Summary of "Plagiarism? Are you Kidding?" by Shengyu

Shengyu Chi

01/15/2012

375 words

                          Summary of "Plagiarism? Are you Kidding?"

The video "Plagiarism? Are you Kidding?" by Joel Bloch has discussed a question that why the boy had to use all of texts and citing sources in his paper? In his opinion, this assignment just wanted him to show he had read all of these texts. But if using all of them, he should cite all of sources and it would be a long time work. On the other hand, the girl disagree with his opinion, she claimed that supporting by other people could make his argument stronger. And citing sources was the rule for using other’s information. Moreover, the boy pointed out that paraphrasing every sentence is too troublesome, there is a lot of things need consider. The girl gave him idea that he can use some main idea instead of paraphrasing everywhere. However, the boy still considered his professor wanted him to write everything. The girl advised him using his own idea which was understood from the passage made him more intelligent. And then, the boy argued that citing all of sources was just like following some form. The girl stated that he had to cite the important part which reader expected. And she also stated that not all of citing was doing for plagiarism. It might be strengthen more argument; it might be providing more information; and it might be demonstrating what will read. But a failure citing sources properly is plagiarism.

This video analyzes how important to have a high quality citing sources for a paper. For me, I disagree with the boy’s opinions. He is too despise the importance of citing resource and finds out some causes to be lazy. Citing source is a significant part to distinguish author’s idea and other’s. I ‘m freshman here and did not know what is citing source before. When my linguistic professor told me that I should write a reference after the title of my homework, I was confuse about it. But now, I have clearly known the importance of reference. Without reference, it is illegal to use other’s material. For the same reason, citing source is also important. Using other ideas without citing sources is a kind of plagiarism. And plagiarism can let a student drop out of school. It is a very serious consequence.