Should College Students Plagiarize?

Ms. Wilensky believes that plagiarism occurs because “students leave high school unprepared for the intellectual rigors of college writing.” In college, the writing becomes more thorough, detailed, and the need for accuracy grows. Incoming freshmen are not taught crucial critical thinking skills needed for successful college writing while still in high school. I believe that this is true because high school teachers , especially upperclassmen teachers, are trying to prepare their students for the SAT/ACT and/ or state finals.

In the article, “Plagiarism Lines Blur for Students in Digital Age” written by author Trip Gabriel, there are multiple views on the aspects of plagiarism. Some people refuse to take plagiarism seriously, having a strong educational background as foundation as well as respect for other individuals work. Plagiarism is a serious offense and often considered a form of theft. Consequences for plagiarism can vary depending upon the campus, but can lead up to expulsion. Plagiarism commonly known as taking pieces of ideas or words and phrases from someone without giving credit.

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.

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 feel too overwhelmed with college work at times, so they try to cut coners by plagiarizing to save time. Students often feel like they do not have the time to do the things they love, and still manage to keep a passing grade. Most students feel very anxious when they think about starting a research paper, or writing an essay. They do not understand that all it takes is a little practice to perfect this skill and make writing easier.Expirenced writers can maintaine a calm composure when writing because they have learned how to mange their time well by learning for mistakes. Taking the time to learn and practice writing will greatly reduce the chances of plagiarism.

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.

1. I think students plagiarize because they don't know how to cite things correctly and they do not take out enough time to correctly complete their assignments. Students in high school do not have proper study habits. This causes them to to not take courses seriously. In times where a paper or huge assignments are mandatory they wait to the last minute to complete the assignment. In efforts to finish in times, they gather information online to submit as their own work. I believe creating a class where correct MLA and study habits are introduced would be the first step.

Plagiarism is not a crime, but it is a moral offence. Plagiarism is the act of copying someone else’s original idea and passing it as one’s own work. While each university has different policy and regulations against plagiarism some examples of it are: Direct copying from original sources, copying material and making slight changes to it and paraphrasing. Plagiarism in essay writing is cheating, and students who use someone else’s intellectual property without permission, or having someone else do their essay work are breaking the educational institution regulations. These practices of cheating create lack of creativity, inability to gain new knowledge and disrespect towards the professor and the original author.

Plagiarism can get you in a lot of trouble. Students plagiarize each others papers daily. This is not right. Students have been sent to the office and gotten referrals. They also could have their parents called for being disrespectful to their fellow classmates and to the teacher. Many people have gotten taken out of their classes for copying others papers. For example, I knew a guy in my college class that asked me to give him my essay. I told the guy there was no way that it was too much of a risk. Then, the guy texted my friend asking the same question. My friend had a crush on the boy so therefore, she gave in and sent her essay. He told her he would change it up and no one would be able to tell it was the same essay. Then both my friend and the boy both got caught with plagiarism. They were both kicked out of the class. This is one example of why you should never cheat on an assignment that was assigned to you.

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

To plagiarize is to use the work of another and represent it as your own work. The overall concept is simple. Do not copy the work of another and use it as your own. It is commonly understood, although not always adhered to, that a student should not have another write their paper nor should they purchase a pre-written paper and turn it in with their name on it. Many students can lack an understanding of the more subtle aspects of plagiarism though. A common misconception is using the work of another and simply rephrasing it or using quotes around the portion of the work of another but not citing that source. In these cases, a student might not realize that they may be plagiarizing another author.

Normally some students think that taking someones ideas and taking credit for it is a smart thing to do. There are many reasons how plagiarism can be a huge problem. Taking credit for something that isn't yours. Plagiarism occurs in many ways such as: people hear about plagiarism and they know it's not the right thing to do. But they still do it anyways. Why you ask? They do this because it makes their like a lot easier. For example when something is late and it's due the next day people panic and just copy someones work. The reason being for this is because its much faster than just doing the work and its also last minute. This also occurs because people most likely think that if you take someones work that they wouldn't catch them. This is

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.

Plagiarism is using information that is obtained from another source without giving credit to that source. This can mean using the exact words of another writer, or it can mean taking the ideas of another writer and putting them into your own words. This is known as paraphrasing. In both situations, students should make sure they indicate the name of the writer and the location of the article they found it in. If students do not include this information, it is a form of stealing. The concept of stealing something that is intellectual property may be unusual for some students to understand at first, but it is really quite simple. The ideas and words that someone else has taken the time to compose belong to that person. To use those ideas and words without giving credit to that person is like stealing that writer's work. That is why it is important to let your reader know where you got the original idea from. It is not difficult for students to avoid plagiarism as long as they understand what the concept means. Once they understand what it means, they can learn how to avoid it in the ways this paper will show.

Plagiarism is common in schools, working places, and anywhere in general. Since it is such a common thing, people do it without even blinking an eye. Though you may think it will benefit you, plagiarism is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. It can effect the person you are stealing from, their grades, work, or possibly get them fired. It is also considered stealing, and cheating. This would be breaking the Ten Commandments, as a Christian, and would be seen as a sin. In the end, plagiarism prevents you from learning and growing as a person and you will not benefit from it in a positively.