It’s late Sunday night. You are right about to got to sleep when suddenly it hits you. There is an essay due tomorrow and you haven’t done any of it. Thanks to modern technology you have access to a virtual library full of work at your disposal. However, have the improvements in technology benefited the students or the teachers?

“Technology helps both parties, because whatever students can access through the internet or technology, teachers have access to, unless they’re not familiar or comfortable with using technology,” English teacher Kathleen Mathis said. “In terms of plagiarism, it’s to the teachers advantage more than the students.”

Plagiarism is the use of another author’s ideas and words as your own original work. This can include not giving the author proper credit or taking credit for their work. While plagiarism itself is not a crime, copyright infringement is. With the introduction of technology that checks student’s papers against other peoples work on the internet, it does seem to lean in the favor of teachers. Even if a student only cuts and pastes small sections, it will still be noticeable. Consequences for students can range from receiving an F grade on the assignment, to failing the course. At the university level a student caught plagiarizing could possibly be expelled depending on the school’s policy.

“I believe technology benefits students more than teachers because while its easy for a teacher to check, its very easy for a student to plagiarize an essay for either English or History” sophomore Amanuel Berehe.

English and History are the two classes where students are most likely to plagiarize an essay. While the access to materials that could be used to plagiarize has increased, teachers have been able to combat them. Not to mention, the punishment for those who are caught plagiarizing is so high that it really isn’t worth the risk. If you are worried about the possibility that your paper contains plagiarism, there are many free online services that will check your paper for you.