Plagiarism is the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them as one’s own without proper acknowledge the original author. During the 18th 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 18th 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 one’s 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 person’s 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 today’s life issues. When a student goes through college without copying people’s 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 people’s property, whether intellectual property or physical property. Through plagiarism ,a student commits theft, which is unethical according to human’s 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 one’s 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.
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 someone’s 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 someone’s 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 someone’s idea or text as one’s 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.
Plagiarism and its related consequences have been an issue of great concern, not only for international students but also for native students as well. The Omnibus report, in a clear and detailed manner, reveals some germane issues for international students as regards the issue of plagiarism.
What is of interest to the reader is the fact that cross-cultural concerns are at the forefront in entrenching the vice, which is considered in academic circles as synonymous with the act of stealing, lying, or cheating bypassing the academic work of another person as your own. This analysis aims to name and justify the choices made while creating the ethos for the cover letter and the main report. Specifically, the choices that will receive major attention include conciseness of the cover letter; detailed presentation of issues under investigation; utilization of comparisons, and; clarity in describing the terminologies used.
Choices for Cover Letter
In my Omnibus cover letter, the most important choice I made was the choice of being concise to relay to the reader a summary of what the subsequent report entailed. An approach that provides Succinct information in the cover letter always works best for readers who may not want to go into the details of the report but want to have an overview of what the report entails or readers who may lack adequate time to peruse through the report.
In essence, therefore, the credibility of the whole report is built upon the concise details provided in the cover letter, and which include: identifying what plagiarism constitutes in the context of the United States; providing a workable definition for the term, highlighting some challenges faced by international students in dealing with plagiarism, and; providing a cross-cultural comparison of plagiarism in the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Another important choice I considered during the drafting of the cover letter was the provision of contacts, including telephone contacts and email addresses, to provide readers of this Omnibus report with adequate channels for correspondence should such a need presents. It is important to note that the main report is drafted along the continuum of providing critical information on plagiarism among international students to an interested ready, who, in the course of reading this report, may want to seek clarifications or request for missing information. As such, contact addresses must be provided in a way and manner that has been done in my cover letter.
Choice for Report
In my Omnibus main report, the most important choice I made was the choice of using comparative analysis to detail how cross-cultural barriers impact the problem of plagiarism among international students. By detailing the problem of plagiarism in the United States, along with the harsh consequences associated with the vice, and by comparing this information with Saudi Arabia’s orientation on plagiarism, it could be argued that this report has been successful in illustrating that issues of culture and nationality must be considered when dealing with plagiarism issues among international students studying in the United States.
For example, while plagiarism is considered academic theft in the United States and punishable by crediting the culprits with a grade ‘F’ or even expulsion from academic institutions, it is casually allowed in Saudi Arabia under the pretense that getting through the required syllabus is much more important than getting students to generate their ideas and notions within the academic context. It, therefore, follows that an international student of Saudi Arabia descent but studying in the United States may, in the absence of adequate orientation policies regarding plagiarism, copy-paste academic pieces from the internet and pass the same as his or her original work, in large part because it is forbidden in Saudi Arabia.
While at the same point of using comparative analysis as the most important choice in writing this report, the reader is explicitly informed on the main reasons for disallowing plagiarized academic work in the United States vis-à-vis’ allowing the same in the United States.
What comes out most strongly in this comparison is the fact that culture has played a great role in shaping the education system in Saudi Arabia to a point that educational achievement is largely viewed as a community affair rather than individual attainment. In sharp contrast, educational achievement in the United States is viewed within the prism of the individual rather than the community. This is an important distinction for educators to make while dealing with international students, particularly of Saudi Arabia origin.
The second most important choice I made while drafting my report was to make a detailed presentation of facts to bring into the limelight some underlying issues about plagiarism. Plagiarism is considered a very serious issue in the United States, and its consequences are often grave to the extent that a sizeable number of students have gotten themselves summarily dismissed from academic institutions due to engaging in this vice. A detailed presentation of facts about plagiarism is therefore important to enable students, particularly international students, to make informed choices when engaging in their academic discourses.
