Category: Plagiarism

Abstract

Even though the issue of plagiarism dates back to over a thousand years ago, nowadays, it is more relevant than ever. This paper discusses the notion of plagiarism. Firstly, the definition of plagiarism is introduced. Then, the historical trends are covered. The different types of academic plagiarism are then discussed, both intentional and unintentional, including copy-pasting, switching words and direct quotation, plagiarizing a style, and plagiarizing an idea. Causes of plagiarism are then discussed as well as the preventive measures currently in place. The focus is then shifted to the future of plagiarism in contemporary society and the effect of information technologies. Finally, conclusions based on the research conducted are made and solutions are proposed.

Introduction

A great variety of issues in the academic sphere are connected with the act of plagiarism, which has gained popularity among high school and college students. To understand the nature of plagiarism, one should accurately define the term. According to Peter Ashworth, Madeleine Freewood, and Ranald Macdonald (2003) plagiarism refers to any act of unauthorized use of the original words or language of the author, which another person presents as his/her writing. Plagiarism is widespread not only in academic establishments but also can be easily traced in journalism or on the Internet. The majority of concerns regard the existence of plagiarism in the sphere of education since students should learn how to express their own opinions instead of simply copying or imitating thoughts. So, a well-planned strategy of measures of gradual plagiarism abolishment among students should be developed and successfully implemented. This paper will concentrate on the history of plagiarism deeply rooted in many spheres of creative work. Having discussed historical perspective, explicit instances of plagiarism will be covered including copy-pasting material directly, switching words, plagiarizing an idea, and plagiarizing a style. Statistical facts and general trends will then be identified. Later the focus will be switched to causes of that sort of stealing such as teaching techniques that should be used by teachers in class, anti-plagiarism software tools, Freedmans New Paradigm. As part of the causes, the effectiveness of punishment as a preventive measure will be assessed. Finally, conclusions will be made based on the research conducted; suggestions for future research will follow.

Plagiarism: Historic Perspective

Plagiarism was not founded by modern students, but its roots go deep in the history of literature. The word plagiarism itself comes from the Latin word plagiare with its original meaning to abduct or even to kidnap and this word first appeared in the English language back in the sixteenth century. The expropriation of the work of another person and presentation of it like your own is a bright violation of the ethic of society(Kaplan, Louis, 1995). It undermines the historical inquiry. But it is a rather surprising fact, that even Shakespeare was accused of stealing his great plots from Holinshed, another medieval philosopher, and writer. Such reputable and well-known literature representatives, as Samuel Coleridge and Laurence Sterne, committed shameful acts of plagiarism. As history evolves, the instances of plagiarism became significantly more frequent and more sophisticated.

Today, with the development of mass media, plagiarism boundaries have significantly expanded. A rather ironic, but truthful article Plagiarize, Plagiarize Plagiarize, Only Be Sure to Always Call It Research describes different cases of plagiarism in the history of journalism, focusing on the consequences of the act of stealing authors works and ideas: To be sure, most writers and editors still regard plagiarism as a journalistic evil  the professions cardinal sin. [&] Punishment is uneven, ranging from severe to virtually nothing even for major offenses. (Lieberman, 1995, p.21) Even though the instances of plagiarism should have decreased over time with the invention of tools aiding in the war on plagiarism, e.g. TurnItIn, Eve, the situation became even more complex with no standardized punishment and effective legal base in effect, as noted by Lieberman (1995). According to statistical data presented by iParadigms, a software company that developed the TurnItIn program, an anti-plagiarism tool widely accepted in academic circles, as much as 97,5% of students are allowed to copy their work in 1989, as compared with only 58,3% in 1969 (2007). The stated above statistical trend is very representative in terms of the general trend identified by Lieberman (1995).

Instances of Academic Plagiarism

Plagiarism can take many forms, becoming more popular and widely spread virtually in every kind of creative work. The most common types of academic plagiarism include Copy and Paste, World Switch, Idea Plagiarism, and Style Plagiarism.

Copy-Pasting

Copy-pasting occurs when a person picks up a sentence or a significant phrase from a source without using quotation marks, without reference to the source. A lot of famous works were violently plagiarized by those who do not care about somebodys rights. By those whose shame does not come between them and ethnic borders, between stealing and bringing something absolutely new in science, art, or any other field of study.

Whether the whole passage is copied or only a phrase of an author is given out as students own words, this instance of plagiarism would still be direct copy-pasting of material.

The reason why copy-pasting became so popular is directly related to the ease of availability of information online that could have been passed out by students as their own work. Many studies conducted among students confirm that the availability of Internet and research material in the digital form directly stimulated academic plagiarism. Furthermore, the very concept of copy-pasting is oftentimes referred to as electronic plagiarism primarily for the reason why it occurs.

It should be noted, that the instances of direct copy-pasting are becoming less popular among students since a number of anti-plagiarism software tools have been developed and successfully put into practice in academic institutions. As such, even though direct copy-pasting is one of the violent forms of plagiarism, it is getting less popular.

Switching Words: Direct Quote

To make correctly quoting a sentence, a person needs to put it in quotation marks, cite the author and the name of the work. Citing the Source articles should be done only if it is particularly useful in making the point in the quote and the whole work. There are a lot of cases when the quotation is not needed or is not useful at all.

Correct citing of the quotation marks is a very important part of the work. Commas and periods must be placed inside, not outside of quotation marks. All other punctuation must be placed outside quotation marks and only if the original source is contained within it, put inside. Even if a comma is not a part of the original quotation, the stated above practice must be followed. Furthermore, it is a general rule to place commas and periods inside the quotation mark, whereas other punctuation including question marks, exclamation points, colons, semicolons should be placed outside of the quotation itself.

Single quotation marks must be used if the inside of a long quote appears a shorter one. Internal quotation inside of quotation mark helps the reader to distinguish the internal quote in the material surrounding it. A reader also determines from which source a single marked internal quote was drawn.

Both sorts of quotation marks, single and double, need to be used when in the cited source the entire quote has been repeated. Actually, to minimize the possibility of plagiarism by citing the original source, one should ensure that:

1. authority is used effectively;
2. the original source is read by a writer.

It should be further noted, that the very meaning of a sentence can be altered by effective usage of punctuation when citing information directly. But the writer must never forget that he is the only one to decide which way to use and understand how important it is to cite information correctly considering the possibility of plagiarism.

To synthesize the expression of ideas in the source article can be enough to make the work. Still, many students are seeking the easy way out by inserting long quotations in the body of work to increase the number of words oftentimes at cost for the quality of the work itself (Mcleod, Kembrew, 2001).

Plagiarizing an Idea

Every writer must be aware that reproducing or publishing words of another person without acknowledging the words is plagiarism. But the instance of plagiarism applies not to the published word only, but also to many unpublished materials, pictures, graphs, spoken words, opinions, ideas. Plagiarism can occur any time when somebodys material is being used, regardless of the material of the original source. The collective work of students can be a bright example of a situation when unintentional plagiarism occurs. During the collaboration, when many students working in one team are using ideas and materials of others, credit must be given to the original authors when the work itself is submitted. When the fact of incorporated work in the final product is not properly acknowledged person is guilty of plagiarism.

In many famous cases, the misappropriation of an idea of other person is a subtle process. Consider the case of Albert Schatz, a graduated student working at Rutgers under Selman Waksman. Schatz discovered an antibiotic named streptomycin. Even though the first publications of his work identified Schatz as the primary author, it was Waksman who began to take credit, over some time, for the discovery earning him in 1952 a Nobel prize.

A lot of dissertations, theses, and other long-term papers are required to be completed by students. As long as professionals submit articles to publishers, there will continuously be incidents of plagiarism. However, in mid -80s, in courts in the USA was a significant increase in the amount of litigation. In 1978, Alsbte, a student from Massachusetts, revoked the license of the physician to practice medicine to earn his M.D. degree. He committed four acts of plagiarism by stealing the ideas from the articles published earlier. The Board of Registration in Medicine founded in 1988 called that lack of good moral character which is required to practice medicine. The Supreme Court of Massachusetts affirmed this revocation (Barry, 2006, p. 377).

But actually, the situation is much worse than it was reported. Later Alsbte has reported that he had plagiarized more than sixty articles to claim both of his degrees and PH.D., none of which he had earned.

Plagiarism is the appropriation of another persons ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit, including those
obtained through confidential review of others research proposals and manuscripts, (Bolkan, 2006, p. 10).

Plagiarizing a Style

Even the style of writing itself can be subject to plagiarism. Even though a writing style is not protected under a general Copyright Law, plagiarizing a writing style is still considered a crime in academic circles. Style plagiarism occurs primarily because searching for own particular style is a long-lasting and difficult process. Give it is hard to get, the style becomes a real value for each writer. A style is determined by a few factors:

1. the writers selection of words;
2. the different ways those words can be arranged ( in paragraphs, sentences) to create meaning;
3. the assumptions of the writer about who is to read his or her work;
4. the conventions appropriate to the context, the writer is working in(Timothy J., and Bennett L. Schwartz, 2002).

This type of plagiarism is difficult to be detected; instead, style plagiarism oftentimes remains unnoticed. Still, plagiarizing a style remains an offense for students, being one of the types of plagiarism.

