• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

Is this considered plagiarism? (1 Viewer)

deathdude222

Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2010
Messages
59
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
If you write an essay in the external HSC exam, yet some sentences are similar to other essays throughout the internet and you don't change them (not implying the idea of taking peoples' essays), can you be caught for plagiarism?

I've written an essay which has some parts similar to others I've seen on the internet, but I don't know if it's even worth the time rewriting them.
 

4025808

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2009
Messages
4,377
Location
中國農村稻農
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Uni Grad
2017
If you write an essay in the external HSC exam, yet some sentences are similar to other essays throughout the internet and you don't change them (not implying the idea of taking peoples' essays), can you be caught for plagiarism?

I've written an essay which has some parts similar to others I've seen on the internet, but I don't know if it's even worth the time rewriting them.
If it's similar then it can't really be considered plagiarism but to be secure I suggest change it :p
Even then, it's so hard to determine whether someone is plagiarizing because the world is so diverse and creativity is unexpected... it may be different, may be the same. Maybe someone took another person's idea and used it, maybe another made an idea, used it and realized it was the same..

But if it's word for word then it's obviously plagiarism, unless if you asked the permission of the owner to use the essay :p
 

mecramarathon

Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2008
Messages
403
Gender
Male
HSC
2010
haha i don't think the bos actually puts your essay into an online database to check if its been plagiarised

what happens is that teachers read a lot of stuff from sparknotes and other common sites to familiarise themselves


i remembered in yr 11 my teacher read out a passage from a "band 6" essay she had just marked for the hsc and a girl in my class said, "why that's from sparknotes!" and my teacher said, "ooh plagiarism, better note that down."
 

addicts

Officially Insane
Joined
Oct 26, 2009
Messages
49
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
2011
if it's similar but not the same , then no..
for example in english i'm sure peoples ideas etc for belonging will overlap.. but that wont be seen as plagiarising.
If what your writing is similar to other essays, it probably just means your right.. so good work.
 

ArtemisOrthia

Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2010
Messages
440
Location
Earth. O.o
Gender
Female
HSC
2011
if it's similar but not the same , then no..
for example in english i'm sure peoples ideas etc for belonging will overlap.. but that wont be seen as plagiarising.
If what your writing is similar to other essays, it probably just means your right.. so good work.
This.
+ I highly doubt the Board of Studies is going to check each exam paper for each subject under a plagiarism checker. Most of the information students utilise will be the same anyway, and the only differentiation would be the arguments / subjective information put forth into answers, so markers are reading similar answers anyway. Especially, since they mark in bundles according to centre number. So, for example, you're English class studied Julius Caesar and your teacher helped with the analysis; chances are most of the centres numbers are going to be similar in techniques, meanings, purpose, etc.

That being said, I wouldn't copy an essay word for word off the internet, just in case. :)
 

FTW

Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2009
Messages
327
Location
good question.
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
If it's similar then it can't really be considered plagiarism but to be secure I suggest change it :p
Even then, it's so hard to determine whether someone is plagiarizing because the world is so diverse and creativity is unexpected... it may be different, may be the same. Maybe someone took another person's idea and used it, maybe another made an idea, used it and realized it was the same..

But if it's word for word then it's obviously plagiarism, unless if you asked the permission of the owner to use the essay :p
I agree with this.

Individual thoughts/ideas are hard to come by now, because the chance that somebody else has already had the same idea is high. Or at least that's what my teacher told me :p
 

Absolutezero

real human bean
Joined
Nov 17, 2007
Messages
15,077
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Whether it is plagiarism, and whether you'll get caught for it are entirely different concepts. If you've taken sections of another paper, and reworded or rearranged them slightly, yes, it's still plagiarism. The chances of you getting caught though is astronomically small.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top