Citing sources is important because the words are not ours they belong to the original author so it is not our credit to take. Also when we are talking about a topic and use the work from another author we need to cite that source so people know where to look to find that authors work. I know there are times when I have read a great study book and looked for their references so I can find the other authors to buy their books as well. In high school in my World History class we had a huge project for the year where we had to write 5 essays per each letter of the alphabet. Soon the work got so overwhelming and I was majorly lacking sleep that my paraphrasing was not up to par. Needless to say the teacher and I had a conversation on plagiarism and on how I was struggling to keep up with all of the book work in all of my classes on top of that huge project. In school though I don't remember them explaining why plagiarism is wrong, just that it is wrong and how much trouble you can get into. After that I realized that it wasn't my work so I couldn't take credit for it. If it would have been the professional world and not high school I wouldn't have been given a second chance, I could be fired from a job, lose my credibility as a health care professional, or even sued. I think more people need to know why it is so wrong to plagiarize someones work and be aware of the consequences. The internet does blur the lines when it comes to sites such as You Tube and other sires. It is a little harder to see that plagiarism is happening when it comes to movies, televisions shows, and music that is so easily accessible on the internet. Some people think that it's a big movie company they made a ton of money on the movie why is it a big deal to download this movie for free. But that's the same mind set as stealing products from a big store, just because they make a lot of money doesn't meant it is okay to take products for free. It's the same thing, it's stealing no matter how you try to justify it.
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