A message to students at the start of a new academic year:
If you are determined to plagiarize, at least have the courtesy to do so as early as possible in the semester.
Plagiarism is a heinous act of intellectual dishonesty. It is the attempt to pass off another’s work as your own, whether in their exact words or with minor changes. It deserves to be punished with at least an automatic failing grade for the class.
But it is even worse to do it late in the semester, after you’ve already made your professor read a lot of your work and perhaps (heaven forbid!) even grade your midterm. To plagiarize then, after you’ve made the professor spend lots of time reading and grading work that will end up not counting for anything – now that’s just inconsiderate!
So if you can’t be honest and trustworthy, at least be considerate. Plagiarize early. We’ll catch you in the end, so save yourself and your professor(s) a lot of unnecessary extra work.
[I wrote the above mainly in jest, but obviously there’s a serious side to it. And so I’m sharing once again a link I’ve shared before, to Butler University library’s helpful plagiarism tutorial. And before any students get to excited, it’s a tutorial to help you learn how to avoid plagiarism, not a tutorial to help you accomplish it more effectively].
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