Plagiarism-Related Behavior Essay

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

Prior to undergraduate and graduate school, the repercussions of academic misconduct were not a deterrent to me. The consequences of plagiarizing were not clear and concise in High School. I was a poor, intelligent kid living in an environment where fashion and economic class established one’s social status. I wanted to fit in. I was so obsessed with fitting in, that I used my academic gifts to promote academic misconduct. My peers had academic weakness. Theses weakness’ included, lack of confidence in their work, lack of preparation and lack of motivation. I exploited the areas of weakness of my peers for my personal gain.

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.

Schools today have a very large problem with academic dishonesty. Not only high schools, but also colleges as well have and abundance of students who cheat regularly. Although cheating is addressed in many school policies, a shocking number of students get away with it, and teachers do nothing about it. Whether its copying someone’s assignment to get theirs done, or plagiarizing an entire paper, students cheat.

Since you’re a small child you’re told never to steal from others. It’s one of the fundamental virtues that are drilled into your head your entire life. It seems as people age, they forget the lessons of their youth. A perfect example of this can be seen in the constant use of academic dishonesty. Elmira College defines academic dishonesty as “…any treatment of, or representation of work as if one were fully responsible for it, when it is in fact the work of another or work in which one has received unacknowledged assistance from others.” (46) One of the top ways college students preform academic dishonesty is through plagiarism. The Marian-Webster definition of plagiarizing and academic dishonesty is “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words

Rather, students from all high and low achieving levels admit to cheating for motives based on academic pressures provided from parents, peers, and the education system. More often, students admit to cheating when their classroom/teacher places an increased importance on the grades received, instead of the material learned (Challenge Success 2012). In recent years, students have confessed to plagiarizing works ranging from simple daily homework grades, to important essays and even exams. When confronted, most acknowledge that the behavior they are partaking in is unethical, yet they continue to show academic dishonesty because “ when students thought that their schools valued performance goals (e.g. grades and test scores) on the whole, they were more likely to both justify and engage in cheating” (Challenge Success 2012). Jason M. Stephens and Heather Nicholson present a Belief-Behavior Incongruity study in which they asked students about their convictions towards academic dishonesty. In their study, the general consensus came out to be that students did not feel as if their teachers were putting in the same amount of effort into teaching the subject, so the students neglected to feel that they should reciprocate by following and completing demanding tasks or assignments (Stephens and Nicholson 2008).

    Simply defined, the word plagiarism means "the unauthorized use of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own" ("Plagiarism").  While many students understand and comprehend the first clause of this definition, many encounter problems with the second part - the thoughts part.  Many students in today's educational system are frequently unable to develop their own thoughts, opinions, and ideas relating to the subject matter that they are studying.  However, when people at a university are educated according to the ways set forth by John Henry Newman in "The Idea of a University," their ability to create original concepts would be cultivated to the

While the problem of cheating has persisted in higher education, the perceived seriousness of cheating continues to change (McCabe & Trevino, 1996; Stephens, Young, & Calabrese, 2007). Notably, students with higher moral development levels view cheating more seriously than those with lower moral development levels (Leming, 1978; Semerci, 2006). While the process of going to college promotes students' moral development (King & Mayhew, 2002) and higher moral development levels correlate to lower incidences of cheating (Leming, 1978), determining the relationship between the two is necessary. Prior research has demonstrated a positive relationship between higher moral development levels and lower cheating incidences; however, most data is more than 30 years old (Leming, 1978).

What is plagiarism? There is no one definition that all teachers believe in. During this paper, I will explore some of the possible answers to this question. Once the teacher has the definition that is used by their school and what they believe it means there is a process that needs to be completed in order to have the students to not commit this error in their judgment. There are many steps that can be taken between the teacher and student so that they all know what needs to be done. Before stopping this error, the student needs to understand why they are copying others works and that it is not ethically for them to do this. So, once we find out why the students plagiarize there are some steps that can be taken by both the teacher

When I think of plagiarism, I imagine a person literally stealing from another individual. The term plagiarism is derived from the Latin word plagi rius, which essentially represents the felony of kidnapping. An individual who kidnaps anothers work is a felon. Obviously, this form of larceny is not as immoral as the form for which one can be imprisoned; however, most educators and honest students view plagiarism in this manner. Within education I conceive that there are two kinds of plagiarism: copying a paper word-for-word and not providing the correct recognition to the original author when utilizing their composition. I believe that each situation of plagiarism should be considered serious

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

As technology continues to grow and advance, so does the presence and access to various methods of cheating. In simple terms, cheating is stealing information or work in order to be used for personal gain or to have an advantage against the competition. More and more students are resorting to cheating as the academic competition for college and jobs increases. Although it seems to be common knowledge to students that what they are doing is wrong and severely punishable, most students believe the benefit of cheating trumps the risk, and that they will never get caught or punished anyway. As the amount of academic dishonesty continues to grow amongst students ranging from elementary school to graduate students, it is becoming increasingly apparent

Academic honesty is the main factor in building the student's overall virtue and morals in life. In this article the authors speak of academic dishonesties effects on students over time, “cheating and plagiarism will more likely result to unethical behavior in the place of work,” (Balbuena and Lamela 1). When students practice academic dishonesty, it teaches them to always be unethical, take shortcuts all throughout life, and not truly earn their success. When students practice academic dishonesty, it builds up repetition and creates a mental habit within a student to always be dishonest. This habit is not just in school but in everyday decisions from giving back the extra change you receive to paying your taxes. If an individual is academically dishonest it will not just negatively affect one’s character, but it will make people question one’s success and

Being a college student is hard. College requires plenty of work. Some students have other things to do besides going to school; some of them need to work in order to pay for their tuition. When school isn’t the only thing students have to worry about, they might get behind in their classes, but they can’t fail them so they have to find out a way to stay on both their job and school. A large amount of students are pushed into cheating; they do it so often that suddenly it becomes a habit. Nowadays, plagiarism is extremely popular. Students don’t like using their brain anymore; they just copy and paste. To avoid plagiarism, students should do their own work; learn how to cite in a proper form, and understand that plagiarism can result in

Most people believe that people will cheat just because they are a dishonest person. Although, scientists have done studies that have shown that most people will cheat under the right situation. In James Lang’s article “How College Classes Encourage Cheating,” Lang states, that 75 percent of students have at least cheated once while attending college (1). Academic dishonesty is a growing problem in college and there are many possible ways to fix it. My solutions are improving plagiarism detection software and using it more often and increasing students’ knowledge on honor code.