How Digital Plagiarism Is Affecting Education

The rise of digital technologies means that it has become much easier to use other people’s work as your own. Plagiarism Checkers like Viper can easily catch you out if you commit plagiarism in your work.

The Effects of New Technologies

In the past, it was much more difficult to detect acts of plagiarism. Such detection involved somebody remembering a specific piece of content, and matching it to the work of a plagiarist. As you would know, content matching would have been quite difficult, and so, many plagiarists may have gotten away with their acts of plagiarism in the past.

New technologies are constantly digitizing paper content. Do you think this would help in the detection of plagiarism? Yes. as this makes it much easier to locate via searches and plagiarism detection software. Therefore, we have now entered a new era in the war against plagiarism.

The Views of Academics

Lea Evering and Gary Moorman have looked at plagiarism in the Digital Age, and they say that:

“The current concept of plagiarism is based on a capitalist view of property and ownership. It assumes that everything of value can be owned, bought, and sold and that ideas, knowledge, and art are created by individuals who have the rights of ownership”.

All pieces of writing are copyrighted automatically . Reproducing such texts or original ideas will be considered an offence of plagiarism.

As you may know, this includes text, pictures, artwork, videos, and or computer-generated animations. However, any piece of writing, artwork, or any narrative of any kind is probably roots in popular culture, and can ever be truly original. For example, you might see a movie that has similarities with something else that you have watched, with just a little twist to differentiate it. However, unless something is a like-for-like copy, it is unlikely to be an act of plagiarism.

The Human Factor

As human beings, we tend to take in vast amounts of information over the course of our lives. This information can then spill out subconsciously into our own works of art or literature. It could be likely that would not be aware that the information has been taken from viewing somebody else’s work.

For those who do not wish to plagiarise, just like ourselves, the Digital Age can be a blessing. Right now we can all, including you, perform a lot of ways to check our work for plagiarism. We can: (a) simply copy and pasting the text into a search engine such as Google or Yahoo, or (b) use a dedicated plagiarism software like our Viper Plagiarism Checker. For many of us with artistic integrity, this is a vital part of the process of writing. Whether this is song lyrics, academic work, or a work of literature or journalism. Checking also provides you with a safeguard to not get into trouble for copying later on.

Has the Digital Age had a Positive or Negative Impact?

The Digital Age has been both a blessing and a curse for all of us when it comes to plagiarism. For willing plagiarists, this has provided them with a wealth of information and ideas to easily copy and use as original work. For academic institutions it has led to us, a means of detecting plagiarism.

Perhaps such digital means might also allow a plagiarist to check if a document or piece of work has been digitised. This will grant them the insurance to know that it would be easy to plagiarize. Complex situations could arise though. Someone who uses this as a source, and correctly cites it, might inadvertently be taking the ideas of someone else’s work, without realising it; and could therefore get into trouble for the omission of a citation of this original work.

As time goes by, plagiarism detection software will increasingly become more sophisticated. This might lead to a scenario whereby fewer and fewer people engage in acts of plagiarism. What this might not solve though, are acts of accidental plagiarism.

The Effects of Digital Plagiarism in Higher Education

Plagiarism has been a big issue for universities for many years. The rise of digital technologies, like our very own here at Viper, have helped to eliminate such concerns.

Digital technologies have led us to a situation in which such institutions have to be more aware in detecting plagiarism. This would help them keep their academic reputation. It also make it fair on those students, including you, who try follow the plagiarism rules and regulations. Nowadays, criminals can become more technological and could counter-crime agencies, and vice versa. This then, is an ongoing battle, which evolves as one side responds to the other.

The key to this battle in the academic world is that of teachers and lecturers. Writing styles can help teachers identify plagiarism. Therefore, teachers might be able to identify when a student’s work has undergone a drastic change in style. This could act as a red flag for further investigation. If all students’ work, including yours and mine, is put through plagiarism detection software such as Viper, then this should serve to decrease levels of plagiarism. This would then make plagiarizing to risky for students.

Closing Remarks

These digital technologies can help to eliminate plagiarism. It is important for us to use such technologies to our own advantage. Although digital technologies can be seen as both a curse and a blessing the benefits of these technologies could help you. Plagiarism in the Digital Age is becoming easier to detect, so you should be warned, and take appropriate action to protect yourself from acts of accidental plagiarism.

If you require more information on the effects of plagiarism or would like to start using our innovative plagiarism checker, simply visit www.scanmyessay.com