A detailed expository of what constitutes plagiarism have been provided, including the parameters by which academic work may or may not be viewed as plagiarized. Of essence here is the fact that plagiarized instances, according to most academic regulations and policies in the United States, including but not limited to: representing other people’s work, ideas, or data as your own; duplication of copy-pasting of other people’s work and passing it as your own; lack of proper citations and acknowledgments while using other people’s work, and; acts of appropriating the artistic compositions of other people and presenting them as your own.
In the analysis provided above under the category of the provision of detailed presentation of facts about plagiarism, the basic imperative should be to assist international students coming into the United States for purposes of study to know the parameters by which their academic works could be considered as plagiarized. This is of fundamental importance principally because most academic institutions may not necessarily consider cultural dispositions while punishing offenders of plagiarism as most university regulations about plagiarism do not expressly state so.
It is therefore of immense importance and value for international students to attempt and familiarize themselves with the parameters that may be used by American academic institutions to evaluate cases of plagiarism. In the same vein, the concerned educational agencies in Saudi Arabia need to work towards the adoption of an internationally recognized system of education that depicts plagiarism as intentional theft of other people’s work to intellectually and emotionally prepare Saudi students wishing to switch into the American educational system. Such adoption can only be effectively done through a detailed exposition of facts related to plagiarism as has been done in the Omnibus report.
Lastly, the third most important choice I made while writing my Omnibus report on plagiarism among international students is to ensure clarity in the terminologies used. As already mentioned, plagiarism is considered a very serious issue within the American educational system, and, as such, it is of fundamental importance to ensure that key terminologies relating to the vice are spelled out to avoid confusion of facts among international students.
In the report, I have clearly explained what constitutes plagiarism, codes of conduct, and academic misconduct, not mentioning the facts that the relationships between these concepts are well elaborated. I believe that this particular choice is of great importance to international students because what constitutes plagiarism may not necessarily be construed to mean academic dishonesty and, equally, to enable the international students to understand that plagiarism is only one component of academic dishonesty, which in turn is contained in a booklet containing the institution’s codes of conduct.
By ensuring the clarity of these three definitions, therefore, the Omnibus report hope to achieve the major objective of directing international students into the proper resources that detail, not only their relationships with their respective academic institutions but their responsibilities in ensuring acts of plagiarism are curtailed or restricted to a bare minimum.
Conclusion
Underlines the importance of making the above choices
To conclude, it is important to underline the importance of the discussed choices in ensuring that the Omnibus report achieves its intended objectives and elicits the required responses from readers. These choices are indeed important as they bring into the fore the underlying issues that the report seeks to address, and which are mainly related to plagiarism among international students. What’s more, the usage of these choices has greatly assisted me to remain focused on the issues under investigation, particularly about plagiarism among international students.
Plagiarism is referred to as literary theft and academic dishonesty, which usually occurs when someone copies the work, ideas and opinions of another author and expresses them as though they are his own without giving credit to the originator. It is very common among higher learning academicians especially when doing write ups for their projects, term papers or thesis.
Plagiarism is a very serious offence and it can attract penalties since copyright takes authors words as his own property and the author has rights to sue in the court of law in case of plagiarism. Plagiarizing not only involves written materials but also piracy in music and other properties.
On the other hand academic integrity refer to a situation whereby students in higher learning institution hold highly on the moral values academics and do their work honestly without cheating (Drinan and Gallant, 2010). It encourages acts of independent learning and critical thinking (White, Owens, and Nguyen 2007).
To maintain academic integrity, academicians should avoid acts of dishonesty, cheating, plagiarism among others. Institutions of higher learning should encourage academic integrity since it really helps students to develop academically and it makes it easy for them to face all kinds of challenges in their area of study.
Academicians give several reasons for plagiarizing some of which include: to help a friend, time pressure, extenuating circumstances, peer pressure, to increase the mark, monetary reward, fear of failure, everybody does it, laziness, lack of research skills, institution admission criteria, poor academic skills, student understanding of plagiarism, external pressure to succeed, careless tutors and invigilators, among others (Devlin and Gray, 2007).
Other reasons may be the advanced technology where by information is readily available online, financial problems where the student cannot afford resource materials, and low chance of being caught. Let us look at some of these reasons in details.
The following essay will show clearly what academic integrity entails, the reason behind plagiarism and how academicians may overcome it to maintain academic integrity.
