Task 2 - Plagiarism

'Plagiarism is intellectual theft' (Breach, 2009, 124) is a quote that pretty much concludes plagiarism. Plagiarism is where you use someone else's words, ideas, or work without referencing it, and therefore pass it as your own. This is viewed as stealing some one elses ideas and work, and is met with serious consequences. Although its inevitable some words, and phrases may match between certain texts, long paragraphs that are identical or of similar structure can be detected by software to prevent people, especially students from cheating.  Although using someone's work isn't technically, or physically stealing, there is a zero tolerance in nearly all institutions, and if found guilty, in serious cases you can be expelled. In addition to this, you may be infringing copyright laws, and could be prosecuted. There is no problem in using quotes and information for other people, as long as you reference it, giving the author of the information credit for there work.

http://www.awesomelyluvvie.com/2012/01/protect-your-blog-content-know-your-rights.html/cartoon_plagiarism_444045

Plagiarism is a new thing for me. I've always been aware of it, I new it was cheating, but Its never really
effected me. I've always noticed the reference under information I've found on the web as well but never took much notice. In fact, I'll be honest, and throughout high school, and much of sixth form, I and plenty of people I know would copy information of the internet, especially Wikipedia, as well as sharing work with friends. I even remember using Google translate in much of my French and German lessons. the teachers would tell us not too, but we did, and that's the last we heard of it. even if we did get caught we would probably just get a small detention or something.
However, coming to university I new it was a different story. I completely agree with referencing information taken from other sources, and its only fair you don't receive credit for some one else's work. I also agree that there should be a set amount of information given in a reference, although I was surprised on how strict the order a reference must be in, and that I even have to reference my own photos, which I even got capped at a low third in one of my projects for.
And now I've been at university for a while, and I've had to use lots of different resources to get information, I feel now I fully acknowledge how important it is to reference out of respect for the person who's ideas you are using.

References : Dissertation writing for scientists and engineers, Mark Breach, 2009, accessed on 28/04/14