Plagiarism and the buying of essays are both traditional forms of academic dishonesty. With the advent of the internet and its widespread use, these methods have become far more sophisticated. By way of the cut-and-paste feature on computers, plagiarism has become extremely simple and takes little time.
Students are sometimes confused by the term "public domain" and how it applies to the internet. While information found on the internet is free and can be accessed by anyone, the general rules of citation still apply. If students use someone else's idea, thought, words, picture, graph, etc., in their academic work, it must be properly referenced regardless of what the source is. Both the MLA and APA citation systems include proper referencing techniques for information from the internet.
Instructors who are interested in fostering a conversation with students on the use of the internet, can view a handout created at the University of Alberta on Evaluating internet Sources by clicking here.
Buying Papers through the internet
internet paper mills are easy to access, with many offering money-back guarantees and custom paper services. Major credit cards are accepted at most sites. If you've never looked at a paper mill site, visit the sites listed below, which were active as of November, 2008. To find more sites, use your search engine and type in words like "term papers" or "essays."