Blog #6 - Yupeng Yang

Technology development may be one of the significant reasons why so many students plagiarize. The most influential may be the evolution in computer and Internet. The generation of search engine, such as Google, contributes to the plagiarism to a large extent. One can search for whatever he want, and then use it in his work. Another effect factor can be the development in scientific technology. As many people focus their study on the same area, it is likely to come up with an idea similar to someone else. For example, when I was doing a research on food safety, it was considered to be ridiculous and infeasible that I checked whether someone had draw a similar conclusion on every result. Although the development of technology probably has something to do with plagiarism, we cannot stop improving it. The most possible thing we could do is looking for a solution to avoid the increase of plagiarism as technology develops.

The solution can be demonstrated both on the students level and the educators level. Students should pay more attention on plagiarism and do their best to avoid it. The source on websites can be read as references of their paper works. Sometimes, students may be so careless that they forget to list the references at the bottom of their papers, which could easily make them guilty of plagiarism. Obviously, this kind of plagiarism could be avoided by paying more attention. The professors could teach their students what exactly plagiarism is and emphasize the usage of plagiarism detection service, like Turnitin. The students could avoid it when plagiarism is clear; or, they could minimize the possibility in ambiguous situation, since there is always no definite boundary between plagiarism or not. They would not intent to plagiarize if they notice how serious plagiarism is and how unchallenging to find them plagiarism. On the other hand, students also should be given more time to get familiar with the plagiarism which is such a long-term issue.