Ever since elementary school when we started learning to write, the idea of plagiarism being forbidden was forced into our little minds. "Don't be a copy-cat," the teacher would say. Sometimes little kids do not realize that they are copying more than they should because they feel like the way the source they got the information from presented the information is the best or only way to present it, and they simply reproduce most or all of the original source in their writing. However, throughout elementary school and into high school, students learn how to synthesize and rephrase information so that plagiarism is less of an issue, which is a good thing because as students enter college, policies on plagiarism become stricter than ever before. Not only do most colleges fail and or expel students for copying others' work, they sometimes refer them to a court of law. This is something new for most high school students who have never faced such a serious threat for plagiarism before; in high school, they would get a zero for the assignment and be told not to do it again. Another complication for today's students is the ease of exchange of information through the use of computers and the Internet. It is much easier to copy and paste than it would have been to copy everything by hand fifteen or twenty years ago.
Students are truly treated as adults in college, and they are held to the same standards as faculty, who are very much penalized for plagiarism.
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