Plagiarism: Statistical Facts

To realize the scope of the issue of plagiarism, it is necessary to research the statistics on this problem. Unfortunately, the studies of various educational establishments remain rather sad: the Center for Academic Integrity reported that over 80% of students admitted that they have cheated at least once in 1986; a survey of the Psychological Record has shown that almost 36 % of college students said that they had plagiarized works of different authors (Lieberman, 1995). However, a much more serious issue is that almost all students believe that cheating is rarely noticed or that students that plagiarize rarely get punished. Consequently, students live in an environment where plagiarism and cheating are blooming, that is why when they have a choice of plagiarizing or not most of them see nothing significantly wrong in copying someones work or at least imitating it.

Until the issue of plagiarism is accurately addressed, the statistics will remain the same: 54% of students at least once plagiarized from the internet, 74% of students cheated, and 47% of them are convinced that some teachers ignore students cheating or plagiarism (iParadigms, 2007). According to the study conducted by Gallup Organization in 2000, the two major problems that society faces in the present day are lack of education and a decline in ethics (iParadigms, 2007). Given the issue of plagiarism became even more widespread with the availability of information in digital form, when combined with the general decline in ethics, the scope of the problem is even more impressive.

Causes of Plagiarism

Representatives from the academic sphere can not fully understand the nature of plagiarism unless they ascertain the most significant causes of this act and students understanding of plagiarism.

As it was mentioned earlier, plagiarism was evolving and expanding together with innovations in computer technologies and science. However, these factors should not be considered as the actual causes of plagiarism, since they only set a convenient environment for students who can easily take advantage of these techniques. So, one can conclude that problem of plagiarism lies in how students perceive this process: whether it is ethical for them and how common it is among their peers( Macfarlane, Bruce, 2004). Moreover, many students tend to set certain priorities on the necessity of certain courses, and those who seem to be of less importance for them are more likely to be cheated on. Sometimes the process of cheating or plagiarizing is connected with the rebellion of students against unjust assessment criteria set by the teacher: students are not willing to spend their time on the assignment which will be graded with no regard for their efforts.

According to the studies of Ashworth and Bannister reflected in the article The Student Lifeworld and the Meanings of Plagiarism, there is one more students justification for plagiarizing: General discontent with how students perceived themselves to be regarded by academic staff was not only due to large classes and lack of faculty-student contact. Tasks which did not engage the student also conveyed the impression of staff disrespect, (Ashworth, Free wood, Macdonald, 2003, p.257). So, the less time teacher spends working with each student individually, the less attention and respect student will pay to this particular course or subject.

As such, the reasons for plagiarism are multiple and oftentimes cannot be identified separately. Instead, some factors intervene convenient environment established by digital information, heavy workload and peer pressure, inability to set priorities and lack of motivation, the inability of government and educational system address the issue of plagiarism.

Measures against Plagiarism

Given the issue of plagiarism dates back to centuries ago, there are numerous recommendations for improving educational processes and taking measures against plagiarism. To apply these recommendations successfully, it is important to outline the most practical and useful ones.

A. Freedmans New Paradigm: Michael Freedman, an assistant professor at Fordham University in New York, believes that the educational system should be adopted for the New Information Age. His theory of a new paradigm lies in the idea that students should learn how to work with multiple resources in the libraries and Internet and select the most appropriate for their assignments. Freedman is convinced that students do not need to write their works, but know how to work with useful information. Prevention, not detection, is at the heart of the new paradigm for combating plagiarism,- these words best sum up Freedmans position on the issue of plagiarism (Freedman, 2004, p. 545).

The theory proposed by Freedman is centered on the students learning process rather than on ethical concerns. Even though these measures will be effective to some degree, one should concentrate on the fact that students often acknowledge what they are doing. As such, the issue is more ethical.

Teaching Techniques of Accurate Citing

This measure anticipates setting the system of seminars and lectures on the consequences of plagiarism, as well as the appropriate style of citing required in every case when the authors ideas are presented. According to Elaine Barry (2006), the majority of college undergraduates do not have a sufficient amount of knowledge on the accurate citing of secondary sources. However, it was outlined that students have significantly improved their performance after they received instructions on the correct usage of citing styles. As such, teachers should start their courses with lectures on plagiarism and citation styles, so that students would be aware of teachers requirements from the very beginning of the course.

However, teaching students the techniques of accurate citation is not enough to diminish the level of plagiarism. It is necessary to look deeper into the origin of plagiarism  in most cases, students take advantage of plagiarism because of their lack of confidence in their writing skills, their personal ethics, as well as the lack of interest in learning more about a certain topic. So, it is necessary to work out a system of measures, which would include lectures on plagiarism and students ethics, courses on improving students writing and researching skills.

Anti-Plagiarism Software

The Information Age has not only led to the expansion of plagiarism in the world but has brought new powerful tools of struggle against the evil of the twenty-first century. The list of anti-software programs is rather long and includes the following innovative techniques: Glatt Plagiarism Screening Program, Essay Verification Engine, Plagiserve, Turnitin.com, or even Google. Turnitin is one of the best examples of programs that help educators identify plagiarism and conduct a much more just assessment of students works. Article Using the Google Search Engine to Detect Word-for-Word Plagiarism in Masters Theses: A Preliminary Study by Melissa Holmberg and Mark McCullough describes the process of ascertaining the act of plagiarism:

Plagiarism detection services typically require student papers to be submitted to professors in electronic format. Professors then submit the papers to the software company which runs the paper against its own database of online resources. The professor then receives reports from the company detailing which papers appear to contain plagiarism. (2005, p.435).

The problem of using anti-software programs lies in their high cost, so many universities and high schools choose not to pay for the expensive process of plagiarism identification. Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem  Google Search engine, which is a free and rather fast tool against plagiarism. To prove the efficiency of Google, some fact can be presented: over 200 electronic works were examined by Google, the average time for ascertaining the percentage of plagiarized words was approximately 4 minutes, and as a result, 27% of works contained rather a high level of plagiarized or imitated phrases. This survey shows the importance of running students works through anti-plagiarism software and punishing those students who choose the easy way of plagiarizing someones works (Holmberg, McCullough, 2005, p.435).

Punishment as a Preventive Measure against Plagiarism

The majority of students commit the act of plagiarizing not realizing that it is a crime (in educational terms). Consequently, they can be severely punished if caught plagiarizing. Most university and high schools have similar policies regarding plagiarism suspensions or Fs for the assignment, or even the entire course. In some reputable educational establishments, like Yale or Harvard, students are punished for plagiarism much more severely- with a two-semester suspension, or even dismissal from the institution in some cases.

It is impractical, if not impossible to have an effective punitive policy in place without strong deterrence and detection policies. Furthermore, without a policy in place, deterrence is not as effective, and detection is unlikely to be a priority,- according to the article Avoid the Plague: Tips and Tricks for Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism, elaborate policy against plagiarism is the best tool for preventing this shameful act (Bolkan, 2006, p. 10).

So, every educational establishment should work out a section that would deal with the issue of plagiarism, measures to prevent it, and punishment for breaking the anti-plagiarism policy. To make this policy more effective, it would be appropriate to involve students in the process of setting certain rules, as well as punishment measures, so that students are well aware of the universitys policy.

Future of Plagiarism: World Wide Web

The problem of plagiarism in recent years is a topic of escalating concern. Oftentimes the problem is compound with diversity across many different disciplines. Recent studies and policies are primarily centered on the reduction of instances of plagiarism. By creating new strategies for detecting plagiarism, policies in place stimulate students to produce their own original work. In May 2006 in Sheffield took place a forum led by Engineering Subject Center on which a great number of students works were presented aiming at reflecting the problem and elimination of plagiarism. Among these works, there were a lot of appropriate techniques and software, approaching to detection of plagiarism and strategies for addressing the issues. The selection of disciplines such as engineering and others is helping to reinforce and provide the best weapon in the war against plagiarism.

The rise of technologies and the internet decline student writing. Selling term works on the internet became a regular practice and that encourages many students to commit a crime named plagiarism. When all people on the World Wide.

We are going to treat plagiarism the way it deserves to be treated, only then humanity will have a chance to defeat plagiarism. Until that time, theyre always will be people without honor and dignity violently stealing others ideas and works.

Conclusion

Although it is difficult to accurately gauge just how pervasive plagiarism is and whether the Internet has made the problem worse, as more than one wag has noted, it is the unoriginal sin. Eradicating cheating isnt likely to ever be accomplished, but some tools and techniques can help keep the educational environment much more honest,- these words best sum up the issue of plagiarism, as one of the most common types of cheating (Bolkan, 2006, p. 10).

Plagiarism is the act of stealing someones writing or thoughts, so it can not be viewed from any positive perspective, just as any other type of crime. The origin of plagiarism is so old that it seems impossible to abolish it completely, so educators should strive to implement new measures to fight its further development. In this paper, we have examined in detail the issue of plagiarism including causes and preventive measures as well as prospects for the future; still, a lot is left for further research. As evident from the research above, there are multiple causes of plagiarism as well as proposed courses of action that should be taken to address them. As such, future research should be centered on determining the major problem of plagiarism  whether it is a lack of education or, instead, knowledgeable unethical acts, as different policies aimed at fighting plagiarism can be adopted to address the issue.

Works Cited

Ashworth, Peter, Madeleine Freewood, and Ranald Macdonald. The Student Lifeworld and the Meanings of Plagiarism. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology 34.2 (2003): 257.

Barry, Elaine S. Can Paraphrasing Practice Help Students Define Plagiarism? College Student Journal 40.2 (2006): 377.

