Media

people do this.

Is it a total misunderstanding of what constitutes plagiarism? Do these writers really not grasp that if copy what someone else wrote, then changing a single word does not make it your writing? That paraphrasing requires more than a single word shift - and that it still needs proper attribution? That direct quotes must be placed in quotation marks and properly attributed?

That anything less is intellectual theft?

I realize that many young people are not being taught what plagiarism is, much less how to avoid it - and they need to be taught. Every semester I have at least one student tell me (in some fashion) that if they did the research of looking it up, it's not plagiarism to copy it. Or that it doesn't matter because it was an old book or article. Or that everything on the internet is free to use.

I get that they don't get it - so I spend time teaching them why they should care. What I don't get is how older, more highly educated, professionals don't seem to grasp what they are doing and why it is wrong.