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Free Term Papers Can Lead to Plagiarism Issues

Free term papers are just as they sound. They can be found online either being intentionally offered for use, by someone who simply put their paper up after they got their grade, or as an article. It might seem like a good idea to use the paper as it on the web, it’s already been written, and a grade has problem been claimed, but it isn’t. The main reason for this is:

Plagiarism

We don’t think that actually showed how grave of an issue it is. It’s a bit bland, actually.

Plagiarism: Scourge of Academic Writing

That’s much better. There’s nothing redeemable about taking someone else’s work and passing it off as your own. Even if the original author does need the work anymore and even if it was done years ago, it doesn’t make it right or okay to take that work.

Of course this should be obvious. When a good deal of time and effort is put into a term paper, the author doesn’t intend for it to be turned in for someone else to get a grade. There’s no benefit to the original author of the term paper at all.

“What if it’s intended to be used?”

Well that’s another suspect area of academic writing ethics. Even if it is meant to be used for an essay and not as an example or reference, it could be plagiarized as well. There happens to be many, many services online that promise that their papers are free of plagiarism. It’s a gray area.

  • The paper could be researched, written, and pass Copyscape or any plagiarism checker as the site ensures. This gives an air of security especially since it was purchased.
  • In the case of free term papers, it could possibly be written, researched, and original in every way, but what would be the benefit in putting up a free paper that required effort to make?
  • The paper—whether free or purchased—could be created from several pre-existing online term papers. This means it’s highly unlikely it would pass Copyscape or any other plagiarism checker.

“What is the actual issue?”

The plagiarism issue with free term papers is more of an ethical one than a legal one. It can definitely cross over into legal territory if you were to use one as the foundation for your published essay—this is the case with most things of course.

Since the issue is only an ethical one with no actual threat of legal punishment some students don’t mind using free term papers. Teachers would prefer that you write your paper yourself to show that you actually have a grasp on the material, as such they use Copyscape to check the legitimacy of your paper and the consequences here could be your grade or expulsion.

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