Bolkan, J.V. Avoid the Plague: Tips and Tricks for Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism. Learning & Leading with Technology. 2006: 10.

Freedman, Michael P. A Tale of Plagiarism and a New Paradigm. Phi Delta Kappan 85.7 (2004): 545.

Kaplan, Louis. Laszlao Moholy-Nagy: Biographical Writings. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995.

Lieberman, Trudy. Plagiarize, Plagiarize Plagiarize, Only Be Sure to Always Call It Research. Columbia Journalism Review. 1995: 21.

McCullough, Mark, and Melissa Holmberg. Using the Google Search Engine to Detect Word-for-Word Plagiarism in Masters Theses: A Preliminary Study. College Student Journal 39.3 (2005): 435.

Macfarlane, Bruce. Teaching with Integrity: The Ethics of Higher Education Practice. London: Routledge Falmer, 2004.

Mcleod, Kembrew. Owning Culture: Authorship, Ownership, and Intellectual Property Law. New York: Peter Lang, 2001.

Perfect, Timothy J., and Bennett L. Schwartz, eds. Applied Metacognition. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Academic Integrity

Today, the interest in issues connected with academic integrity and plagiarism, in particular, is rapidly growing (Ford & Hughes, 2012). The extent of these problems is increasing with the number of educational institutions (Macfarlane, Zhang, & Pun, 2014). By the definition of Jiang, Emmerton, and McKauge, plagiarism is stealing the words or ideas of someone else and passing them off as ones own without crediting the source (2013, para. 1). Academic dishonesty is an unacceptable measure that violates ethical behaviors and may lead to serious implications for both the audience and the cheaters.

Case Study #1

Since Jenny has realized that she was having trouble with understanding long before the test, she had time to change it studying harder and asking other students or the professor for extra help. Jennys actions are the clear constitution of academic dishonesty. The F grade on the test is an acceptable sanction in this instance. To avoid such situations in the future, Jenny must manage her time according to the current circumstances.

Case Study#2

Simply turning in the same paper without any changes for the second time is dishonest of Ben. Perhaps, Ben should talk to the professor, explaining that he had already written that paper, and ask him for suggestions on how to develop the ideas to keep the paper appropriate for the current assignment. It would be good for Ben to take the opportunity and make his paper even better. Even though Bens writing is not plagiarism, it is unacceptable for him to turn it in without changes.

Case Study#3

Every member of the group must know the whole content of the assignment, not only their part. It can be understood that there is a friendship between Mike, Todd, and Chris, but they should not cheat. It is both Mikes and Todds faultMikes is that he does not know the content and asks Todd to show the answers, Todds is that he agrees. Moreover, Chris is put into conditions when he has to choose between their friendship and rules.

Case Study#4

Jennifer is wrong. She is plagiarizing. It is not important whether her opinion is the same or different, Jennifer is presenting someone elses thoughts as her own. The authors words must be cited. Jennifer should paraphrase or directly quote all the content she had plagiarized, and give credit to the author.

Case Study#5

Citing the Internet as a source is insufficient because the Internet is not a verified source, and it contains a lot of false and plagiarized information. Though it is not plagiarism because the sources were cited, they were cited incorrectly. Lee should not use the material which is not verified because it may have serious consequences, especially when it comes to healthcare-related researches. His actions may be viewed as an example of unconscionable work.

Conclusion

Academic dishonesty is an unacceptable measure that violates ethical behaviors and may lead to serious implications for both the audience and the cheaters. Growing along with the development of educational institutions, the issues connected with academic integrity, and plagiarism today is a concern of scholars all over the world. Some of the students are plagiarizing unintentionally, but there are a lot of those who do it purposely. Although it is universally recognized that plagiarism may lead to serious consequences, the students continue to neglect the rules of academic writing.

References

Ford, P. J., & Hughes, C. (2012). Academic integrity and plagiarism: Perceptions and experience of staff and students in a school of dentistry: A situational analysis of staff and student perspectives. European Journal of Dental Education, 16(1), 180-186.

Jiang, H., Emmerton, L., & McKauge, L. (2013). Academic integrity and plagiarism: A review of the influences and risk situations for health students. Higher Education Research & Development, 32(3), 369-380.

Macfarlane, B., Zhang, J., & Pun, A. (2014). Academic integrity: A review of the literature. Studies in Higher Education, 39(2), 339-358.

Abstract

Even though the issue of plagiarism dates back to over a thousand years ago, nowadays, it is more relevant than ever. This paper discusses the notion of plagiarism. Firstly, the definition of plagiarism is introduced. Then, the historical trends are covered. The different types of academic plagiarism are then discussed, both intentional and unintentional, including copy-pasting, switching words and direct quotation, plagiarizing a style, and plagiarizing an idea. Causes of plagiarism are then discussed as well as the preventive measures currently in place. The focus is then shifted to the future of plagiarism in contemporary society and the effect of information technologies. Finally, conclusions based on the research conducted are made and solutions are proposed.

Introduction

A great variety of issues in the academic sphere are connected with the act of plagiarism, which has gained popularity among high school and college students. To understand the nature of plagiarism, one should accurately define the term. According to Peter Ashworth, Madeleine Freewood, and Ranald Macdonald (2003) plagiarism refers to any act of unauthorized use of the original words or language of the author, which another person presents as his/her writing. Plagiarism is widespread not only in academic establishments but also can be easily traced in journalism or on the Internet. The majority of concerns regard the existence of plagiarism in the sphere of education since students should learn how to express their own opinions instead of simply copying or imitating thoughts. So, a well-planned strategy of measures of gradual plagiarism abolishment among students should be developed and successfully implemented. This paper will concentrate on the history of plagiarism deeply rooted in many spheres of creative work. Having discussed historical perspective, explicit instances of plagiarism will be covered including copy-pasting material directly, switching words, plagiarizing an idea, and plagiarizing a style. Statistical facts and general trends will then be identified. Later the focus will be switched to causes of that sort of stealing such as teaching techniques that should be used by teachers in class, anti-plagiarism software tools, Freedmans New Paradigm. As part of the causes, the effectiveness of punishment as a preventive measure will be assessed. Finally, conclusions will be made based on the research conducted; suggestions for future research will follow.

Plagiarism: Historic Perspective

Plagiarism was not founded by modern students, but its roots go deep in the history of literature. The word plagiarism itself comes from the Latin word plagiare with its original meaning to abduct or even to kidnap and this word first appeared in the English language back in the sixteenth century. The expropriation of the work of another person and presentation of it like your own is a bright violation of the ethic of society(Kaplan, Louis, 1995). It undermines the historical inquiry. But it is a rather surprising fact, that even Shakespeare was accused of stealing his great plots from Holinshed, another medieval philosopher, and writer. Such reputable and well-known literature representatives, as Samuel Coleridge and Laurence Sterne, committed shameful acts of plagiarism. As history evolves, the instances of plagiarism became significantly more frequent and more sophisticated.

Today, with the development of mass media, plagiarism boundaries have significantly expanded. A rather ironic, but truthful article Plagiarize, Plagiarize Plagiarize, Only Be Sure to Always Call It Research describes different cases of plagiarism in the history of journalism, focusing on the consequences of the act of stealing authors works and ideas: To be sure, most writers and editors still regard plagiarism as a journalistic evil  the professions cardinal sin. [&] Punishment is uneven, ranging from severe to virtually nothing even for major offenses. (Lieberman, 1995, p.21) Even though the instances of plagiarism should have decreased over time with the invention of tools aiding in the war on plagiarism, e.g. TurnItIn, Eve, the situation became even more complex with no standardized punishment and effective legal base in effect, as noted by Lieberman (1995). According to statistical data presented by iParadigms, a software company that developed the TurnItIn program, an anti-plagiarism tool widely accepted in academic circles, as much as 97,5% of students are allowed to copy their work in 1989, as compared with only 58,3% in 1969 (2007). The stated above statistical trend is very representative in terms of the general trend identified by Lieberman (1995).

Instances of Academic Plagiarism

Plagiarism can take many forms, becoming more popular and widely spread virtually in every kind of creative work. The most common types of academic plagiarism include Copy and Paste, World Switch, Idea Plagiarism, and Style Plagiarism.

Copy-Pasting

Copy-pasting occurs when a person picks up a sentence or a significant phrase from a source without using quotation marks, without reference to the source. A lot of famous works were violently plagiarized by those who do not care about somebodys rights. By those whose shame does not come between them and ethnic borders, between stealing and bringing something absolutely new in science, art, or any other field of study.

Whether the whole passage is copied or only a phrase of an author is given out as students own words, this instance of plagiarism would still be direct copy-pasting of material.

The reason why copy-pasting became so popular is directly related to the ease of availability of information online that could have been passed out by students as their own work. Many studies conducted among students confirm that the availability of Internet and research material in the digital form directly stimulated academic plagiarism. Furthermore, the very concept of copy-pasting is oftentimes referred to as electronic plagiarism primarily for the reason why it occurs.

It should be noted, that the instances of direct copy-pasting are becoming less popular among students since a number of anti-plagiarism software tools have been developed and successfully put into practice in academic institutions. As such, even though direct copy-pasting is one of the violent forms of plagiarism, it is getting less popular.

Switching Words: Direct Quote

To make correctly quoting a sentence, a person needs to put it in quotation marks, cite the author and the name of the work. Citing the Source articles should be done only if it is particularly useful in making the point in the quote and the whole work. There are a lot of cases when the quotation is not needed or is not useful at all.

