I was discussing this with a group of friends, and thought it was fun to check with others' what they think.
The case is as follows....
A few of my friends are completely against cheating. Which I do respect.But others think, going on google to find other's work or to check how other's did something.. would be the same as cheating.
So my question to you... do you consider copying others' work as cheating, when they give you permission to do so? Or is it just acquiring knowledge from others? If it's using other's knowledge to enhance own knowledge, how come is it punished.. for example in schools...
Thanks for your feedback...
BTW leave the discussion of cheating in poker etc.. out please
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
If you're talking about plagiarism then of course it is cheating. If you copy somebody elses work you are not acquiring knowledge from them, you are simply copying their work and presenting it either as your own or at least in substitute of your own, it has no original/creative output and is useless to society as a whole.
However, if you use other peoples work as a starting point for knowledge and then come up with your own piece based on somebody elses and by acknowledging/referencing the other work - then that is ok. Because you've actually demonstrated that you understand what you looked at and are able to express it uniquely in your own way.
But simply copying - without understanding - is cheating - in instances where original work is asked for - and when it's not cheating (ie; allowed) it's just useless and pathetic.
Joined: Mar '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 6714
Depends on its contex. To learn anything we either need to be shown(one way or anouther) or discover. If given permission to copy someones work then it should be stated, then there is no cheating going on, if trying to pass it as yourown to decive people then its cheating. "going on google to find other's work or to check how other's did something" Again depends on its contex, eg If in a pub quizz and use googl to fin an answer then thats cheating, but, if writting on a subject and use googl to find out more and decide to use that info then its research.
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
I agree with jess and b1gfoot.
As a uni student I'm constantly being warned about plagiarism, but it's fine to steal other people's opinions to form your own. But when people copy and paste without even properly reading the text let alone understanding it, it's clearly lazy, stupid and pointless.
They usually get caught cos they leave the web links in the text or copy "for more articles on this nature, you can purchase-" or "click here to find out more".
Joined: Sep '08
Location: United States
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 115
yes its cheating i have been to a few university and i always party too hard and fail but they have rules about the internet look ups for example when u footnote something in a paper u cannot footnotes things from the internet anymore because they dont know if its true. because anyone can write something and then everyone else assume its true
