Causes of Plagiarism Essay

Plagiarism is an increasing large issue on college campuses, a habit to most of the student. According to the article ‘’The Plagiarism Plague’’, the findings on the survey made to 50,000 students on more than 60 campuses was that 70 percent of the students admitted that they cheated. Half of the students surveyed admitted that one or more times made serious cheating on writing assignments, with 77 percent of the students surveyed said that cheating was not a serious issue.

The paper responds to this proposition with a thesis that understanding the ethical reasoning provided by students in defending plagiarism is crucial in preventing it in student populations. The reasons can provide the basis for specific action-orientated recommendations to reduce plagiarism and to design programs to encourage originality and

Plagiarism can be described in different ways depending on the policy of the academic or professional institution. Consequences of plagiarizing work have a significant impact on the individual. Strategies exist to help avoid plagiarism. There are policies for academic integrity in all of academia.

As one begins to grasp the concept of Schroth’s (2012) article The Plagiarism Plague, it is easy to identify the author’s dissatisfaction for plagiarism and the negative connotations he has for someone who is involved in this heinous offense. He initiates and summarizes his commentary with personal stories of how plagiarism has affected him. Schroth offers several solutions for the copyright issue that is upon us; he states, “the sanction for plagiarism must be at least an F on the paper, accompanied by a letter in the student's file to be consulted if it happens again, with the understanding that a second offense would mean expulsion.” Schroth was also sure to mention the collective approach necessary from all educators for his solution to be implemented. He believes the “policy will be effective only with leadership from the president and full cooperation from the faculty.” The writer goes on to explain how plagiarism has become an epidemic in this society and the effects of its prevalence thereof. Although plagiarism has become rampant in this society, it is still immoral and unethical. College students continue to plagiarize however, because they refuse to regard their education as a top priority and it has become culturally acceptable for people to falsify information without any serious penalties for their dishonesty.

There are over a dozen reasons as to why student’s all over the globe plagiarize, but I’m here to specifically talk about a few. The few, but more common reasons why it’s done. The main points I’ll be covering include: Irresponsibility, procrastination, laziness, lack of motivation and time management, difficulty taking information and formatting it into their own words, and the professor showing an apathetic behavior towards the students.

Academic dishonesty such as plagiarism has been a major factor in education that has affected students’ success and academic achievements in recent years. Plagiarism according to Park (2003) is the act of appropriating or copying another person’s work and passing them on as one’s idea without acknowledging the original source. Park (2003) noted that plagiarism is a growing problem and has been a misuse of the writings of another author, their ideas, hypothesis, theories, research findings and interpretations. Furthermore studies by Chao, Wilhelm and Neureuther (2009) emphasised that

Not making a good use of the internet and deciding to plagiarize can result in a failing grade. Students have been cheating all the way from High School without getting caught, and consequently they haven’t been lectured on plagiarism. Usually, teachers do not take the time to talk to their students about plagiarism. “many students claim not to have been confronted with the issue by parents or previous teachers except when personally caught plagiarizing” ( Petress). This lack of knowledge about plagiarism incites students to keep cheating. The only difference is that in college teachers have more advanced ways to grade papers. Technology has advanced. “...the same technology that makes it so easy for students to cheat is now aiding teachers in catching them” ( Hastings). College teachers are more strict regarding plagiarism than high school teachers; they can turn a plagiarized work into a zero. Students need to understand how useless it is to cheat. Everything is better than a zero, so students will get more benefit if they turn in a paper that

Students may accidentally cheat without knowing due to lack of teaching during high school or may purposely commit the crime because they believe they can outsmart their professors. The plagiarists who believe they outplayed their professors because they think the instructors will not see their cheating due to their enormous load of papers and a busy schedule, however, the professors check every paper carefully no matter the workload. In addition to, the professors will always check Google, and many plagiarists tend to forget that the instructor has access to the web address to double check to see if the student stole information. Students who actively plagiarize, remain lazy and seem careless about their future. They have no worries about what copying can lead to because they want to pass, not to learn. Laziness shows the sign of the leading cause for cheating due to students wishing to pay ghostwriters or who copy and paste work from a website rather than paraphrasing. Genuinely confused students who do not understand the concept of plagiarism that well make do with exceptions due to their mistakes although, students who plagiarize have no excuse of their slothfulness because they know the result of