Correct citing of the quotation marks is a very important part of the work. Commas and periods must be placed inside, not outside of quotation marks. All other punctuation must be placed outside quotation marks and only if the original source is contained within it, put inside. Even if a comma is not a part of the original quotation, the stated above practice must be followed. Furthermore, it is a general rule to place commas and periods inside the quotation mark, whereas other punctuation including question marks, exclamation points, colons, semicolons should be placed outside of the quotation itself.

Single quotation marks must be used if the inside of a long quote appears a shorter one. Internal quotation inside of quotation mark helps the reader to distinguish the internal quote in the material surrounding it. A reader also determines from which source a single marked internal quote was drawn.

Both sorts of quotation marks, single and double, need to be used when in the cited source the entire quote has been repeated. Actually, to minimize the possibility of plagiarism by citing the original source, one should ensure that:

1. authority is used effectively;
2. the original source is read by a writer.

It should be further noted, that the very meaning of a sentence can be altered by effective usage of punctuation when citing information directly. But the writer must never forget that he is the only one to decide which way to use and understand how important it is to cite information correctly considering the possibility of plagiarism.

To synthesize the expression of ideas in the source article can be enough to make the work. Still, many students are seeking the easy way out by inserting long quotations in the body of work to increase the number of words oftentimes at cost for the quality of the work itself (Mcleod, Kembrew, 2001).

Plagiarizing an Idea

Every writer must be aware that reproducing or publishing words of another person without acknowledging the words is plagiarism. But the instance of plagiarism applies not to the published word only, but also to many unpublished materials, pictures, graphs, spoken words, opinions, ideas. Plagiarism can occur any time when somebodys material is being used, regardless of the material of the original source. The collective work of students can be a bright example of a situation when unintentional plagiarism occurs. During the collaboration, when many students working in one team are using ideas and materials of others, credit must be given to the original authors when the work itself is submitted. When the fact of incorporated work in the final product is not properly acknowledged person is guilty of plagiarism.

In many famous cases, the misappropriation of an idea of other person is a subtle process. Consider the case of Albert Schatz, a graduated student working at Rutgers under Selman Waksman. Schatz discovered an antibiotic named streptomycin. Even though the first publications of his work identified Schatz as the primary author, it was Waksman who began to take credit, over some time, for the discovery earning him in 1952 a Nobel prize.

A lot of dissertations, theses, and other long-term papers are required to be completed by students. As long as professionals submit articles to publishers, there will continuously be incidents of plagiarism. However, in mid -80s, in courts in the USA was a significant increase in the amount of litigation. In 1978, Alsbte, a student from Massachusetts, revoked the license of the physician to practice medicine to earn his M.D. degree. He committed four acts of plagiarism by stealing the ideas from the articles published earlier. The Board of Registration in Medicine founded in 1988 called that lack of good moral character which is required to practice medicine. The Supreme Court of Massachusetts affirmed this revocation (Barry, 2006, p. 377).

But actually, the situation is much worse than it was reported. Later Alsbte has reported that he had plagiarized more than sixty articles to claim both of his degrees and PH.D., none of which he had earned.

Plagiarism is the appropriation of another persons ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit, including those
obtained through confidential review of others research proposals and manuscripts, (Bolkan, 2006, p. 10).

Plagiarizing a Style

Even the style of writing itself can be subject to plagiarism. Even though a writing style is not protected under a general Copyright Law, plagiarizing a writing style is still considered a crime in academic circles. Style plagiarism occurs primarily because searching for own particular style is a long-lasting and difficult process. Give it is hard to get, the style becomes a real value for each writer. A style is determined by a few factors:

1. the writers selection of words;
2. the different ways those words can be arranged ( in paragraphs, sentences) to create meaning;
3. the assumptions of the writer about who is to read his or her work;
4. the conventions appropriate to the context, the writer is working in(Timothy J., and Bennett L. Schwartz, 2002).

This type of plagiarism is difficult to be detected; instead, style plagiarism oftentimes remains unnoticed. Still, plagiarizing a style remains an offense for students, being one of the types of plagiarism.

Plagiarism: Statistical Facts

To realize the scope of the issue of plagiarism, it is necessary to research the statistics on this problem. Unfortunately, the studies of various educational establishments remain rather sad: the Center for Academic Integrity reported that over 80% of students admitted that they have cheated at least once in 1986; a survey of the Psychological Record has shown that almost 36 % of college students said that they had plagiarized works of different authors (Lieberman, 1995). However, a much more serious issue is that almost all students believe that cheating is rarely noticed or that students that plagiarize rarely get punished. Consequently, students live in an environment where plagiarism and cheating are blooming, that is why when they have a choice of plagiarizing or not most of them see nothing significantly wrong in copying someones work or at least imitating it.

Until the issue of plagiarism is accurately addressed, the statistics will remain the same: 54% of students at least once plagiarized from the internet, 74% of students cheated, and 47% of them are convinced that some teachers ignore students cheating or plagiarism (iParadigms, 2007). According to the study conducted by Gallup Organization in 2000, the two major problems that society faces in the present day are lack of education and a decline in ethics (iParadigms, 2007). Given the issue of plagiarism became even more widespread with the availability of information in digital form, when combined with the general decline in ethics, the scope of the problem is even more impressive.

Causes of Plagiarism

Representatives from the academic sphere can not fully understand the nature of plagiarism unless they ascertain the most significant causes of this act and students understanding of plagiarism.

As it was mentioned earlier, plagiarism was evolving and expanding together with innovations in computer technologies and science. However, these factors should not be considered as the actual causes of plagiarism, since they only set a convenient environment for students who can easily take advantage of these techniques. So, one can conclude that problem of plagiarism lies in how students perceive this process: whether it is ethical for them and how common it is among their peers( Macfarlane, Bruce, 2004). Moreover, many students tend to set certain priorities on the necessity of certain courses, and those who seem to be of less importance for them are more likely to be cheated on. Sometimes the process of cheating or plagiarizing is connected with the rebellion of students against unjust assessment criteria set by the teacher: students are not willing to spend their time on the assignment which will be graded with no regard for their efforts.

According to the studies of Ashworth and Bannister reflected in the article The Student Lifeworld and the Meanings of Plagiarism, there is one more students justification for plagiarizing: General discontent with how students perceived themselves to be regarded by academic staff was not only due to large classes and lack of faculty-student contact. Tasks which did not engage the student also conveyed the impression of staff disrespect, (Ashworth, Free wood, Macdonald, 2003, p.257). So, the less time teacher spends working with each student individually, the less attention and respect student will pay to this particular course or subject.

As such, the reasons for plagiarism are multiple and oftentimes cannot be identified separately. Instead, some factors intervene convenient environment established by digital information, heavy workload and peer pressure, inability to set priorities and lack of motivation, the inability of government and educational system address the issue of plagiarism.

Measures against Plagiarism

Given the issue of plagiarism dates back to centuries ago, there are numerous recommendations for improving educational processes and taking measures against plagiarism. To apply these recommendations successfully, it is important to outline the most practical and useful ones.

A. Freedmans New Paradigm: Michael Freedman, an assistant professor at Fordham University in New York, believes that the educational system should be adopted for the New Information Age. His theory of a new paradigm lies in the idea that students should learn how to work with multiple resources in the libraries and Internet and select the most appropriate for their assignments. Freedman is convinced that students do not need to write their works, but know how to work with useful information. Prevention, not detection, is at the heart of the new paradigm for combating plagiarism,- these words best sum up Freedmans position on the issue of plagiarism (Freedman, 2004, p. 545).

The theory proposed by Freedman is centered on the students learning process rather than on ethical concerns. Even though these measures will be effective to some degree, one should concentrate on the fact that students often acknowledge what they are doing. As such, the issue is more ethical.

Teaching Techniques of Accurate Citing

This measure anticipates setting the system of seminars and lectures on the consequences of plagiarism, as well as the appropriate style of citing required in every case when the authors ideas are presented. According to Elaine Barry (2006), the majority of college undergraduates do not have a sufficient amount of knowledge on the accurate citing of secondary sources. However, it was outlined that students have significantly improved their performance after they received instructions on the correct usage of citing styles. As such, teachers should start their courses with lectures on plagiarism and citation styles, so that students would be aware of teachers requirements from the very beginning of the course.

However, teaching students the techniques of accurate citation is not enough to diminish the level of plagiarism. It is necessary to look deeper into the origin of plagiarism  in most cases, students take advantage of plagiarism because of their lack of confidence in their writing skills, their personal ethics, as well as the lack of interest in learning more about a certain topic. So, it is necessary to work out a system of measures, which would include lectures on plagiarism and students ethics, courses on improving students writing and researching skills.

Anti-Plagiarism Software

The Information Age has not only led to the expansion of plagiarism in the world but has brought new powerful tools of struggle against the evil of the twenty-first century. The list of anti-software programs is rather long and includes the following innovative techniques: Glatt Plagiarism Screening Program, Essay Verification Engine, Plagiserve, Turnitin.com, or even Google. Turnitin is one of the best examples of programs that help educators identify plagiarism and conduct a much more just assessment of students works. Article Using the Google Search Engine to Detect Word-for-Word Plagiarism in Masters Theses: A Preliminary Study by Melissa Holmberg and Mark McCullough describes the process of ascertaining the act of plagiarism:

Plagiarism detection services typically require student papers to be submitted to professors in electronic format. Professors then submit the papers to the software company which runs the paper against its own database of online resources. The professor then receives reports from the company detailing which papers appear to contain plagiarism. (2005, p.435).

