Plagiarism is a taught philosophy

Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work.

Let’s go little deep and think why this is imbibed in our minds and we don’t feel bad about copying or imitating any one. Since birth, social conditioning of mind plays a greater role in our life. You are taught to call “BLACK” colour as black; thereafter you identify that colour because its termed that way and everyone calls it by the same name. Suppose a child disowns these conditioning and denying accepting it says for him black colour means RGB that is 255% red, 255% Green and 255% blue, or he may define that as something else. Will we accept that child as normal or as above intellect? No! We won’t, because he is refusing to accept the conditioning, who so ever tries refusing these so called protocols and parameters, we call them eccentric or lunatic. We are occupied and framed with typical thought process and life styles, where we are made believe that what our father thinks is a great thought and what our mother says or thinks is compulsorily to be followed. They cite examples of their elder daughter or son, who blindly follows so many such people of this society, whom the parents think as idols. This is the birth of remote plagiarism in one’s life.

Your name, your surname, your identity, everything is availed by so many even before you are born, but some where your parents forget to give credits to the possessor. We act, we think, we are influenced by many and act like many; rarely we realize that we are an independent individual. Suppose if you realize your independence and refuse to follow others, then you are considered either outcaste or awkward. Social conditioning comprises all of the messages and beliefs that you are programmed with over the years of your life. It comes from various sources. Due to Social conditioning we are grown with low self esteem. Your mind is like raw clay, it absorbs everything that is in your environment. It doesn’t matter if you agree with what’s happening in your environment, it doesn’t matter if you HATE what’s happening. Your mind will absorb whatever is in your environment, and you will become more like your environment over time – and you have no choice in this matter.

This kills your self confidence. Because rather than looking to who you are from inside to determine yourself worth, social conditioning drills you into the habit. Social conditioning on the other side tells you that how you should live, how you should think, how you should be like. Social conditioning also tells you that if another guy has some qualities, you should respect him and try to follow his path. The absolute key to having confidence is to define yourself based on your own standards, move through the world by your own compass NOT by the standards of social conditioning. An average number of members in our society are hypocrites and they unwontedly become moral custodians of your life, you accept them or refuse but they are going to ruin your minds with their rules over your life and freedom.

Plagiarism is beginning of these atrocities. You are asked to copy answers from the black board exactly as your teacher has written, then you copy answers from the brilliant student of your class, and you are compared with the child and asked to follow him/her, in rarest of the rare cases you are asked to be yourself and be what you are. Since birth plagiarism on different level are imbibed in you. Students are the one fondest of plagiarizing and they have their own reasons for it. First in the list is the lack of time. Students do not know how to manage time. They are not aware of the extent of work and put it off until the last minute lacking time for original work while others do not trust their own capability. Instead, they get insecure of the work of those professional ones. As they read the professional’s work, they think that they lack knowledge to come up with as good as their work. And all students aim for a high grade. They tend to focus with what grade they will receive. They do not care whether they learn something from it. Others tell that not only they are doing it. They are tempted to do so since other get a grade or are not punished by doing so without any effort. Even those very responsible students tend to plagiarize. It is because they are afraid of getting a low grade. For them it is unfair that other will get a higher grade by plagiarizing. It seems that their effort is useless. The students did not even find time to analyze their topic since their professor did not require for a presentation of it. Students should put in mind that what’s more important is how they develop their own style of writing and how they understand the topic.

Moreover there are certain things for example; TOP TEN HACKERS in the world. There will be same answers everywhere. There will be same names and same descriptions, and same info widely available, now whom to trust? Suppose if a writer refutes saying ‘oh suck; they are not the top ten, I don’t think they are extraordinary any ways’, then the readers or the community members will say, look how stupid is this person. When hundred writers endorse these ten as top then why she has to prove them wrong? If I have to write about “Indira Gandhi”, and I have not seen her, then I have to rely on limited sources those who know her or those who have already written about her. Only difference I can create is by modifying existing info. Paraphrase does not always prevent plagiarism. You must change not only the word itself but also the structure of the sentence of the original without changing its content. Paraphrasing is also to lessen the quotations in your paper. It is also more advantageous to put the facts from other sources which you know will support your own ideas to make it more valid. Remember, even a small part copied without citation is plagiarism. You have committed plagiarism anytime you borrow from the original source

Generally it is easy to find information about every topic on the Internet and most of us are dependent on online sources. Some are smart enough to modify the content and enhancing new look to the original. But when you are not smart you have to be extra attentive about keeping track on source of information and thoughts and about giving proper credit to the authors of the sources you use. So instead on looking at the point why it happened or in what circumstances this occurred, Plagiarism is not accepted in any ways, but there is no check on these issues. Copying some senior's project and submitting it is common in schools and even no one raises any objections against it; no one is made aware about the seriousness of this subject at school level.

Moreover, this is an easier method of completing every task, and unknowingly done mistake. Cases of plagiarism in India are not restricted to students but even authors, journalists, professors, film producers, music directors, lawyers while making drafts and documents and published researchers have been found guilty of this practice. In the recent past such acts are being practiced by scientists and archaeologists too. There is no specific law or constitutional provisions to this issue. And maximum times, this happens out of extreme passion for someone’s writing, you try to follow them, their style and remain one like. You cannot call it a culture, India has less cases of plagiarism. Look at USA and UK there are so many high profile issues over plagiarism.

No country can ever boast about not having plagiarism issues.