Post 10: Plagerism and Copyright Rules

It is so easy for students to plagiarize while writing papers. Most students are not meaning to copy, but they do. You should always use your own thoughts and opinions while writing a paper or doing anything actually. If you did not come up with it, then you have to give credit to the person that did. It is not fair to take someone else's words or ideas and make them your own without giving props to that person. A couple of ways to avoid plagiarism is to take notes in your own words, interview different sources and make sure you use quotations when sharing their information with others. You can also paraphrase. Changing a few words on your paper and making it sound a little different does not count. You can get into some serious trouble for copying someone else's ideas and claiming them as your own... even if you did not intentionally do so. The complete version of the U.S. Copyright Law contains thirteen chapters explaining what will fly and what will not, but you can skip all of this by just playing it safe and sticking to your own words. You would not want someone else to steal your ideas and share them with others as if they came up with it. You would feel violated- like someone stole from you. Because they did. Don't be that person.