The problem of using anti-software programs lies in their high cost, so many universities and high schools choose not to pay for the expensive process of plagiarism identification. Fortunately, there is a solution to this problem  Google Search engine, which is a free and rather fast tool against plagiarism. To prove the efficiency of Google, some fact can be presented: over 200 electronic works were examined by Google, the average time for ascertaining the percentage of plagiarized words was approximately 4 minutes, and as a result, 27% of works contained rather a high level of plagiarized or imitated phrases. This survey shows the importance of running students works through anti-plagiarism software and punishing those students who choose the easy way of plagiarizing someones works (Holmberg, McCullough, 2005, p.435).

Punishment as a Preventive Measure against Plagiarism

The majority of students commit the act of plagiarizing not realizing that it is a crime (in educational terms). Consequently, they can be severely punished if caught plagiarizing. Most university and high schools have similar policies regarding plagiarism suspensions or Fs for the assignment, or even the entire course. In some reputable educational establishments, like Yale or Harvard, students are punished for plagiarism much more severely- with a two-semester suspension, or even dismissal from the institution in some cases.

It is impractical, if not impossible to have an effective punitive policy in place without strong deterrence and detection policies. Furthermore, without a policy in place, deterrence is not as effective, and detection is unlikely to be a priority,- according to the article Avoid the Plague: Tips and Tricks for Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism, elaborate policy against plagiarism is the best tool for preventing this shameful act (Bolkan, 2006, p. 10).

So, every educational establishment should work out a section that would deal with the issue of plagiarism, measures to prevent it, and punishment for breaking the anti-plagiarism policy. To make this policy more effective, it would be appropriate to involve students in the process of setting certain rules, as well as punishment measures, so that students are well aware of the universitys policy.

Future of Plagiarism: World Wide Web

The problem of plagiarism in recent years is a topic of escalating concern. Oftentimes the problem is compound with diversity across many different disciplines. Recent studies and policies are primarily centered on the reduction of instances of plagiarism. By creating new strategies for detecting plagiarism, policies in place stimulate students to produce their own original work. In May 2006 in Sheffield took place a forum led by Engineering Subject Center on which a great number of students works were presented aiming at reflecting the problem and elimination of plagiarism. Among these works, there were a lot of appropriate techniques and software, approaching to detection of plagiarism and strategies for addressing the issues. The selection of disciplines such as engineering and others is helping to reinforce and provide the best weapon in the war against plagiarism.

The rise of technologies and the internet decline student writing. Selling term works on the internet became a regular practice and that encourages many students to commit a crime named plagiarism. When all people on the World Wide.

We are going to treat plagiarism the way it deserves to be treated, only then humanity will have a chance to defeat plagiarism. Until that time, theyre always will be people without honor and dignity violently stealing others ideas and works.

Conclusion

Although it is difficult to accurately gauge just how pervasive plagiarism is and whether the Internet has made the problem worse, as more than one wag has noted, it is the unoriginal sin. Eradicating cheating isnt likely to ever be accomplished, but some tools and techniques can help keep the educational environment much more honest,- these words best sum up the issue of plagiarism, as one of the most common types of cheating (Bolkan, 2006, p. 10).

Plagiarism is the act of stealing someones writing or thoughts, so it can not be viewed from any positive perspective, just as any other type of crime. The origin of plagiarism is so old that it seems impossible to abolish it completely, so educators should strive to implement new measures to fight its further development. In this paper, we have examined in detail the issue of plagiarism including causes and preventive measures as well as prospects for the future; still, a lot is left for further research. As evident from the research above, there are multiple causes of plagiarism as well as proposed courses of action that should be taken to address them. As such, future research should be centered on determining the major problem of plagiarism  whether it is a lack of education or, instead, knowledgeable unethical acts, as different policies aimed at fighting plagiarism can be adopted to address the issue.

Works Cited

Ashworth, Peter, Madeleine Freewood, and Ranald Macdonald. The Student Lifeworld and the Meanings of Plagiarism. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology 34.2 (2003): 257.

Barry, Elaine S. Can Paraphrasing Practice Help Students Define Plagiarism? College Student Journal 40.2 (2006): 377.

Bolkan, J.V. Avoid the Plague: Tips and Tricks for Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism. Learning & Leading with Technology. 2006: 10.

Freedman, Michael P. A Tale of Plagiarism and a New Paradigm. Phi Delta Kappan 85.7 (2004): 545.

Kaplan, Louis. Laszlao Moholy-Nagy: Biographical Writings. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995.

Lieberman, Trudy. Plagiarize, Plagiarize Plagiarize, Only Be Sure to Always Call It Research. Columbia Journalism Review. 1995: 21.

McCullough, Mark, and Melissa Holmberg. Using the Google Search Engine to Detect Word-for-Word Plagiarism in Masters Theses: A Preliminary Study. College Student Journal 39.3 (2005): 435.

Macfarlane, Bruce. Teaching with Integrity: The Ethics of Higher Education Practice. London: Routledge Falmer, 2004.

Mcleod, Kembrew. Owning Culture: Authorship, Ownership, and Intellectual Property Law. New York: Peter Lang, 2001.

Perfect, Timothy J., and Bennett L. Schwartz, eds. Applied Metacognition. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Introduction

Plagiarism is considered a global problem of contemporary science and education as well as in the spheres of literature and music. In educational institutions, students frequently confuse plagiarism and citation. Thus, plagiarism can be not intentional, although stealing other peoples work cannot be justified. Moreover, plagiarizing hurts the persons reputation and lead to legal or monetary repercussions (6 consequences of plagiarism, n.d.). Despite many interventions aimed at the detection and prevention of plagiarism, such as plagiarism detection software, it is still frequent among different people including scholars, students, journalists, authors, and other professionals. Thus, there is a need to review plagiarism in different spheres and determine its possible consequences.

Plagiarism in Art

Plagiarism cases in art and media are not so frequent as in education, but usually, they attract more attention to society and also can lead to court. For example, Ed Sheeran was accused of willful copyright infringement for one of his hit songs, which was initially recorded by an Australian country musician (Moran, 2018, para. 4). The estimated profit that Sheeran received from the illegal use of the song reached five million US dollars. Another case of plagiarism, which was in the news, involves guitarist Joe Satriani accusing Coldplay of copying his instrumental and presenting it as their creation (Michaels, 2009).

However, the opponents managed to achieve an agreement and came to the out-of-court settlement. Coldplay was supposed to pay Satriani off after this settlement. One more case that attracted public attention involved Led Zeppelin and the rock band Spirit (Baker, 2016). The band claimed that the Zeppelin songwriters took the opening cords of their tune. Still, the income this song earned was safeguarded by a Los Angeles jury. On the whole, the mentioned cases are examples of legal and financial consequences of plagiarism.

Plagiarism in Education and Science

Colleges, universities, and research institutions give significant attention to the issue of plagiarism. For example, Academic Senate Policy on Academic Honesty (UCI, 2008) states that university is an institution of learning, research, and scholarship predicated on the existence of an environment of honesty and integrity, and cheating, forgery, dishonest conduct, plagiarism, and collusion in dishonest activities erode the Universitys educational, research, and social roles devaluating the learning experience (p. 1). There are cases when plagiarizing deprives students of an opportunity to get the education because they are expelled from educational institutions.

Thus, Ebert (2008) reported that a student from Ohio University together with another student had to leave the ship during their Semester at Sea program because the professor suspected them of plagiarism in their papers. Another disturbing practice is to pay someone for writing a paper. Marshall (2013) claims that there is an opportunity to order not only student essays but also a Ph.D. dissertation, and it is just the question of money. One more unacceptable way of plagiarizing is taking students works by professors and including them as parts of their works without mentioning the authors.

Consequences of Plagiarism

Plagiarism can have personal, professional, legal, or ethical consequences. The cases of plagiarism are easily detected with the help of specific software., which is available both for institutions and private individuals (6 consequences of plagiarism, n.d.). The proven cases or even suspicion of plagiarism ruin the reputation of a student, professional, or academic. The worst consequences can include the loss of a position or expulsion in case the plagiarizer is a student. Also, legal and monetary repercussions are possible. The violation of copyright legislation is considered a crime and can lead to a legal case against the plagiarizer. As a rule, they result in granting monetary restitution to the author. Thus, in addition to the lost reputation, plagiarizers lose part of their income.

Conclusion

Summarizing, it should be said that plagiarism is one of the common mistakes that can cost a person money as well as the lost opportunities and pride. Sometimes people who take other peoples work do not realize that they can face many problems and plagiarism can be detected. Thus, to avoid being a plagiarizer, a person should cite the source in academic papers and always mention the author in every case somebodys creation is mentioned.

References

Baker, C. (2016). The price of plagiarism. The Chronicle of Higher education. Web.

Ebert, L. B. (2008). UVa expels plagiarizing OhioU student from ship!. Web.

Marshal, H. (2013). What is the price of plagiarism?. Web.

Michaels, S. (2009). Coldplay plagiarism lawsuit dismissed by judge. The Guardian. Web.

Moran, R. (2018). Ed Sheeran hit with plagiarism lawsuit from Australian songwriters. Web.

6 consequences of plagiarism. (n.d.). Web.

UCI. (2008). Appendix VIII. The UCI academic senate policies on academic honesty. Web.

