Plagiarism Problems for Educators

Malesic shares his own personal experience as an English teacher at a college just how often students are willing to plagiarize their papers. He talks about the first time he was offended by the student that did this, and thought that it was his fault, but as he consolidated with other teachers, he learned that plagiarism isn’t as rare as he considered. Many of his colleagues told different stories of the times that they have caught plagiarism throughout their career. He tells his story about the various causes of why this happens everywhere. Malesic comes up with that students think that they know everything there is about reading and writing, however, in order to plagiarize, the person has to have exceptional skills in English, which they often do not, and it is a dead giveaway. Just because he was hurt by plagiarizing, doesn’t mean he will do something necessary as a consequence

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

students seem to turn to plagiarism as an answer to getting good grades or to finish an assignment quickly. A high schooler sometimes sees no other choice other than to cheat or copy off of another person because of either the importance of education to them, the student had a ton of other homework, or a sporting event took place the night before the due date. Either way, high schoolers often overlook the consequences of their actions since they believe the teacher will not know or find out. After evaluating the usage of plagiarism in schools, the adults must keep a closer watch on their students work and enforce the punishments because of how commonly used copying has become.

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.

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

The writer, Todd Pettigrew wrote the article “All your profs wrong about plagiarism,” explains that plagiarism takes the form of counterfeiting, which means to fake instead of stealing. Many college students result to piracy rather than to add in the work because they are lazy or desperate to succeed and rarely pay attention to the causes of cheating. Students who view plagiarism as counterfeiting may see nothing wrong with the crime because they fake their work instead of stealing another person’s own words. The scholar knows the system of cheating, acknowledges the consequences, and understands the crime; however, continues the offense because they want to pass the class. The two main ways to cheat consist of going online and blatantly stealing

With the ever-increasing wealth of information provided by a simple Internet search, students are finding their resource options growing. From hundreds of topic specific sources to completely written essays, students are challenged to use their own words. Michelle Cleary addresses the issues of plagiarism faced by students today while giving real-life solutions from an instructor’s view in her article, "Top 10 Reasons Students Plagiarize & What Teachers Can Do about It (With Apologies to David Letterman)". From research methods to writing instructions, the author uses a cause and effect scenario to illustrate the plagiarism problems and suggests methods that encourage academic success. Students struggle not only with the temptation to plagiarize, but also worry about inadvertently plagiarizing, and the ramifications of their actions.

In “Academic Integrity and Student Plagiarism: a Question of Education, Not Ethics,” Susan Blum confronts the challenges associated with plagiarism, citation, and the education system. Initially, the author establishes plagiarism as a major problem on college campuses. Because previous approaches for dealing with plagiarism have been unsuccessful, many professors have turned to electronic software like Turnitin to identify student plagiarism (Blum 1). This means colleges and professors are desperate to find a solution to the increasing problem of plagiarism. Additionally, we see students are in need of a deeper understanding and education on the concept of plagiarism. Blum states, “Students must be persuaded of the value of citation - which

Plagiarism, by almost every light, is a serious problem deserving of time, attention and care. However, its prevention is a complex, difficult question, complicated by excessive sloth and lack of action from administrators. The article “A Question of Honor”, written by William Chace, a professor and concerned citizen, is effective at reaching its intended audience. Largely, the intended audience is students, professors, and administrators who are concerned with plagiarism and wish to stop it. Consequently the purpose of the article, the prevention of plagiarism, is addressed. The article was originally published in American Scholar in the Spring 2012 issue. It can be located in the Ethics in Higher Education, edited by Nancy Henke et al. Chace’s thesis suggests that plagiarism can be prevented by the culture associated with the university. The article was originally put in an academic journal, making its audience somewhat easier to determine. As well, the article uses appeals to scholarly professionals. The text spends a good portion of the prologue establishing the claim that there is a chronic problem of plagiarism present in this culture. In the body text of the article, Chace first of all presents counterarguments to the idea that cheating is an acceptable way to learn how to write, then spends the majority of the article describing how to prevent cheating. This is effective for the genre, a persuasive article in an

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.

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

Plagiarism is the process of taking some one else work or ideas and showing it as their own works (Oxford Dictionaries). The purpose of this study is to understand 6 different ethical reasons used by student to overcome with plagiarism and with help of these ethical reason, faculties can bring a solution to stop or prevent plagiarism. Where as unethical behavior can also lead to worries in school or colleges, so there is need to correct it so that it has positive impact on organizational ethics. Although, after reading this journal article, it was clearly seen that mostly used ethical reasons are Deontology, Situational Ethics and Machiavellianism to overcome with the problem of Plagiarism (Ashworth and Bannister, 1997).

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