The argument for my research paper has been based on fact that has been proven time and time again. Internet plagiarism is on the rise and teachers need to develop new methods to curve this growing trend. More and more students are becoming either lazy, bored, or they generally don’t care about the assignment. My argument essentially has two parts. The first part discusses the growing trend of Internet plagiarism. But what is Internet plagiarism? After googling the term it seemed that there was no definition. So after looking at mounds of research on the topic the facts are that Internet or online plagiarism is the unlawful use of someone else’s work that has been published on the World Wide Web. This is much like the term of digital literacy as discussed in Wysocki and Johnson-Eilola. In their article they discussed how we were using literacy as a very flexible term when in fact it is not. There are many different types of literacy. As shown in various research people can be digitally literate, or even mathematically literate. This is the same case for plagiarism. There are many different types of plagiarism as shown by different research studies. The research that I am focusing on is the plagiarism that is done online. My argument is meant to challenge the belief and ideals of others, as a factual argument should do (as described in Lunsford). My argument is that this type of plagiarism is on the rise because of its easy accessibility and the fact that more and more students are digitally literate and thus it is becoming easier for people to unlawfully use online publications.
The fact is that there is no definition for Internet plagiarism. Much like digital literacy, there are only years of research performed on the topic and various opinions and experiences of teachers and students. The argument that I will be making in my research paper will be an argument of fact and not of definition. With no concrete definition to go on, this seems like the most logical choice to base my argument of off.