Introduction

Plagiarism remains to be one of the greatest offences in the field of academics and has severe consequences. It can be defined in general as a form of intellectual and literary theft. This is because it involves the use of somebodys written material, publications, or ideas, by another individual as if they were his or her own (Buramen & Roy, 2009). Failure to give credit to borrowed literary material amounts to very serious problem which is referred to as plagiarism.

This is actually because the author of the original material is not able to enjoy the advantages of the good work that he or she has produced. The owner is supposed to receive all the good things that come from the work especially because one has to do a lot of research and also involve creativity in producing the work and therefore all praise should be given by anyone who uses the work. There are so many laws that can be used to ensure that no one plagiarizes the work of other people (Menager & Paulos, 2009).

This is very common in almost all learning institutions because that is where a lot of information is required from so many sources. It is important to ensure that the rules and regulations controlling plagiarism are followed and anyone who breaks them must be penalized for that.

Consequences of Plagiarism

Because of the effects of plagiarism on the owner of the information, there are rules and regulations to prevent and also to punish those who plagiarize. In universities, people who plagiarize are punished by being send away from the institution (Menager & Paulos, 2009). If students plagiarize, then they can be denied their degrees, the overall grade can also be reduced, asked to pay fines, or even suspended for some years.

This depends on the seriousness of the crime done through plagiarism. Those who write their own books using other people information illegally are usually punished by the law. They are asked to pay heavy fines. Original materials are registered and a record is kept so that if anyone uses them without permission or without acknowledging, then the person is punished.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

Plagiarism is not a good habit because many people will be discouraged and will not continue being creative and doing research because their work is stolen. Using the information of other people is not a bad thing but the authors must be acknowledged. This is usually done through indicating inside the written work where the information was gotten (Buramen & Roy, 2009). The rules preventing plagiarism show that the original writer of a book or article continues to be the owner of the information even if they are transferred to another book.

The author can also decide to sell their work to others like companies which publish material in journals, agencies that sponsor research work, or institutions of higher learning (Lathrop & Foss, 2007). Therefore, the original book must be shown in the reference page and inside the text where the information has been used. When one uses another persons work, the information can be written as they are in the book or it can be written differently.

So even if it is direct or not, the source must be shown. There are so many ways of showing where the information was picked. There is the style of American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA, Harvard, Oxford, Turabian, and so many others (Menager & Paulos, 2009). If this is done very well, then there will be no plagiarism.

Conclusion

Plagiarism is a serious problem and one should try to avoid when writing anything. Since one can use information belonging to another person, it is good to understand how to avoid plagiarism by reading about the rules that have been set (Menager & Paulos, 2009). In order to encourage people to continue doing research and writing books, those who plagiarize should be punished.

References

Buramen, L. & Roy, A. M. (2009). How to avoid plagiarism in the postmodern world.

Lathrop, A. & Foss, K. (2007). Plagiarism in schools: A strategy for change (2nd ed). Libraries Unlimited

Menager, R. & Paulos, L. (2009). A guide to avoiding plagiarism. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

Introduction

Plagiarism is a phenomenon that presents problems to many learners, as well as learning institutions. The recognition of plagiarism is a noteworthy challenge in higher education worldwide. Most of the works presented by learners for ranking the coursework comprise plagiarized data. The phenomenon is not new as it has occurred severally in the past and persists, especially in economic schools considering that the financial facts are static.

It is described as prevalent in Western Universities. Scholars mainly censure it because of the negative impact it has on learners education (Park, 2003). Learners who either deliberately or accidentally submit plagiarized work as the original authors hinder their aptitude to excerpt meaning from the information they read.

Consequently, they limit the opportunity to nature higher-level intellectual learning abilities. Additionally, when it goes unchecked, it has the likelihood of destructively impacting an institutions repute. There is an immense devaluation of the learning encounter of the learners and the quality of the graduates.

More importantly, it is imperative to comprehend why plagiarism occurs from psychological perspectives. Further, understanding the negative impact of plagiarizing attitude from a personality perspective is fundamental in developing a plagiaristic behavior model (Yang, 2012).

Is plagiarism inevitable?

Researchers continuously conduct investigations about the explanations for learners plagiarizing. Most of these researches identify factors linked to plagiaristic behaviors. However, they fail to isolate the reality of plagiarism from the fundamental intent that a plagiarist has. They also fail to deliberate why some behaviors persevere irrespective of the efforts to avert their occurrence.

Plagiaristic behavior is multidimensional, pertains to a precise and extremely complex subject that is additionally compounded by opposing and controversial views. The act itself generates heated debates and different opinions that surround our comprehension of what plagiarism is, why it occurs, and how to prevent it (Devlin & Gray, 2007).

A major complicating aspect regarding plagiarism is that scholars in higher learning institutions adopt diverse levels of concern and evenhandedness when identifying and handling learners who plagiarize. Consequently, comprehending what plagiarism is and why it is wrong is typically perplexing for learners because learners acuity and elucidation often vary from those of scholars. The opinion of scholars varies as to the gravity of the wrongdoing. The question as to whether or not plagiarism is tantamount to cheating remains unsolved.

The challenge is arriving at a consensus on the actual meaning of plagiarism generates from the fact that it is an ethic-laden word that entails strong undesirable connotations. Another aspect that makes plagiarism complex is collusion. Clearly, collusion is unethical and intentional. However, through collusion, plagiarism may arise from unintentional cheating or using the work of others accidentally devoid of acknowledgement. Scholars and institutions often defend unintentional plagiarism by describing it as unapproved use of words as opposed to cheating or stealing (Hsiao & Yang, 2011).

The consciousness of plagiarism is essential in deciphering if an imitative behavior is deliberate. Plagiarism is inappropriate because it hinders student learning. However, a rational connection has not been established between the learners degree of awareness regarding copying and the learners plan to plagiarize.

Consequently, when a learner plagiarizes and they are unaware of the type of plagiarism and that the behavior is unattractive, then there is the assumption that the behavior was accidental. Inculcating negative attitude in students upon entry into learning institutions is one of the principal strategies to avert the occurrence of plagiarism.

Conceptualizing plagiarism

Bennetts (2005) approach for plagiarism prediction differentiates between less and more severe forms of plagiarism through the classification of the practice as major or minor founded on the quantity. The author argues that submitting work with a small portion of copied work devoid of credit to the author is not as severe as submitting the majority of copied work as unique (Bennett, 2005). The author supposed that minor plagiarism stemmed from opportunistic behavior. On the other hand, major plagiarism is intentionally planned.

However, these interpretations may lead to unproductive action plans because there exists reasoning that even minor quantity of plagiarism that was intentionally planned to cheat is more severe than huge quantities of accidental plagiarism. Therefore, it is imperative to establish a more convincing elucidation as to why learners plagiarize for educators and psychologists to deal with the problem efficiently. Essential in such elucidation is the difference between the manifestation of plagiarism and the learners attitude to deceive.

Comprehending plagiarism

It is imperative to develop a better comprehension to define plagiarism. Learners join higher learning institutions with a range of diverse past learning involvements. Considering that plagiarism is a compound and relatively specific term, it is common for learners to misconstrue its meaning and importance in the particular learning institution in which plagiarism evaluation is taking place. Notwithstanding the students previous experiences, the learners are habitually puzzled about the presence and illegality of plagiarism because of the discrepancies in the adoption and implementation of the guidelines surrounding plagiarism by the teaching staff (Selwyn, 2008).

Majority of learners vaguely understand the meaning of plagiarism. That is, what do or do not constitute plagiarism. Others fear to plagiarize accidentally for failure to reference ideas they consider to be their own. Therefore, plagiarism is a much less significant concept for learners than it is for the teaching staff. Accidental plagiarism often arises due to a deficit in either the institutions obligation to training learners about referencing or the learners duty to learn.

Empirical evidence exists indicating that freshmen learners lack the essential intellectual, phonological, and environmental support to comprehend how to reference (Hendricks & Quinn, 2000). For learners to cultivate an attitude (either positive or negative) to the act of plagiarism, they require being aware of what plagiarism is and comprehend that it is regarded unwelcome by learning institutions.

Plagiarism and attitude

A huge quantity of literature regarding social and behavioral science exists. Attitude refers to the summary assessment of a psychological object taken in such characteristic dimensions as good/bad, harmful/beneficial and likable/unlikable and many others. The attitude in the context of plagiarism depends on whether or not the act of plagiarizing is unattractive by the learner and how the learner reacts to it. The perception of the learning institution receives limited or no regard.

Therefore, the approach of the learner towards plagiarism progresses from the learners opinions and the standards they assign to it. Opinions regarding a behavior develop through the association of that particular behavior with specific attributes, experiences, or outcomes. A learner may consider plagiarism as dangerous when they associate the action with a great probability of being discovered.

Additionally, where the attributes, experiences, or outcomes that the learner link with the behavior is deliberated to present a positive or negative value linked to them, the involvement in risky behavior is bad. Consequently, a connected attitude is spontaneously and concurrently linked with the behavior. This means that the learner will perceive the act of plagiarizing as undesirable (Yang, 2012).

There are arguments that the outcomes that the learners associate with plagiarism and the values associated by the learner to the consequences are inherently prejudiced by a compounded amalgamation of a learners inborn personal attribute. The particular factors of the condition surrounding the student at the time of plagiarizing are also a determinant. There are major personal attributes that influence a learners opinions regarding plagiarism and the values they attach to the plagiaristic behavior. These include objective orientation, educational incorporation, and the degree of moral perception.

