I was forced to write my fair share of boring papers and essays during my time at school. But, while there were instances when doing anything else in the world seemed preferable (cleaning the bathroom, answering calls from telemarketers, and sometimes even shoving hot pokers into my eyeballs), I can honestly say it never once crossed my mind to steal (or buy) someone else’s words.
Maybe it’s due to the fact that I am someone who always has and always will have a strong passion for writing, and I was—at that time in my life—working hard to reach a point where I could build a career on the written word.
However, apparently not everyone shares my views on plagiarism. The Guardian recently posted an article on plagiarism that deals with the rising trend of plagiarizers for hire. Services are popping up all over the web offering plagiarized work, from essays to dissertations. And, the better the writing (and the shorter the deadline), the higher the cost. The Guardian reported that a history dissertation penned by an Oxbridge graduate and delivered within a week comes in at around £3,430, which converts to roughly $5,430 in U.S. dollars. However, the rise in popularity and flooding of the plagiarism market has ensured that even a starving student can probably afford to utilize these shady services.
While these online services may be fairly new, plagiarism itself has likely been around since the dawn of the written word. And it’s not just within the education sector. Basically, any creative work can be vulnerable to plagiarism, including books, movies, and music. Among the more famous plagiarism cases is a movie made in 1922. To the dismay of the Bram Stoker estate, Nosferatu and plagiarism became synonymous after German film producer Albin Grau decided to shoot a vampire movie based on Dracula, simply renaming the characters and adding some minute differences to try and skirt copyright laws. As you have probably guessed, Bram Stoker’s estate filed a lawsuit after the movie’s debut, and a court ordered all copies of the film destroyed. But—you guessed it—a few copies managed to escape destruction in Germany, and their sordid history helped turn the movie into a cult classic.
However, for students who choose the plagiarism route, cult heroism probably won’t be the end result. So, before you shell out cash for a pre-packaged, proofed, and perfectly plagiarized essay, you should ask yourself, “What are the consequences of plagiarism?” You might just find that the answers (failing a class, or even being expelled) aren’t so desirable. Plus, aside from the school-related repercussions, I believe the loss of honesty, integrity, and dignity that comes with turning in work that isn’t your own would be a far worse form of punishment.
That being said, if you are interested in gaining information on preventing plagiarism, tips and techniques for avoiding unintentional plagiarism, instruction on properly citing sources, and much more, Plagiarism.org is an in-depth resource that is available to you. In addition, if you are a teacher who suspects the work of a student could be plagiarism, you can find dozens of websites dedicated to checking for duplicate versions of content by searching “free plagiarism checker online.”
