Plagiarism: Why your writeup needs to be original
This isn't just another article that's going to list a ton of platitudes about why you shouldn't plagiarize. There are a million articles on the internet that can do that for you. At Lanquill, we care about you at a deeper level. We're committed to understanding what drives you, what inhibits you, and enable you to overcome your obstacles to be the best version of yourself. So, when we started to write about the importance of being original and the act of plagiarism, we first asked ourselves why it happens in the first place. We wanted to be sure that before we started giving you advice, we spent the time to understand your emotions and the pressures of reality that sometimes lead one to consciously or subconsciously disregard this important issue.
Here are the most common reasons that lead to plagiarism, and how you can tackle each one. We hope you resonate with at least one of them.
Lack of the Bigger Picture
As children we learn through imitation. To copy and imitate is an evolutionary mechanism, and as little kids we're encouraged to mimic our adults, so we can learn to function in this world. And then we hit high school and the rules suddenly change! Copying and plagiarism is an absolute taboo! It's easy to think of this as another moral imposition. But there's more to this! Imagine that you spent your entire life developing an idea, and then someone shared that idea without giving you credit. Sound unfair? That's a big part of why it's important to not plagiarize. To make sure that credit and recognition is given where it is due.
Fear
Does this sound familiar - "My idea isn't good enough", "I need to have a really great novel idea to do well in this paper". As a society we put so much pressure on innovation, novelty. It can easily make you think that they only way to feel valued or appreciated is to be unique, that the only way to stand out from the crowd is to have the next big idea. This can feel crippling, especially as a student, and out of desperation it is tempting to make it appear that an idea is yours. But remember! What people are truly looking for is an original thought process - to know you have the ability to take individual ideas and piece them together in a way that makes sense to you; and be able to articulate how you did so. Often, all people want to know is that you have truly understood an idea comprehensively enough to articulate it in your own words. They're not expecting you to be the next Einstein.
Procrastination
"Perfectionism is the mother of procrastination". If you fall in this bucket, often what leads you to infringe on others' ideas is the lack of time you give yourself. Similar to the fear factor, the perfectionist is paralyzed by their own internal strife for excellence. Unable to give themselves the time and space to let their thoughts flow and re-form the ideas in one's own words. The bright side is, following best practices that avoid plagiarism actually gives a perfectionist structured tools to sharpen their excellence. Habits like note-taking, especially with citation help to build a reflective practice. Several times in life when we have great thought, it can be accompanied by fragile thoughts that lower your confidence - "Wow! This was my stroke of luck! If this doesn't work, I'll never have another great idea again!". A reflective practice, however, documents your process so you know how to recreate your successes. When you adopt structured habits to avoid plagiarism, you begin to clearly articulate to yourself about what you started with, and how each piece of the puzzle contributed to getting you to your Aha! moment. This eventually lets you master the ability to think critically, comprehend complex ideas and interpret them confidently with your own perspective, truly letting you achieve excellence. Now that's got to be a tempting offer for all the perfectionists out there!
Laziness and Apathy
Our last category, the dreaded black sheep of society - the Rhett Butlers who say, "Honestly, my dear, I don't give a damn!". Who don't care about any of this, don't care enough to spend time even trying to put things in their own words? Don't worry, we're not judging, we empathize with you too! You question why the subject at hand even matters, and rightly so! Some of the most revolutionary ideas of mankind began with this question, so we encourage you to go beyond just wondering, and truly invest yourselves in seeking the answer to this question.
We hope you will go above and beyond to find a perspective that can help understand why what you're doing matters, for every single thing in this world, even the seemingly insignificant mundane tasks, do serve a higher purpose. And when you find your answer, and ignite your passion, we hope to support you express yourself in the most amazing ways possible.
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