Question

1. Why is plagiarism so prevalent in today’s society?
2. Why should an author paraphrase information instead of just quoting information?
3. Can the act of paraphrasing information actually help a writer convey his or her ideas more clearly, concisely, or more creatively? Why? Why not?

Answer 1

1. Plagiarism is the unauthorized copying or duplicating of somebody else's work and presenting it as one's own. Plagiarism is on the rise in the recent times. This could be possible because of various reasons. One main cause for this is the easy access to information and work of others. This has become possible because of the internet which makes it easy for us to access to anything and everything. Many people also find it time-saving as it does not require more efforts by the person. Lastly, the education system also holds some responsibility for this. The education system focuses more on standardization and gives less importance to creativity. Thus, people who lack creativity may resort to such means.

2. It is always important to paraphrase the matter when taken from other sources. Paraphrasing is better than quotations mainly because when quotations are put, they grab more attention of people towards them and then people pay less attention and are less interested towards what is written about the quotations (paraphrased information). Paraphrasing also helps to put forth your ideas and interpretation of the original text. Paraphrasing also involves uniqueness. When paraphrasing, the author can use their own creativity to pen down their own ideas in their own unique way.

3. In my opinion yes, paraphrasing information actually helps to convey information and ideas more clearly and creatively. This is because when an author is paraphrasing somebody else's work, the author may have a different perspective to look at it. This may be entirely different from the work of the original author. Thus, it is important to paraphrase as one's own creativity flows out in the paraphrased text.

Hope this answer helps!