"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal" - TS Eliot Plagiarism is, as defined by the Council of Writing Program Administrators, is "in an educational context, plagiarism occurs when a writer uses deliberately someone else's language, ideas, or other original (not common knowledge) without acknowledging the source Plagiarism is a good word for cheating [1] Analyzing that phrase, “deliberately” and “without acknowledging the source” are the words key that cause a lot of confusion in the art world, particularly in academia. Plagiarism is a problem because it is often too broad and confusing a term writes. Simply because there are so many documents already covered on a given topic, it's impossible to know if you're writing a sentence the same way someone else phrased it. When someone writes a paragraph word for word like another source without correctly identify its author, he is most likely committing plagiarism and is well aware of his actions. Second, students do not cite their information correctly while writing. Either they don't know how, or they ignore it completely. Most of the time, students intentionally fail to misquote because they feel like they can get away with it, even if they get caught. own notes with passages recorded elsewhere. [2] In 1969, 58.3% of high school students let someone else copy their work. [3]In just 20 years, that statistic went from 58.3% to 97.5% for students who cheated. A national survey published in Education Week found that...... half the paper......y than someone else. Eventually you will have to deal with someone else's work. If you go so far as to literally copy several paragraphs like someone else's, then you are stealing. Quotation should always be used if it is more than a few sentences. In the academic world, plagiarism should not be tolerated across the board just as it is not accepted in the world of journalism. If you learn early on that it's okay, you will most likely do it for the rest of your life. In conclusion, plagiarism can be a very confusing topic because it is too broad a term and the work is not cited correctly. Consequences are not enforced in academia as firmly as they are in other sectors. Additionally, the Internet has greatly accelerated theft because it is so easy to obtain information. There are other types of plagiarism besides that of the written word; music is a great example of theft.