Peer Pressure
Peer pressure is a very common scenario in many learning institutions and many students are not able to curb the challenge effectively (Devlin and Gray, 2007). International students are likely to fall to peer-pressure than local ones since they may be seeking comfort and friendship in a place far away from home where they are not familiar with most places and lifestyle. Peer pressure maybe as a result of several factors.
For example, a student may be working very hard to do an assignment honestly but on realizing that most of her classmates are plagiarizing, he/she may prone to do it too. In other instances, the local students in to adventure and having fun may easily influence international students and since they are new to the environment, they may have fun at the expense of the assignment leading to plagiarizing (Vermaat, 2008, Peer, 2009).
Time management
International students in higher learning institutions are usually involved in many activities such as jobs, family responsibilities and may be having many units to cover. This is because most of them are usually far away from their families thus they have to cater for their basic needs as they learn.
For instance, most of the international students in the institutions of higher learning do their studies part time after their usual economic businesses. Others are obsessed with having fun leaving very little time for their academic activities while some are generally lazy (Devlin and Gray, 2007).
Due to their big workload, they ought to have a very clear schedule for their activities. The ability of a student to manage his/her time well in college is a key to his/her success. Most of the research papers in higher learning institutions are meant to gauge the student qualification for the area he/she may be covering thus requires ample time.
Plagiarism in this case may be accelerated by procrastination whereby the student keeps on pushing the time to work on his paper until he/she is caught up with the deadline (UNSW, 2010). When students are caught up with the deadline, they are prone to panic and are therefore not able to concentrate or do enough research for their paper. They may end up getting involved in plagiarism to save the situation.
Most international students find it hard to adopt the new curriculum and may not be keen on giving enough time to their research paper because of the advanced technology. They know that they can still get the information from the internet or other books thus being reluctant.
They may also be going through financial strain as they adapt to the new lifestyle or because their guardians are far away thus looking for means to support themselves as they do their studies. This may lead them to poor time management since the job may be draining most of their time leaving them with very little time for their research paper.
Pressure to succeed
Whenever a student joins any institution of higher learning, failing is never an option and the mission right from day one is to get the best grades possible. The pressure may even be more for international students since it takes some so much sacrifice and strain to seek better education at international institutions.
Pressure to succeed and fear of failure is perceived form all direction. For instance, the parents will always be proud of their child if he/she succeeds, the college always sets pass mark giving a student pressure to pass, whoever is learning also gets satisfaction and fulfillment after succeeding, the job market first absorbs the successful students, and in essence pressure to succeed comes from all direction (Sutherland-Smith, 2008)
The education system is so materialistic in a manner that there is always a reward for the successful student and therefore the student will take every action that will help him/her succeed. In this case, whenever a student is given any form of assignment, chances of plagiarism are so high since he/she to present the best work possible.
Through plagiarism, a student is assured of a better grade without putting so much effort or thinking too hard. Some students may be promised monetary gains in case of success while others may be lazy and want to get away with a good grade without sacrificing a lot. Other students may be taking courses they have a negative attitude towards, of which they have to pass thus making them prone to plagiarism (Devlin and Gray, 2007).
This mostly happens to international students when they realize hat most of their areas of study are different from what they were used to at home. This is probably because they do not understand the concept behind their area of study or else, there are just interested in passing to leave the area and do something of their interest. This comes about when students make uninformed decisions when choosing their area of study or guardians force them in to a certain profession.
How to overcome plagiarism
Institutions of higher learning can only curb the problem of plagiarism by fostering academic integrity, which is composed of the following principles (Drinan and Gallant, 2010): Honesty- The students and tutors should have a driving force to be honest in learning, research and in exams.
Honesty gives a student satisfaction and fulfillment on the grades achieved, enabling him/her to identify and work on his/her weak areas. For international students who may be facing challenges adapting to the new system, it is advisable to develop interest to learn and create more time in order to understand the concept.
Trust
Institutions of higher learning and their students should create an atmosphere of trust where by none of them is afraid that the other may be dishonest in one way or the other. This will minimize cases of peer pressure whereby some honest student are forced to copy since everyone in class is doing it. This way, they are able to exchange ideas freely and they can help each other build well on their research and writing talents.
Fairness
Tutors should always develop an attitude of fairness to their student’s right from the beginning whether they are local or international. They should be keen to encourage the honest students by rewarding their hard work well and putting strict measures to those caught with cases of dishonesty.