Because of objective orientation, the students focus on the results of the study is the paramount element that determines their attitude towards plagiarism. A learner determined to achieve high scores may view plagiarism as an avenue to achieve the grades. Such a learner may not link plagiarism with wrongdoing. Consequently, the learner develops an attitude that it is suitable.

Given educational integration, a learner may be isolated or detached with the classwork or the institutional life. In this case, the learner view plagiarism as a means to achieving hence devalues the evasion of plagiarism. The degree of moral perception entails whether or not a learner possesses a strong sense of right or wrong. Learners who possess a high level of moral perception acknowledge plagiarism as wrong and often avoid it. These personal attributes often override each other depending on the personality and the circumstances surrounding the student (Yang, 2012).

Consequences of plagiarize attitude

When learners develop a positive attitude towards plagiarizing, they may be lucky to evade the repercussions of institutional punishment. Such students may achieve high grades upon graduation. However, such students are incompetent in the job market. They are unable to apply what was learned in the coursework or tested in the assessments.

They lack the fundamentals for the effective completion of a task. The plagiarize attitude may be further transferred to the workplace. In such a scenario, the learners (now the employee) temptations to depend on the work of colleagues to complete a task are high. They hence become a liability to the company as opposed to an asset. There is a gradual erosion of the publicity of the learning institution. It is hence the prerogative of the learning institution to ensure that the students are aware of the consequences of plagiarizing attitude not only to the individual learner but also to the institution.

The repercussions of plagiarism can severely endanger the learners academic career considering that the records follow the learner throughout the course. The learner is psychologically impacted regarding what others think of them. When the plagiarism attitude gains roots in the learner, the chances of being expelled from the course are imminent.

There is no college or university that can risk admitting an expelled student into any of its courses. The career and ambitions may terminate abruptly. Once a learner has developed a positive plagiarize attitude, they are susceptible to plagiarizing even when writing their dissertations. The consequences at this point are severe. There is the likelihood of destruction of the work submitted once discovered accompanied by legal action for the learner is expected to provide highly researched work worth publishing.

Conclusion

Plagiarism is the act of utilizing or closely copying the ideas of another person. There are many negative consequences of plagiarizing attitude, including incompetence in the job market, risk of expulsion from the university, and destruction of the final presentation after years of study.

References

Bennett, R. (2005). Factors associated with student plagiarism in a post-1992 university. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 30(2), 137-162.

Devlin, M., & Gray, K. (2007). In their own words: A qualitative study of the reasons australian university students plagiarize. Higher Education Research & Development, 26(2), 181-198.

Hendricks, M., & Quinn, L. (2000). Teaching referencing as an introduction to epistemological empowerment. Teaching in Higher Education, 5(4), 447-457.

Hsiao, H., & Yang, C. (2011). The impact of professional unethical beliefs on cheating intention. Ethics & Behavior, 21(1), 301316.

Park, C. (2003). In other peoples words: Plagiarism by university students-literature and lessons. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 28(5), 471-488.

Selwyn, N. (2008). Not necessarily a bad thing: A study of online plagiarism amongst undergraduate students. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 33(2), 465479.

Yang, S. (2012). Attitudes and behaviors related to academic dishonesty: A survey of Taiwanese graduate students. Ethics & Behavior, 22(3), 218-237.

Introduction

Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone elses work or ideas and passing them as ones own without proper acknowledge the original author. During the 18^th century, copying or imitation of artistic work or expression was not considered to be a moral offense or something unethical. It was encouraged and highly regarded as being extremely close to the masters work. This was to discourage unnecessary inventions during the roman movement (Morgan & Renolds, 1997).

In the late 18^th century, there was a wave of artistic inspirations, and artists started selling their work. It became necessary for people to do individual creative work, especially in academia and journalistic circles. It is a moral offence or an academic dishonesty to try to pass off plagiarized material as ones own.

It is a very serious offence with severe consequences. Imitation and copying are still tolerated by artists. It is, therefore, advised that if one borrows or replicates another persons material, he/she should give citations of the work. In academic institutions, plagiarism is rampant among the students. This may be attributed to the pressure to excel and strict deadlines to complete projects.

Ethical point of view on plagiarism

It is an academic fraud; this amount of dishonesty makes many institutions of learning treat plagiarism with a lot of seriousness. At high school level, some of the consequences are suspensions and failing some grades containing the copied work. In higher levels of learning, students are expelled, fail some courses and have their degrees revoked. Researchers plagiarizing other works are discredited and terminated of employment (Ashworth et al., 1997).

The purpose of education is to make students that can reason individually produce solutions to todays life issues. When a student goes through college without copying peoples material and repeating others ideas, without attempts of being original and creative, it is an injustice to those who use a lot of resources to educate themselves. When such a lazy student is done with college, he/she cannot be creative at his work place (Strandler, 2000).

In a civilized society, one must respect other peoples property, whether intellectual property or physical property. Through plagiarism ,a student commits theft, which is unethical according to humans standards. The educated people in these institutions of higher learning get licenses or certifications to perform various duties in society.

These licenses are awarded according to work done and evaluated. When a student plagiarizes research finding, project papers and thesis material they cannot be trusted to uphold ethical standards as doctors, lawyers, pilot or any other profession. This makes them unqualified, so it is not ethical for them to provide those services.

Effects of plagiarism

Plagiarism whether it is done intentionally or not ruins professional and academic integrity. Students can be expelled, their degrees will be held for a certain period of time or revoked (Hansen, 2003). Plagiarism destroys the relationships in the institutions. The relationship of trust of students by the teachers is destroyed making the teacher play the role of a detective for all the works submitted by the students.

The students that plagiarize are hated by those who do not plagiarize. This is because if they have not been caught yet, they get good grades that they have not worked hard for. It also destroys motivation, especially if the student is expelled and has to repeat courses. A person who plagiarizes other hard work does not have respect for people or the process of the work itself.

Effects of Plagiarism on the degree earned, and in the places of work

Over time, there have been so many incidences of students caught plagiarizing in universities that have had their degrees withheld for a certain period of time. In such cases, students work is found to have been plagiarized, years after the attainment of the degree/ certification, the institutions can revoke it.

It happens in the case of a physician whose license was revoked 10 years after he graduated in Massachusetts. Apart from the loss of self-esteem and lack of credibility among his colleagues and the rest of the community, this affects his family too. He may have plagiarized unintentionally, but he is stripped of his credentials and embarrassed in society.

This plagiarism can devalue ones degree as soon as an incident of inquiry starts. An employer as well as an employee can terminate him/her as he/she is no longer qualified as it was previously stated in his/her degree. This also shows that that person is of questionable moral values, and it would not look good on the companies profile having such an employee there.

If a chief executive officer of a company plagiarizes his/her papers in college and got away, it will do the same thing in the business, corporate plagiarism of ideas and other frauds. To avoid plagiarism, it always gives credit to a person (Adams, 2002).

References

Adams, T.J. (2002). Plagiarism in the Workplace. Web.

Ashworth, P., Bannister, P., & Thorne, P. (1997).Guilty in whose eyes/university students perception of cheating and plagiarism in academic work and assessment. Studies in higher Education. Michigan: Claremont Graduate School.

Hansen, B. (2003). Combating plagiarism. Web.

Morgan, W.P. & Renolds, G.H. (1997). Appearance of Impropriety. California: Free Press.

Strandler, R.B. (2000). Plagiarism in colleges in USA. University of Alberta Libraries. Web.

Plagiarism is one of the most crucial problems of academic writing. Today, the level of plagiarism increases due to the easy access of Internet sources. Many students copy the sentences or the ideas of the researchers or other students without marking it as the citation. The results of such method of writing lead to a number of problems.

First of all, copying someones words, the student does not reflect about the real meaning of the particular idea; therefore, he/she does not comprehend the topic appropriately. Moreover, in some situations, plagiarism can be considered as a crime, copyright infringement. It is obvious that plagiarism is a significant problem within the process of academic writing.

There are several aspects of possibility of plagiarism. Firstly, it may happen by chance due to the use of the facts which the student may consider as common or well-known. In this case, he/she does not provide a name of the author or source. However, this problem can be easily avoided by the use of the quotation marks and footnotes or endnotes.

Surely, everyone has the different writing ability. Therefore, many students try to search some information that can help them to cope with the assignments. They cite not only the sources which are appropriate and can be used in a paper, but also the samples of works of other students without changing the structure of sentences, paragraphs or even the whole texts.

Most of the time, such work fails the verification procedure and gets the negative responses. In order to avoid this problem, students should paraphrase sentences or to restate it in a different way. Thus, there will be evidence that the student wrote this paper by oneself and comprehended the topic well.

As it was mentioned before, when the student use the certain facts or ideas, it is necessary to mark it as a citation. The various citation styles have the different requirements of the endnotes and footnotes. However, all of them emphasize the necessity of an adequate citing.

Besides, when the student uses an appropriate quotation from a good source, this point can help to get better results. The teacher will admit that the student made a deep research, analyzing the related texts.

Additionally, today there is an access to the programs which can check the paper, indicting the sentences that have to be reworded. Although many people may suppose that this issue is not significant, I totally disagree with this statement. Plagiarism can be considered as a stealing of someones property and, depending of the level of seriousness, the person who uses plagiarism can bear the disciplinary or criminal liability.

