preview

Plagiarism: Adjusting the Consequence Essay

Good Essays
1 Most universities believe students should be expelled immediately due to the acts of plagiarism. But is it really safe to jump to such an extreme conclusion for an action that in most cases, require some sort of investigation or trial? For many years, universities have battled students on this particular subject. Plagiarism has levels that should be dealt with by first locating the cause, examining the evidence, and determining whether it was purposely planned or not. Students, just like their professors, sometimes make simple mistakes and no student should be immediately expelled for unobvious plagiarism. Immediate expulsion is unruly and unfair to students who actually work hard, but may lack the necessary knowledge to detect…show more content…
She said "No one had ever defined paraphrasing for me," Because of an immediate expulsion a student who probably had no record of plagiarism now has a tainted permanent record. Routman clearly states “Had I thought I had done anything wrong, I, of course, would come forward.” Failing the assignment or points off would have been a much more acceptable punishment for her if she knew she was going to be expelled immediately. Her father, Brent Routman says, “If you're going to have a death-penalty sanction, then you've got to build in safeguards for kids that are lost in the shuffle.” Creating “safeguards” for students will probably build confidence in students to ask the necessary questions to prevent future plagiarism cases.

3 The immediate expulsion of an innocent student unknowledgeable about his or her actions may even cause emotional hardships which may lead to an unexpected case of violence among peers. In The Hartford Courant, Loretta Waldman shares reports on a case that could have caused unnecessary violence because of an immediate expulsion due to plagiarism. Matthew Coster, a student at Central Connecticut State University was expelled for plagiarism, but claims he was wrongly accused, and that another classmate, Cristina Duquette really copied his work. Coster’s family sued Duquette for $25,000 because of the horrendous acts the university sentenced on Matthew alone. Even though the evidence
Get Access