English 114. Chapter 1 Response

Plagiarism, generally considered cheating to many millions of people, does not have such a cold cut definition among the writing community. Punishment for plagiarism varies among several factors: topic written about, who is writing it, what the work is for, and was it intentional, or a lack of knowledge? Students caught plagiarising intentionally are typically suspended for one year of expelled from the university all together. The students who did not properly give credit to sources because they did not know how are typically showed there mistakes and either given no credit for that specific assignment, or allowed to correct their mistakes.

Plagiarism is such a broad concept, it it sometimes difficult to tell whether you are citing your sources correctly or what exactly you must cite from the readings. Martin Luther King Jr. was accused of cheating in Chapter 1 of My Word. People were questioning whether to give him the credit he is receiving for his work because he was accused of some plagiarism. I believe although he took some words for other people, he still is the one who made the biggest difference by living the words, not just speaking them.

I am looking forward to reading this book, because I am sure at one point in time I have unintentionally plagiarized someone else's work. Never intentionally, but still, intentional or not it still has the same effect to the person you are taking the words from.