Many institutions have come up with means of capturing cases of academic dishonesty such as CCTV in exam rooms, software to detect digital plagiarism and this has encouraged student to work on their own thus getting fair rewards. Tutors should also be fair when marking papers in order to raise the morale of their students and should create a conducive environment for the international students to learn (Keuskamp and Sliuzas, 2007)
Respect
Academicians should hold the value of education dearly and with a lot of respect. Every credit in this field should be worked for and held with much integrity since it should be an evidence of the efforts the bearer has put towards its achievement. In this case students should manage their time carefully and this will enable them manage the pressure to pass without straining. It is therefore important to hold on to academic integrity and avoid cases of academic dishonesty.
Responsibility
Institutions of higher learning are meant to nature a spirit of responsibility not only in college but also in their day-to-day life. This should begin right from college where students should be responsible of their research papers by working hard without depending on other author’s materials. They should be taught the importance of time management and independence Local and international students should know the institutions mission right from the beginning in to work towards it.
Apart from the above principles of academic integrity, researchers should ensure that any information retrieved from another persons work is properly cited and references given. This can only be possible if the institution can facilitate on writing skills from the beginning of course work because many students get hardships when doing their write-ups due to lack of proper prior information.
Another way of overcoming plagiarism is through extensive discussions about it between the staff and the students in order to bring the issue to the light. This is because plagiarism has been hidden for many days through assumption that it is not a very serious issue. This leads many students to taking the issue lightly since they do not know much about plagiarism.
This is what leads to unintentional plagiarism since the student may think it is okay since no one talks about it. The staff should hole sessions with the students on time management and they way to live independently without much influence from the peers.
Conclusion
Academic integrity go hand in hand with plagiarism since for the former to operate, the latter should be totally avoided. When academic integrity is not upheld, it undermines the core values through which knowledge is obtained thus damaging the reputation of the larger academic community.
I would recommend that writing skills to be included in every curriculum as a common unit to give learners ample knowledge on how to learn independently and involve critical thinking whenever they are carrying out their assignments. It should be clear that plagiarism is a very serious offence, which should be discouraged in every institution. This is because most tutors and students have had a mentality that plagiarism is just one simple way of accomplishing their course of duty.
Devlin, M. & Gray, K. (2007). A qualitative study of the Reasons Australian university students plagiarize. Centre for the Study of Higher Education, The University of Melbourne. Web.
Keuskamp, D. & Sliuzas, R. (2007). Plagiarism prevention or detection? The contribution of text-matching software to education about academic integrity. Journal of Academic Language & Learning, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 91-A99. Web.
White, F., Owens, C. & Nguyen, M. (2007). Using a constructive feedback approach to effectively reduce student plagiarism among first-year psychology students. Web.
People interact with each other sharing ideas and opinions, and it can be rather difficult to determine the origin of the concrete idea or vision. However, in the context of the academic discourse, all the used ideas taken from the academic or digital sources should be cited appropriately in order to protect the intellectual property rights of the person who has originated the idea.
The act of violating these rights and stealing someone’s words and ideas is known as plagiarism. Thus, to discuss the ethical component of plagiarism, it is necessary to pay attention to the definition of the concept and its meaning in relation to the idea of academic integrity. Plagiarism is often defined as the act of copying the other persons’ ideas and words without referencing.
Those persons who are inclined to plagiarize use the easiest way to cope with the academic tasks while presenting the other people’s ideas as their own. In reality, these persons steal the other people’s intellectual property (Park 479).
From this point, plagiarism is a kind of theft which can result in significant negative consequences for the representatives of the academic community because of the strict institutional policies according to which intellectual property is protected in spite of the fact that the legal aspects of the plagiarism question are not developed appropriately.
That is why, plagiarism is the important ethical issue which should be discussed as the morally reprehensible act because plagiarism is the direct theft based on dishonesty in relation to the students and scholars sharing their ideas and relying on the intellectual property rights.
Although the institutional policies are developed to prevent plagiarism as the act of the specific literary theft realized by students and scholars, plagiarism remains to be the controversial and rather urgent problem in the academic sphere because persons find more variants to use the other people’s ideas without citing and referencing.
