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Essay On Plagiarism

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Mikaela Broich Mr. Klett DMACC Composition Some day in the future How to Avoid Jail Time by Not Making Stupid Decisions! So you have decided to zone out during your eighth grade lesson on plagiarism and now you have no idea what it is or anything about it. On top of everything else, you now need to create a bibliography for a paper that if plagiarized, could cost you your entire grade for the class. Luckily for you, this paper will provide you with the definition of plagiarism, why you should document your sources, and information and differences between two citation formats, MLA and APA. What is plagiarism?, you ask. Plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterward. Wait, did I …show more content…

Another reason to give credit for borrowed works is all copyrighted, registered, etc. works are protected under federal law. By stealing the works, you would be committing a federal offense. Now, not all offenses will be reported to the federal level but unless you cite your sources, you could face jail time or a hefty fine. You have been taught that stealing so by making it a habit to cite your sources, you won’t have to worry about getting into trouble with plagiarism. The moral reason for citing works provided the article “What Parents Need To Know About Plagiarism” by Sandra Miller, “...but you don’t teach your child that he can take just one little piece of candy because the store clerk probably won’t notice. You teach him that all stealing is wrong. And the same goes for plagiarism.” Once you get into the habit of always citing your sources, you won’t have to worry about plagiarising works, even your own. Yes, you can commit an act of plagiarism against yourself as the author Jim Carnett discovered and described in the article, “Plagiarism, as Common as It Is These Days, Remains Reprehensible." Carnett states that the only column he ever had returned to him because of plagiarism contained quotes from a previous article Carnett had written for a different assignment. So whether or not you are the author, you need to give credit and cite your sources. In order to effectively cite sources, there are

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