Plagiarism
The incredible resources that are available on the internet make it exceedingly more difficult not to plagiarize. Do you have a 10 page paper on how fast Venice is sinking? Google it, and in seconds you will receive over 21,000 opportunities for you to plagiarize.
I am not encouraging plagiarism. In fact, I would advise against it because with these opportunities comes consequences. Sites like TurnItIn and PlagiarismDetect are now available to help professors and teachers. The problem with using these sites is that you have to match a certain percentage in order to get the assignment through. Quoting a scholarly journal is out of the question, so what is the point? The paranoia of plagiarism has blurred the minds of teachers as they grade essays. How much, though, can teachers accuse their students of plagiarism? Options like paraphrasing and citing provide loop holes for students. Does that mean it is a good idea to take advantage of these opportunities? No. Does it mean paraphrasing and citing should not be used? No. The lines of what is considered plagiarism and what is not are always being crossed because these lines are hard to see.