Plagiarism

I don’t believe that the concept of plagiarism is changing; it is more that it is becoming easier to plagiarize. The definition of plagiarism will always be the same but more access to online articles and journals is making it easy for us to take other people’s ideas and words. I think that you would not be able to tell if it was plagiarism if you took an idea from friends or family for a paper or speech you are writing. They would not be able to tell if it were plagiarism, especially if the teacher or professor had never met your friend that you got the idea from. I know of several incidents where there was not necessarily any flagrant plagiarism, the professor just saw too many similar ideas and thoughts throughout the paper amongst the class. I know that some cases of plagiarism are pretty much obvious but I would hate to have to be the one to decide if someone was plagiarizing!