If you're not into the whole brevity thing...
I have to write a 500 word essay explaining what plagiarism is. I'm 600 words in and haven't even breached the actual subject yet. Oh well, maybe some points for creativity and colorful language? Saved here for easy access when I go home in 18 minutes.
I love Autumn. I love the smell in the air, the slight chill in the mornings, the roasted green chile, Halloween, and the tradition of which I've taken part for seventeen years now: going back to school. I show up the first week with high expectations and a representation of the best me out for everyone to see. Classes start like new relationships. We're all eager to meet and please each other and we just know that this is the year to wow everyone with our knowledge of Advanced Calculus or Taxonomy for the Faint of Heart. I show up with the books and open ears, and you, dear professor, show up with your infinite exuberance and wisdom- and the syllabus. I flip through it as I excitedly nod my head and smile at you as you rattle on about some subject that I think sounds just so exciting; I scan for due dates, grade breakdowns, required reading, and ...university policy? Yes, I know. Don't copy. Don't plagiarize. Put direct quotes in, surprisingly, quotation marks, and for goodness sake, if you didn't think up the idea all by yourself cite your sources!
I know this. Please understand that I do. I've been groomed by many teachers over many years, all with the intent of getting some good ideas in my pretty little brain and making it a little easier on my next lucky educator. However, before you think I consider the subject to be trite, I want to make clear that while I know this to be an important and unfortunately ignored area of morality in the realm of modern education, the issue has probably never been as important as it will be in the class. Up until this point, most of my education has been accomplished in the traditional medium of face-to-face interaction. This means that while the professor may not actually know me from any of the other cretins, geniuses, and average scholars in the room, he or she does, in fact, know me. I'm the face that always comes on time, or not, and asks poignant, or not, questions, and has probably said a couple words to you or others, and through all of these steps I've managed to humanize myself to you into fairly complete conclusions about my personality without having to turn in a single paper. If, when that first assignment is finally due, your ideas about me don't really match the amazing illuminations I've brought forth on paper or my quirky personality doesn't lend itself to the droll and uniform conclusions I've come up with, you become suspect. If not, as any half-clever plagiarizer is able to accomplish, you probably won't go through the trouble of researching it further. However, in an online class you really don't know me at all. I wrote a glib little introduction on the first day and perhaps you could come to some silly and useless conclusions from my name, but ultimately, I'm a blank slate until the due dates start cropping up. When it comes down to it, it doesn't matter what I look like or how hard I laugh at your jokes or banter with you. Those circuits aren't available and I end up being judged solely and fully on the work I produce, the ideas I create and interpret, and my eloquence in conveying that new knowledge to you. It is therefore absolutely understandable and necessary that I fully understand what is considered plagiarism and that you take all avenues available to know that I am who I say I am, intellectually speaking.
I love Autumn. I love the smell in the air, the slight chill in the mornings, the roasted green chile, Halloween, and the tradition of which I've taken part for seventeen years now: going back to school. I show up the first week with high expectations and a representation of the best me out for everyone to see. Classes start like new relationships. We're all eager to meet and please each other and we just know that this is the year to wow everyone with our knowledge of Advanced Calculus or Taxonomy for the Faint of Heart. I show up with the books and open ears, and you, dear professor, show up with your infinite exuberance and wisdom- and the syllabus. I flip through it as I excitedly nod my head and smile at you as you rattle on about some subject that I think sounds just so exciting; I scan for due dates, grade breakdowns, required reading, and ...university policy? Yes, I know. Don't copy. Don't plagiarize. Put direct quotes in, surprisingly, quotation marks, and for goodness sake, if you didn't think up the idea all by yourself cite your sources!
I know this. Please understand that I do. I've been groomed by many teachers over many years, all with the intent of getting some good ideas in my pretty little brain and making it a little easier on my next lucky educator. However, before you think I consider the subject to be trite, I want to make clear that while I know this to be an important and unfortunately ignored area of morality in the realm of modern education, the issue has probably never been as important as it will be in the class. Up until this point, most of my education has been accomplished in the traditional medium of face-to-face interaction. This means that while the professor may not actually know me from any of the other cretins, geniuses, and average scholars in the room, he or she does, in fact, know me. I'm the face that always comes on time, or not, and asks poignant, or not, questions, and has probably said a couple words to you or others, and through all of these steps I've managed to humanize myself to you into fairly complete conclusions about my personality without having to turn in a single paper. If, when that first assignment is finally due, your ideas about me don't really match the amazing illuminations I've brought forth on paper or my quirky personality doesn't lend itself to the droll and uniform conclusions I've come up with, you become suspect. If not, as any half-clever plagiarizer is able to accomplish, you probably won't go through the trouble of researching it further. However, in an online class you really don't know me at all. I wrote a glib little introduction on the first day and perhaps you could come to some silly and useless conclusions from my name, but ultimately, I'm a blank slate until the due dates start cropping up. When it comes down to it, it doesn't matter what I look like or how hard I laugh at your jokes or banter with you. Those circuits aren't available and I end up being judged solely and fully on the work I produce, the ideas I create and interpret, and my eloquence in conveying that new knowledge to you. It is therefore absolutely understandable and necessary that I fully understand what is considered plagiarism and that you take all avenues available to know that I am who I say I am, intellectually speaking.