Maureen Hourigan

Maureen Hourigan has been teaching english for over 45 years. She really understands how so many factors play very different roles in certain peoples lives when it comes to how they learn and write. In this essay called "Of Plagiarism, Paper Mills and the Harried, Hurried Student," Hourigan discusses the history of plagiarism and how schools have been cracking down on the problem over the years. In the past, students used plagiarism so frequently and teachers and professors had no way of ever finding out. That has obviously changed and this essay shows that universities are going to such lengths as including this "crime" of plagiarism on their transcripts to make it known to almost anybody they contact for application purposes. Paper mills are one of the main problems, even though the company owners will disagree. Paper mills are supposedly only to be for assistance only, but they influence the students (who use these mills) to make their essay not necessarily 100% original. As big of a problem as this has become, professors truly do not enjoy punishing students for this, but drastic times call for drastic measures. I think that this is true because everyone knows if you were to pay such a high price like the punishment for this crime, doing it again is extremely unlikely.