In an era of copy-and-paste, plagiarism is a constant temptation and problem for students, teachers and anyone who works with the written word. Jayson Blair, a promising young reporter, gave in to temptation when he copied portions of local stories and passed them off as his own in the New York Times.

Blair resigned from the newspaper after it was found that he had copied part of a story about a soldier in Iraq from a local paper, and numerous other stories contained fabricated quotes or even nonexistent sources. The Washington Post published an apology May 2 from the Times executive editor, Howard Raines.

"The Times apologizes to its readers for a grave breach of its journalistic standards," Raines said.

Before the investigation into Blair's activities was over, both Blair and the Times editor were forced to resign, the Times had suffered a serious blow to its national reputation, and newspapers across the country were scrambling to check their own work.

This is just one example of plagiarism and its effects in the workplace, but students have similar temptations.

Religion teacher Mary Bulgrin addresses the issue of high school plagiarism.

"I don't think some students even realize what they're doing is wrong," she said. "I defined plagiarism to my students as two or more consecutive sentences that are identical in form and virtually identical in content."

Bulgrin thinks there is no reason to plagiarize.

"Some students don't realize their own creative ability," she said.

Students facing a looming deadline have numerous sources for free papers, including Web sites with names like "Other People's Papers" and "The Evil House of Cheat." These sites and others like them allow students to search by topic and download an essay, often for free or at a nominal sum. A Yahoo! search for "free essays" yields 130,000 results. Though some of these sites post notices that the services they provide are for "research purposes only" and several, such as antiessays.com, offer "how to cite" assistance, there is no way of making sure users follow these guidelines.

Students doing a research paper may be tempted to claim paragraphs from other sources as their own because they feel teachers have no time to check. However two professors, Bear F. Braumoeller from Harvard and Brian J. Gaines from the University of Illinois, decided to experiment on effective antiplagiarism techniques. The professors gave their students the same assignment, and one professor warned his students that he would be checking their papers for plagiarism. Both professors ran their student's assignments through software designed to catch copied phrases. Papers written by students who had been warned were slightly less likely to contain plagiarized sources.

Antiplagiarism software is readily available to schools and teachers by way of the Internet. Software found on sites such as turnitin.com scan papers and compare them to publicly accessible Internet sites, a database of published works and previously submitted student papers. The program underlines the copied phrases in red and provides the teacher with access to the original document.

Though checking documents in this manner is not always accurate, teacher reviews of turnitin.com's program are generally positive. An example, posted on the Web site by English teacher Betsy Yates, of Loyola College Prep High School, shows its effectiveness.

"My students' work has improved because they are doing their own work now," she said.

History teacher Jason Anderson doesn't think some Hoban students see plagiarism as wrong. He has his own method of catching students who copy work.

"If you have students do in-class writing and keep some copies, you can compare that work to what the student does at home," he said. "They might suddenly start using bigger words and can't explain what they mean."

Bulgrin also thinks student copying is easy to spot.

"High school students don't realize how different their writing is," she said. "It's glaringly apparent. Teachers go to the Internet for sources, too."

English teacher Jamie Adaway said the faculty is aware of a plagiarism problem and is working to combat it.

"The way to prevent plagiarism is to educate students about what it is," she said. "The school is working on this. It is not just a problem in English classes and needs to be watched in every department."

In college, plagiarism is a serious offense. Punishments for plagiarism at most colleges range from a failing grade on the assignment to expulsion from the school, depending on the severity of the offense. Kent State's policy on plagiarism states that teachers may invoke punishments ranging from an F on the assignment to failing a student for the entire course. Serious cases can be referred to a disciplinary council. If the plagiarism affects the awarding of a degree, the university may revoke the degree.

As in high school, some students maliciously plagiarize in college. Professor Rowan Lockwood of the College of William and Mary told the Visor in an e-mail interview that most incidents of plagiarism in college relate to citation problems.

"Most of the plagiarism that occurs at the college level involves copying sentences and phrases without adequate citing of the original sources," she said.

Lockwood also attributes incidents of plagiarism to Web sites that sell finished papers.

"Web sites that provide 'ready-made' essays for college classes have caused the incidence of plagiarism to skyrocket in recent years," she said.

Like many colleges, William and Mary takes a strong stance on plagiarism and all forms of cheating. Professor Michael Deschenes from the College of William and Mary explained the school's honor code via an e-mail interview.

"Here at W&M if a professor is convinced that a student is guilty of plagiarism, he or she can bring the case to the honors council," he said. "If found guilty, the student is expelled from school. However, it is my understanding that if the accused student admits to it, the penalty is less severe, and he or she can remain at W&M."

Still, with such strong policies, plagiarism is on the rise in many colleges. Brian B. Gruters of the University of Arizona's newspaper, The Daily Wildcat, reported in a Sept. 18, 2001, article that in the '00-01 school year, plagiarism on campus increased by 30 cases.

According to associate principal Kevin Hillery, there have been more reported incidents of cheating so far this year than all of last year.

"At the faculty meeting, we told the teachers to be vigilant," he said. "We told them to try to prevent it, but if it happens to report it.

Despite the statistics, many students have poor views of plagiarism. A graduate student at American University, who asked to remain anonymous, said in an e-mail interview that students who plagiarize do not appreciate their education.

"Personally, I think any student who resorts to plagiarism has made it obvious that he or she has neither a true appreciation nor a strong desire to hold the privilege of a university education and should therefore be divested of that honor," the source said. "There are lots of other, more worthy students out there who would cherish acceptance into a university."

A Hoban junior agreed.

"Plagiarism is for people who are too lazy or embarrassed to write down their own thoughts or knowledge on a topic," he said. "It is a sign of not having confidence in yourself, which is a shame."

In January, 2002, late historian Stephen Ambrose was accused of plagiarism by Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barns when several unquoted passages from his book The Wild Blue were found to be similar and in some cases identical to those from a book on the same topic, Wings of the Morning, by Thomas Childers. Ambrose apologized in the New York Times two days later and promised to correct his mistake by putting the material in quotes in later editions of the book. However his apology did not save him from the fury of critics, who quickly found many other examples of plagiarism in his books. According to a Slate obituary by David Plotz, the cases of plagiarism did not affect his sales or the obituaries published in many newspapers and magazines. However, the impact the cases of plagiarism had are reminders of the effect plagiarism can have not just in school but also throughout life.