly high-profile already. if you live in the mass region...it's already spreading.</p>
<p>basically on a hw assignment, this person spent lots of hrs trying to figure out the answer. upon not being able to get it, he went online and googled some terms hoping to find an explanation. he found one that happened to correspond exactly with one of the questions. he wrote down the entire seven word phrase answer verbatim. the rest of the questions, he did on his own.</p>
<p>So, basically, he used someone else's work as an answer when he did not know himself. Well, that sounds like your basic definition of plagiarism. I go back to my first comment - what would make a Admissions officer assume this was the first time? I wouldn't assume that. </p>
<p>And given the level of universities this student is considering, one "borrowed" answer that could have turned a B+ into an A, could be the difference in admitting him, versus someone who didn't plagiarize.</p>
<p>Justice, they way you describe it sounds like the school completely overreacted. In my high school, homework is simply for personal practice and advancement, we dont grade silly homework assignments meant to help you learn. Their reaction seems more in line with copying on an exam, can you elaborate as to the assignment?</p>
<p>Regardless of everything, who in their right minds would copy a phrase verbatim? I mean it's just common knowledge to rephrase it into your own words. Since when did schools place so much emphasis on homework?!</p>
<p>Man that really sucks. I can't imagine my whole college outlook going down the drain like that :(</p>
<p>Rephrasing something in your own words that wasn't yours IS STILL PLAGIARISM. Just a harder form to catch.</p>
<p>As a professional writer, I think of plagiarism as using someone's published words from an article, book, etc. But I don't see that a seven-word answer to a question is plagiarism. Maybe I am missing something, but wouldn't that make all knowledge plagiarism? Most of our knowledge of history, art, etc., is derived from things we have read. Knowledge is not self-generated. If someone asks you what the book of Genesis says about the creation and you provide an answer, is that plagiarism? And what about using school texts to study for tests? Are the answers you provide on tests plagiarism? Because, remember, you got the answers from the school text -- not from your own experience. I think the school overreacted. This sounds like a simple case of doing independent research in order to gain knowledge and answer a question -- not stealing someone's great work of literature.</p>
<p><as a="" professional="" writer,="" i="" think="" of="" plagiarism="" as="" using="" someone's="" published="" words="" from="" an="" article,="" book,="" etc.="" but="" don't="" see="" that="" seven-word="" answer="" to="" question="" is="" plagiarism.="" maybe="" am="" missing="" something,="" wouldn't="" make="" all="" knowledge="" plagiarism?="">
I've done a couple of searches on plagiarism and (not to plagiarize...:)), most say that as long as you can find the information in at least 5 sources, it's fine to use it without citing the information. But I think verbatim is still plagiarism, unless it's verbatim like that in at least five sources...ex of non-plagiarism: DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid...that could be verbatim out of a text, but if it's verbatim out of many many texts, i think you can use it w/o citing the source, and it won't be plagiarism
to clarify, writing common knowledge (can be found in at least 5 sources) verbatim is not plagiarism</as></p>
<p><and what="" about="" using="" school="" texts="" to="" study="" for="" tests?="" are="" the="" answers="" you="" provide="" on="" tests="" plagiarism?="" because,="" remember,="" got="" from="" text="" --="" not="" your="" own="" experience.="">
i agree completely, silly...in fact, every time i have an essay question on a test, i wonder that b/c all of my teachers give 100's to anyone who can repeat the text w/o understanding it; i think, though, that for tests, most people are lucky enough to be able to get answers from teh text, the teacher's lectures, and class discussions</and></p>
<p><this sounds="" like="" a="" simple="" case="" of="" doing="" independent="" research="" in="" order="" to="" gain="" knowledge="" and="" answer="" question="">
agreed, once more...however, i still think that the verbatim answer is plagiarism and should be punished...if the student was careful enough to do the research, s/he should have also reworded the answer...but i apologize if i sound condenscending...(sorry, i don't know the author), but as someone once said, everyone has 20/20 vision in hindsight</this></p>
<p>
[quote]
Rephrasing something in your own words that wasn't yours IS STILL PLAGIARISM. Just a harder form to catch.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Obviously it's still plagiarism...what I implied was that most people at least reword it so that they do not get in trouble. High Schools don't really do in depth searches to find "HIDDEN" plagiarism, if you will; they do, however, search for obvious plagiarism. If he reworded the whole thing to make it sound 100% different, yet still get the point accross, they have no proof if it was plagiarism or not.</p>
<p>Another thing...plagiarism should be done away with, it's so stupid, everything is plagiarisn now-a-days. There is so much information out there, that hardly any one person's thoughts are original anymore. I can type something into google and whoa, look, 500000 pages show up! To use that phrase would be considered plagiarism. Do you see my point? One time I typed into google a phrase that <em>I</em> made up out of my head and it showed up in google exactly as I typed it with a about five or six different reports that someone else did--on the same topic I was writing about! I found that appauling that I would have to change something that I wrote just because some a-hole posts it on the internet. You would have to be stupid not to see what I am saying.</p>
<p>Regardless, this is why people don't bother to cite the source...especially on homework, they just reword it so it's not as obvious.</p>
<p>One must look at the work as a whole, not word by word to determine whether or not it is plagiarism. One word would, in effect, be considered plagiarism if you think about it. My whole post above is not plagiarism, but if you were to take a piece of it and put it into google, you would most definitely find something out there. I'm not saying this because I took something from the internet, I'm saying this because once you break down a work into simpler parts, you're more apt to find something in someone else's work that make both works similar.</p>
<p>This is why the laws of plagiarism should be revamped to only include important work that people have done, and not include any small webpage written by some 4th grader.</p>