Plagiarism And Academic Writing

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.

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.

Almost all colleges enforce policy when students commit plagiarism. With regard to plagiarism, two authors’ arguments differ. One of authors, Emma Teitel, a student in Dalhousie University, argued that the punishment of plagiarism is un-fare. She was punished for plagiarism in her third year. She claimed that she just made a technical mistake on her essay and did not intentionally plagiarize from another author’s work (Teitel, November 8, 2011). On the other hand, according to Todd Pettigrew, a professor in Kings University, colleges should make a rule clearly for plagiarized assignments depending on the number of offenses. For example, for student who commits plagiarism the second time should get a stronger punishment than the first offense.

meaning of plagiarism. This is because not only two colleges but also many colleges and

Plagiarism is a concern for academic honesty and personal integrity. When I was an undergrad in the late 1980’s, repositories of papers were kept in an academic department to aid in plagiarism detection. Plagiarism was evaluated by a Professor recognizing particular work and being forced to ask a student for validity of original thought. Today there are tools students can use to avoid plagiarism (Turn It In, 2014). For this course we will submit our writings to an internet site called Turn It In to avoid plagiarism.

According to O’Conner, P. (2003), A well material is without difficulties in understanding the information that the writers wants to convey. He equates reading poorly written material with lifting a heavy weight. Good written material should be straight forward, direct to the point and interesting to the reader. Lack of clarity in writing is the making of the writer and not the reader. It is the proficient skill of the writer that makes his writing easy to understand and comprehend not lack of ambiguous words. He told readers not to mistake simple written material to lack of knowledge. (pp 195-196).

Scholarly writing is a big adjustment for many online students today. Students have to learn how to adapt to a graduate level of scholarly writing. Grammar is of course important however, plagiarism is the most repeated of offences. Students do not intentionally plagiarize although attempts to paraphrasing can end up as plagiarism. Learning how to write in a scholarly manner without plagiarizing is a skill students have to work on. There are many resources at Walden’s Writing Center to help students with American Psychological Association (APA) style of writing, grammar, and plagiarism. The Writing Center has paper reviews, modules, and webinars to help students throughout their time at Walden University (Walden

images or thoughts of others as your own” as examples ( Avoiding plagiarism n,d ), and in

The Plagiarism Spectrum moves plagiarism beyond the black-and-white definition of “literary theft” to one that captures the nuances of how plagiarism can take form in student writing, with a severity scale based on student intent.

Plagiarism, what is it and how to avoid it has been a major question on every students’ mind. Sure it is easy just to copy and paste and take all the credit for the work that another individual put in, but is it worth it? According to WPA, Writing Program Administrators, the definition of plagiarism as states, “plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source.” Plagiarism has always concerned teachers and administrators, who want students’ work to repre¬sent their own efforts and to reflect the outcomes of their learning. However, with the advent of the Internet and easy access to almost limitless written material on

The Plagiarism & Paraphrasing Library Workshop was put on by Professor Horne on September 9, 2016. The purpose of the workshop was to teach students how to identify and avoid using plagiarism as well as how to paraphrase to reduce the wordiness of a paper. She started off the presentation by introducing USC Aiken’s Honor Pledge and Academic Code of Conduct. Failure to abide by the rules listed in those articles could result in suspension, sanctions, failure, and even expulsion. Professor Horne identifies intentional, unintentional, cyber, and personal as the four main types of plagiarism often used by students. Intentional plagiarism ranges from copying from published work to resubmitting one’s own work. Unintentional plagiarism is often accidental

Plagiarism has become a massive issue in writing today. With all the technology at a writers fingertips, it can become very tempting to find prefabricated essays readily available online. It is up to the writer to have a sense of integrity to resist the temptation and do the work for themselves. When writing it is important to cite sources and use quotation marks on direct quotes. The writer needs to ensure that direct quotes are not used excessively as it can be interpreted as plagiarism. Direct copying and pasting of information without proper citation is unethical. The writer needs to take information and convert it into their own words.

Avoiding plagiarism in academic writing is something that must be taken seriously by both faculty and students. Many online tools exist that can be used to avoid plagiarism, both for the student and the faculty member. As simple as plagiarism is to do, plagiarizing is just as easy to get caught. Students who resort to plagiarism during their college years do so to due to laziness or even poor time management. All this is being done when the students should be trying to learn to be better writers. But by plagiarizing they are only hurting themselves, when they will not be able to write successfully a paper of any kind when asked to do so. Learning to be a successful writer is a crucial part of the college experience. Students who do not learn to become effective writers will feel the effects of this after they finish college and enter the working world. Graduates will soon learn and wish that they had taken the time to build their writing skills while in school.

In my opinion, academic integrity refers to the principles associated with being honest and responsible in one academic work. Academic integrity is a vital concept for all academic institutions throughout the globe especially in an era where academic dishonesty is gaining momentum. Cheating and plagiarism represent unethical academic behaviors against which higher academic institutions have been battling against. Nowadays, plagiarism and cheating tools have been greatly influenced by new technological trends providing students with unethical solutions going against academic integrity. I will now proceed on elaborating on the behavioral characteristics going against academic integrity then, I will highlight the danger associated with plagiarism before finally concluding my argumentation with the reasons behind the rise of academic dishonesty.

Generally, the term “plagiarism” refers to the academically dishonest practice of using another’s words or ideas as one’s own. It is also regarded as a serious offense. For example, someone commits the offense by copying and pasting materials or work, in whole or in part, written by another person without quoting appropriate reference credit. While most people understand the concept of plagiarism academic institution take it seriously and have various policies in regards to it. The majority of college specify the plagiarism policy in order to protect the student’s right and their integrity. While both Centennial College and Fanshawe College have similarities in their plagiarism policies which are subject to student’s score, the main difference between the two is that Centennial College has a more specific procedure which helps student understand the consequences of academic offense.