Evering and Moorman also noted that McCabe said, “Many high school students believe...that if information is on the Internet, it is public knowledge and does not need to be footnoted – even if it’s quoted verbatim”. Evering and Moorman say students who plagiarize are only representing someone else’s work instead of their own. Jobs as teachers are to help student create, develop and perfect a student’s own work and abilities however, they cannot do so with students plagiarizing. Regardless of the consequence, students still find the need to plagiarize. Evering and Moorman says it’s because student are too lazy and just don’t feel like doing the assignment but also the “underdeveloped sense of integrity...lack of

Plagiarism is using someone else’s work, words, production, researches and ideas without the approval or the acknowledgment of the writer or producer, and claiming the credit for himself. Many reasons and factors are attributed for the use of plagiarism and could be cultural, historical, linguistic, environmental and educational background. Plagiarism is a form of an academic dishonesty, academic misconduct, and a digital cheating. It is declared to be an unacceptable legal act and institutional regulations. And universities, schools, and instructors do not only need to decrease plagiarism, but they must also affect positively on students writings, increase the understanding of how to use digital technology to facilitate their academic writing.

Although no excuse will lessen the breach of ethical conduct that such behavior repre¬sents, understanding why students plagiarize can help teachers to consider how to reduce the op¬portunities for plagiarism in their classrooms. Students may fear failure or fear taking risks in their own work. (http://www.wpacouncil.org).

In the discussion over plagiarism factors responsible for it , methods to avoid plagiarism and proper difference between a material which is plagiarized and one which is mistaken to be plagiarized is understood. As often there is a confusion over this. Plagiarism is a important concept to know and the ways to avoid them must also be learned. It is very important to give proper credit to the contributions of other people. It shows that there is due regard and recognition to their hard work. Plagiarism is more common in academic world. There is a increasing lure among the students and professors job complicates. Learning a concept and the ability to portray what was learned earns due respect . Here is a famous quote which depicts the importance of learning and gaining knowledge rather than just copying other persons views

Students now have the ability to cut and paste sections of an article, or they can purchase a term paper on-line. He also believes that they plagiarize because they “are faced with too many choices, so they put off low priorities.”[4] If a student has a lot of things to do, they will not spend much time on the things that have a low priority or things that are considered boring. He also points out that a big reason for plagiarism is that “many students have poor time management and planning skills.”[5] If the student waits until the last minute to write a paper, they may not have enough time to completely research topic. Other students plagiarize because they “fear that their writing ability is inadequate.”[6] If the student does not believe that they have the ability to do good work, they may think that the only chance to get a good grade is to cheat.

In colloquial language plagiarism is the concept of stealing someone’s piece of work or someone’s idea. It is clear that plagiarising is unjust and immoral, however now a days it is becoming more difficult to come up with original ideas as the media allows students to have open access to all information and the producer or author must be very careful to not use somebody else’s work unintentionally and claim it as theirs. It is important to educate students about plagiarism as it can carry major consequences. The concept of plagiarism with reference to policy will be outlined and also the steps helping students and authors to avoid plagiarism in this assignment.

Academic learning in today’s changing world brings demands to future professionals. Whether in a traditional classroom, or through distance learning, one thing is similar and which cannot bring forth a successful educational future. One thing that can damage anyone’s academic future is plagiarism. Whether being the future of a straight “A” student, or a student who is just getting by. The fact remains that anyone can fall victim to plagiarism. Plagiarism is the use of other writer’s words without acknowledging the source and taking those words and passing them off as one’s own ideas (Jones, 2001). Some people may think plagiarism is just copying someone else’s work but in reality plagiarism is much serious and hold very serious