Academic writing has to demonstrate the personal ability to make the research, to analyze the ideas, compare and contrast the opinions and to express the reflection. Therefore, it is absolutely wrong to present someones idea or text as ones own. Simple paraphrasing and the use of quotation marks will help to solve the problem.

However, it is always necessary to pay attention to the information provided in the text in order to be sure of its originality, importance and adequacy. As the use of Internet makes thousands of sources available, the different programs that check the plagiarism are also can be accessible and used in order to solve this serious problem of academic writing.

Introduction

In the last decade, the U.S education system has witnessed s dramatic increase in the number of international students. Although cultural difference has been cited as a challenge facing international students, the main academic challenge facing them is plagiarism.

When a student cites the work of another author but does not give credit to that author by properly citing the work, he/she ends up committing plagiarism. In this way, both national and international students end up duplicating the works of other authors. To avoid plagiarism, international students are advised to give credit to the ideas and theories of another author every time they cite their work.

Students should also acknowledge a source whenever the statistics or facts of such work are not common knowledge, or when they have quoted verbatim the words of another author. This report provides an in-depth review of plagiarism among international students. The aim of the report is to provide a working definition of plagiarism and explain the problem of plagiarism as faced by international students when studying in the U.S. In this regard; the report will mention problems faced by Chinese students in the U.S.

Plagiarism: A Working Definition

Idaho State University has defined plagiarism as the act of representing the ideas, data, words, or work of another person as your own (ISU Department of English and Philosophy, 2013).

In this context, plagiarism entails, but is not limited to, copying or duplicating another persons materials or ideas, use of non-textual materials without acknowledgment, gathering internet materials and adopting them as your own, and the incorporation of essential portion of the work of another author without proper citation. Therefore, plagiarism entails copying other persons materials unintentionally or intentionally, thereby violating the Universitys policy on Academic Dishonesty.

Plagiarism among International Students in the U.S

International students face unique challenges as they try to fit in the new academic environment. Specifically, international students encounter culture shock when facing instructional methods, assignment requirements, and writing styles that are different from what they experienced in their home countries (Chen & Ullen, 2011, p. 209).

Differences in writing styles and assignment requirements prompt international students to commit such academic crimes as plagiarism. Most of the international students have limited knowledge on how to carry out research using the internet and library resources. Also, they find it hard to correctly cite materials, ideas, and opinions, and as such, they end up committing plagiarism (Chen & Ullen, 2011).

Majority of the North American universities recruit and admit international students, but most of them end up breaking academic rules (Marcus, 2013). Most of the students who end up in the U.S disciplinary departments are accused of plagiarism. According to Marcus (2013), plagiarism among international students is not deliberate because many of them have never written an academic paper. Moreover, most international students are not familiar with academic referencing instructions.

Also, English is a second language to the international students, and as such, they face a language barrier in their quest to write academic papers. For this reason, the students are likely to commit academic dishonesty, which is a major crime among American universities. Additionally, international students face the problem of paraphrasing because they are uncertain of whether they can rephrase the idea and opinions without lose of the meaning of the content (Marcus, 2013).

Plagiarism among Chinese Students in the U.S

Twenty percent of students admitted at American universities are from China. Ako (2011) has stated that there are many reported cases of plagiarism among Chinese students. This has tainted the image of Chinese students to a great extent. The increased prevalence of plagiarism among Chinese students is driven by lack of experience in writing in Chinas universities and institutions of higher learning.

Moreover, the students are faced with challenges in their new academic environment as a result of differences in rules and regulations. Cultural differences between China and the United States also act as a major challenge to Chinese students.

For example, when faced with mounting pressure, most of the Chinese students end up duplicating other peoples materials and ideas, thus committing Academic Dishonesty. Lack of Universitys policy on Academic Dishonesty in China compared to U.S prompt Chinese students to commit crime of plagiarism (Ako, 2011).

As a result of poor commitment to academic integrity in China, Chinese students find it hard to adjust to the way of life in American universities. They fail to acknowledge the work, ideas, and opinions of other writers and end up committing plagiarism (Bartlett & Fischer, 2013). Also, Chinese students mostly not aware of the various referencing styles adopted by American universities. For these reasons, the students end up breaking major academic rules unintentionally.

Conclusion

Plagiarism is one of the major acts of academic dishonesty committed by international students. Plagiarism is defined as the act of representing the ideas, data, words, or work of another person as your own (Ako, 2011). The major causes of plagiarism among international students are cultural differences and lack of policies against academic dishonesty.

Language barrier results in cultural shock, which makes it hard for international students to write proper and acceptable academic papers. The prevalence of plagiarism among Chinese students results from lack of experience in writing, in addition to the challenges that they encounter in the new academic environment.

Reference List

Ako, J. (2011). Unraveling Plagiarism in China. US-China Today. Web.

Bartlett, T., & Fischer, K. (2011). American colleges find the Chinese-student boom a tricky fit. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Web.

Chen, Y., & Ullen, M. K. (2011). Helping International Students Succeed Academically through Research Process and Plagiarism Workshops. College & Research Library, 72(3), 209-234.

ISU Department of English and Philosophy. (2013). Plagiarism statement. Web.

Marcus, J. (2011) Foreign students rule-breaking: culture clash or survival skills? The Times Higher Education. Web.

Introduction

In the recent years, there has been a high increase in the number of international students studying in U.S. universities, especially Chinese students. The high increase is caused partly due to the need to promote knowledge exchange and establish relationships between people from diverse cultural settings (Bartlett & Fischer, 2011).

Although this high influx in the number of international students helps to boost the economy, forge international connections and research capacities, universities also have to contend with the challenge of academic dishonesty that such international students could bring to their institutions.

To many Chinese students, plagiarism is a foreign concept as the Western definition of plagiarism varies significantly from the Eastern construct. If all the international Chinese students admitted to ISU are to avoid committing plagiarism, the university should consider developing a handbook on what entails plagiarism, how to avoid it, and the possible consequences of committing plagiarism.

Description of the handbook

The proposed plagiarism handbook should guide new Chinese international students joining the university. Ideally, the handbook should be used as a part of the students orientation exercise. One of the reasons why Chinese students find it hard to apprehend the Western idea of plagiarism, while studying abroad, is because of their deep-rooted Chinese cultural norms according to which expert opinion is respected (University of Cambridge, 2013).

As a matter of fact, the Chinese view referencing the sources as an act of disrespect to not just the author, but the reader as well. The assumption is that by referencing a source, you merely state that it is not widely known. As such, it would be better to use a handbook on plagiarism to explain how variations in the Western and Eastern culture could actually be one of the reasons why plagiarism is detected in the works by many Chinese students.

Another unique cultural norm of the Chinese is their total commitment to practices taught at school (University of Cambridge, 2013). As such, a lot of explanation is needed to convince Chinese students to accept and appreciate the requirement for referencing the sources used in order to avoid plagiarism. Again, a handbook would be the most ideal tool of choice as there would be enough space to provide the explanation.

The handbook would provide the international Chinese students with such useful information as:

A clear, detailed and elaborate definition of plagiarism.

The handbook should give various definitions of the term plagiarism so that Chinese students can understand what plagiarism means. The handbook should also bring in examples of situations that are likely to lead to plagiarism, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

For example, writing the words of another author verbatim and failing to put such words in quotation marks or even acknowledge the original quotations will be considered as plagiarism. To drive the point home, such an explanation should be followed by detailed examples.

Why students are likely to commit plagiarism

Many students plagiarize unintentionally mainly because they do not know the correct way to incorporate the ideas and words of other authors into their own work. Therefore, the handbook should guide Chinese students on the various strategies of avoiding plagiarism, such as by giving credit to the author of the original work that you cite by properly referencing it both in-text and on the reference page.

Strategies on avoiding plagiarism

The handbook should demonstrate using examples how to put quotation marks around directly quoted work, in addition to identifying the source. The handbook should also demonstrate the right way of paraphrasing text in your own words, followed by proper in-text citation, and citing the source at the reference list.

Tips on how to summarize the main ideas of the text should also be provided (Chen & Ullen, 2011). In addition, the handbook should provide examples how to cite various sources, such as printed sources (journal articles, books, and newspapers), electronic sources (government websites, online articles, etc.), and images, among others.

Also, students are likely to commit plagiarism due to pressure to complete assignments or term papers before the deadline is due. In this case, the handbook should learn them how to manage their time wisely to avoid rushing at the last minute.

Consequences of committing plagiarism

The handbook should also clearly spell out the penalties for plagiarism. Such penalties include expulsion and/or failed grade for the particular subject or the entire course.

Language of the handbook

Considering that English is the second language to Chinese international students, it is important to choose the words used in the handbook carefully. The language should be simple and clear. Attention should be paid to avoiding colloquial English.

Conclusion

In order to manage the problem of academic plagiarism committed by Chinese international students, the institution should consider developing a simple but detailed handbook that defines the term of plagiarism, the reasons why international students are likely to commit plagiarism, strategies and techniques to avoid plagiarism, and its possible consequences. The handbook should be detailed but easy to read.

Reference List

Bartlett, T., & Fischer, K. (2011). American colleges find the Chinese-student boom a tricky fit. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Web.

Chen, Y., & Ullen, M. K. (2011). Helping international students succeed academically through research process and plagiarism workshops. College & Research Library, 72(3), 209-234.

University of Cambridge. (2013). Different Cultural Perceptions of Plagiarism. Web.