The Difference between Inspiration and Plagiarism

Plagiarism has become one of the biggest problems in the sphere of modern writing. Many of you would agree that we are not able to reinvent the wheel. We live in the society and surrounded by other people and their works. Without any doubts, all this influences on us.

When writing something, we certainly use the words and thoughts of other people. We take them as role models. When we read their stories or works, they truly inspire us. Due to this, we are able to create something by our own hands, but would it be considered plagiarism? How to draw the line between plagiarism and inspiration, when we use others to get inspired? In fact, it’s not so easy to answer the question.

What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the process of borrowing the thoughts and ideas of others and pretending them to be your own. It’s okay to quote other sources if you show the reference of the quote. If there are any similar thoughts or topics, similar to the works of others, you should certainly indicate the reference.

There are so many plagiarism checkers this day. Unfortunately, they made people think that plagiarism is only a word-for-word copying. In fact, even copying the ideas can be considered plagiarism. If you are unsure about your writing, there are so many plagiarism checkers to figure everything out. Due to them, you’ll be able to see those, who have stolen your works and published them on their own website. Telling the truth, plagiarism is a frequent phenomenon even among well-known writers. In many universities, a plagiarized work can be a reason for dismissal.

What is Inspiration?

Inspiration is a sudden creative clever idea, which is inspired by another person, event, and work, thought or even daydreaming. In some way, it’s a driving force, which inspires you moving ahead. You are inspired to collect different facts to complete your research. However, this bunch of ideas, should have evidence and be proved during the research. It’s not illegal to write something if you are inspired by the work of another author. Don’t you agree that all famous writers began as simple story readers?

At the same time, one should understand that creating your own work would never happen in a vacuum. Everything, which exists have already been said or invented, so no matter what you create, it would be always be based on the works of other people. You just only get inspired by that.

How to Distinguish Between Inspiration and Copying?

If you find some information and simply add it to your paper, it’s considered to be plagiarism. If you find something and start doing the research into it: reason about the topic, consider the sources, check its logic- you are inspired.

Many say that quoting one source can be considered plagiarism, but many – inspiration. In fact, this phenomenon is very scary, when it comes to creating an essay. Telling the truth, all the essays and articles are changed works of other people detailed research.

Plagiarism & Law

Plagiarism is closely connected with law. Here is a list of things law considers to be plagiarism infringement:

-Creating derivative works, which are based on the works of other people;
-Displaying copied works of others;
-Publicly performing the works of others, without their permission;
-Reproducing the works of others, without their permission;
-Distributing the works of others, without permission.

The development of Web makes it really easy to use the works of others while creating your own. All of us can see that there are many sources, which are so similar.

College Plagiarism

It’s really difficult to draw the line between inspiration and plagiarism when it comes to college. If your text is similar to one online or handed in by another student, it’s considered to be plagiarism and you are simply out. If you re-write someone’s work, it’s also plagiarism. In fact, stealing the ideas of others is also plagiarism.

At the same time, the Internet is packed with all possible information, so even if you write something and consider it to be your own thought, it would certainly be mentioned somewhere on the Web by another individual.

Yes, the question is quite controversial. However, what is bad, when we use the thoughts of others? The ideas can’t be locked in our head – they should be always shared. If you don’t want others to use your ideas, you’d better communicate with no one.

In fact, there is a positive moment about it: if people take your thoughts and copy them, maybe you have created something right, something which inspires many.
In conclusion, it can be said that copying is a primal process. We imitate everything we learn and see. Is it bad? Why should we avoid all those fantastic ideas, many people have created and it’s really silly to omit them?

Alexandra Foster is an ex-English teacher who helps parents/students and organizations with educational planning. She is a tech savvy, who loves education and technology, that makes studying process more convenient and collaborative. Currently working with Noplag.com team as a consultant

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