The Anatomy of a Plagiarist

There is more than one way to plagiarize. Did you know that?

The simplest method of plagiarism (and, in my opinion, the dumbest) is simply to copy and paste an essay or article in its entirety. When students go this route, they often neglect to correct minor errors like font differences or embedded links. Slightly more advanced plagiarism involves copying and pasting key sections of essays or articles from more than one site. One of the reasons these plagiarizers are inevitably caught is the lack of transitions, font differences, or complete and utter lack of coherence in the final essay product. The most blatant and unforgivable plagiarism is of the sort that involves an essay mill or a student paying another writer for an essay. A professor who is paying attention and has seen her student's writing style before should recognize fairly readily that the work is not her student's. The (pardon my colloquialism) dumbest form of plagiarism is when a student copies and pastes material, then cites the material either in the Works Cited or with an in-text citation. Citing material does NOT negate copying and pasting. If the materials is an exact quote, it MUST be in quotations and properly cited; otherwise, this is just more plagiarism. Students who "accidentally" plagiarize do not do so intentionally, but still ought to re-do any work in which they made the mistake so as to learn how to avoid even the accidental sort of plagiarism in the future. Bottom Line: if YOU didn't write it, you MUST cite it!