The Pros And Cons Of Plagiarism

Academic dishonesty is the use of unauthorized assistance with the intent to deceive an instructor. Academic dishonesty includes behaviors like cheating, plagiarism, and fabrication. Cheating is the use of materials, information or notes that are not authorized by the instructor. Plagiarism is the act of claiming or using someone’s own words or ideas and using them as your own without giving them credit. Fabrication involves falsifying information or data.

In the growing age of the internet, it has become easier and easier for students to plagiarize. In many ways plagiarism hasn't changed at all, it is still a shortcut students may take to get a paper or assignment done as fast as possible. It can sometimes be difficult to recognize what plagiarism is and why it is such an inexcusable action. Understanding plagiarism is one key to becoming a better writer: knowing what plagiarism is, the importance of documentation and when to use MLA or APA.

Academic honesty, expected of every student, is essential to the process of education and to upholding high ethical standards. Cheating, including plagiarism, inappropriate use of technology, or any other kind of unethical or dishonest behavior, may subject the student to severe academic penalties, including dismissal.All work submitted for evaluation in a course, including tests, term papers, and computer programs, must represent only the work of the student unless indicated otherwise. This includes homework, essays, theses, and creative projects.Material taken from the work of others must be acknowledged. Materials submitted to fulfill requirements in one course may not be submitted in another course without prior approval of the instructor.

This article takes a look at dishonesty in general and plagiarism itself. First, the author takes a look at takes a look at the universities. It asks the question, “Who is teaching the students?” (Chace, W.M., 21) The faculty of the universities are becoming more part-time professors who do not give their full loyalty to the university or the students. The full-time

The word plagiarism is defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as the action of “...copy[ing] and pass[ing] off (the expression of ideas or words of another) as one’s own… without crediting the source”. In the Howard County Public School’s “Code of Conduct” the levels of severity for consequences regarding actions such as plagiarizing are thoroughly explained using levels. Level I resulting in the least harmful consequences for a student and Level V resulting in the harshest. In my experience with the Level system of punishment, I would place my punishment for plagiarism at Level IV which includes a referral and required parent notification. The outcome of my actions has also resulted in a lunch detention and a zero on the assignment. In this paper, I will be explaining the courses of punishment for academic dishonesty (exclusively plagiarism) at the top three colleges I wish to apply to following high school and what punishment I would have faced if I plagiarized my paper in those colleges. The colleges include University of Maryland, Florida State University, and the University of California, Irvine.

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

Many argue over the morals of academic dishonesty. Eugene Bratek writes his thoughts and opinions in his article, “Moving From Cheating to Academic Dishonesty”. In his article, the author writes of occasions of cheating in prevalent schools and how as a community, people can spend less time blaming others and more time building a community of trust. Bratek is completely correct in his writings of ending cheating and becoming an honest community. Bratek points to the fact that cheating and “cutting corners” are making good grades difficult to obtain in the long run.

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.

The social mantra that life’s success is determined by one’s academic accomplishment contributes to the pressure placed upon students to strive for the best academic standing, often at any cost. Unfortunately, in this scenario the focus on grades may have more importance than the focus on acquiring knowledge and a lack of academic integrity has become increasingly more prevalent in the educational system within the last few decades. As a result schools have begun invoking severe punishment upon students who exhibit academic dishonesty within their schoolwork. Although academic dishonesty is deceitful and fraudulent, the social and economic

Often, having a college degree creates a sense of pride and accomplishment in an individual as well as the people around them. They are seen with more respect and admiration and are considered to be more successful. However, their degree would have no value if the university they attended was known for their lack of academic integrity. Cheating in universities has become a huge problem in today’s society. This is why universities have adopted academic integrity policies. This importance of honesty is especially crucial for major research universities such as Oklahoma State University(OSU) and The University of North Texas(UNT).

Academic dishonesty is defined as any behavior, in the student’s learning process, that violate the principles of justice and fairness, in order to achieve the goal of getting higher grade or some specific credential, for example, cheating on tests, plagiarism (Lin & Wen, 2006)

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).

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.

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.

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.