Why I Think We Need to Cite Our Sources

Based on what I have learned about plagiarism, I believe we need to cite everything we use as a source, even if it is something as simple as a definition from the dictionary. If it is not our idea, we must cite it. I think this is only fair. We should not take credit for the work of others. Plagiarism is stealing. When we use information from the work of others, we need to remember they are the creators of the information, not us. They deserve the credit for their hard work. We can only earn respect as a professional if we act ethically and professionally.

I also believe that plagiarism is not being taught in elementary school, middle school, or high school like it should be. There are kids that are entering college that do not have a clue what plagiarism really is. They think plagiarism is simply copying some one's work word for word, but if they re-word it, then it is not plagiarism. I know when I went to school in the dark ages, or in the b.c era (before computers), we were not taught anything at all about plagiarism. In fact we never heard the word mentioned. It was routine to take an encyclopedia and copy what it said for a research paper, or re-word it a little bit so the teacher would not know it was copied word for word. I thought surely things had changed over the years and our young people were being taught better, but I was wrong. I asked my older children 33, 31, 29 and 27 if they were taught anything about plagiarism while they were in school, and not one of them had heard about plagiarism until they reached college. Then I thought well maybe since they were in the transition era of computers coming into schools that it was overlooked, so I asked my two 12 year old daughters and my 11 year old son if they were taught about plagiarism before I started homeschooling them a year and a half ago, but they all said no. In fact the program that I use now, which is a public school virtual program, does not teach anything at all about plagiarism. I have had to go outside of the program and teach them about plagiarism and insist that their papers be done the right way, no copying and no paraphrasing etc. without citing. We have had to learn this together.

I hope this is not a representation of all of the school systems. I hope these are isolated cases. I would be curious to know however, if any one else has had the same experience. Since we are all from different parts of the country, it would be interesting to know if some parts of the country teach about plagiarism to our kids and some parts don't. It would also be interesting to know why it is not being taught everywhere.

Have a great 4th of July everyone!

Andrea