Plagiarism

1. The student was wrong to plagiarize. He or she should have paraphrased the writing instead. That way, he or she would have gotten the same point across without copying the exact words. If the student had to use direct quotations, he or she could have cited the source by putting a link to it and putting the copied sentences in quotation marks.

2. Instead of using the exact words from the article, the student could have paraphrased and said something like this: There is a feeling of peace and calmness in this painting. Maybe the contrast between the dark shades of blue and the bright warm reds, golds, and oranges symbolize childhood memories of happier, simpler times. The night sky represents the dull sadness of Van Gogh's life as an adult but the stars are there to symbolize the distant memories that live on. That was an example of paraphrasing. I used the same idea of the original text but instead of copying the words, I used my own.

3. It can be tempting to plagiarize, but their are ways to avoid it. When I need to paraphrase something, it helps me to use a thesaurus and find synonyms to replace words from the original text in order to be sure I am not copying directly from the text, after reading it, cover it up and write out your paraphrase. Then, I check the text to make sure I haven't plagiarized any of it. If I must use a direct quotation, I try to be sure to give credit to the author by including a citation.

Plagiarism is wrong and although it may seem easier to just copy something and try to pass it off as what I wrote, in the long run, it's better to put my own thoughts in my own words. It makes the writing more authentic. I don't have to risk getting in trouble and above all, it's just the right thing to do.