The progress of the Internet contributes to this process because of the possibilities to access to the open and available documents written by different persons. It is possible to avoid plagiarism if a person cites the used sources appropriately (Park 479). Nevertheless, many people choose to ignore the ethical aspects of academic writing and focus on violating the idea of academic integrity while plagiarizing.
As a result, it is possible to state that many people choose to steal instead of following the norms and rules. Focusing on plagiarism as the opportunity to complete an assignment or write an article without any efforts, people violate not only institutional policies but also break ethical norms, supporting the idea that plagiarism is the academic sin as it is presented by many researchers (Park 474).
Those people who provide the copied or paraphrased words as their own ones can be discussed as liars because they do not state the information about the source of the ideas or thoughts. Moreover, definite benefits from presenting the certain ideas as original can be shared by persons who performed morally wrong.
Plagiarism is one of the main problems related to the aspect of academic etiquette. The acts of plagiarizing are morally reprehensible because the norms of ethical codes for students, academicians, writers, and scholars are violated intentionally.
In this case, it is important to note that the majority of cases in which the act of plagiarizing was determined can be discussed as intentional because persons choose copying the material as the quickest way to cope with the task. As a result of such activities, the idea of intellectual freedom is also taken into account.
Persons have the ethical rights to share their ideas openly, and they have the right to protect their thoughts as a kind of intellectual property. From this perspective, the ethical approach to the issue is closely associated with the definite intellectual liberty (Park 482). That is why, it is possible to pay attention to the reasons for discussing the acts of stealing the other persons’ words and ideas as morally wrong.
Plagiarism is the morally wrong act based on the concept of the writer’s guilt because the notion of academic integrity is learnt by people early before starting their writing activities. Furthermore, this concept is connected with cheating at the examinations and any other prohibited activities (Sutherland-Smith 84).
Thus, while plagiarizing, people perform inadequately in relating to the fact that they were informed earlier about the risks of plagiarism. Thus, any intentional activity or choice to act wrongly and unethically should be punished in relation to the concrete context. In the sphere of education and academic discourse, the authorities in different educational institutions are responsible for determining the norms of non-plagiarism policies.
However, there are visions that today plagiarism cannot be discussed as the controlled issue because of the increasing role of the Internet and other digital sources which can be used for writing and searching for interesting thoughts. As a result, the issue of cyberplagiarism is the new controversial question in the field of academic writing and in the sphere of intellectual property in general (Park 481).
The sources which are available through the Internet resources and services are not protected with the intellectual property rights appropriately, and it is the question of the people’s morality to use or not these sources effectively to avoid plagiarism and other ethical and legal issues. One more problem is the control over sharing and using the other people’s ideas.
If the use of the other authors’ words can be checked with the help of different plagiarism detectors, the theft of ideas is the more complex procedure which cannot be determined successfully in all the cases. Plagiarizing ideas, writers demonstrate their dishonesty and support the vision of plagiarism as the morally wrong act.
Moreover, during the centuries, imitation of words and ideas was discussed as the act to demonstrate the respect for the other author (Park 481-482; Sutherland-Smith 85). Today, this act can be discussed as plagiarism if the writer does not provide the necessary citation.
Thus, plagiarism can be considered as the severe academic disease which develops in the sphere of academic discourse and which needs the effective prevention means. Plagiarism as the ethically wrong procedure which includes the act of stealing the other persons’ ideas, views, and words that is why this activity should be punished.
In spite of the fact that plagiarism contributes to violating the intellectual property rights and copyright laws, this act is also harmful for the development of the academic world’s principles because the uncertainties in relation to the non-plagiarism policies can lead to the uncertainties regarding the intellectual liberty and academic etiquette. Plagiarism is morally reprehensible without references to the ways of its realization.
Works Cited
Park, Chris. “In Other (People’s) Words: Plagiarism by University Students – Literature and Lessons”. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education 28.5 (2003): 471-488. Print.
Sutherland-Smith, Wendy. “Pandora’s Box: Academic Perceptions of Student Plagiarism in Writing”. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 4.1 (2005): 83-95. Print.
Scholarly articles must follow specific criteria to be considered credible sources. Such papers should represent original research and meet certain requirements to have high academic value. This paper provides the general analysis of the provided articles and the detailed evaluation of the academic quality of the selected material.
Analysis
There are several peer-review elements that let the reader suppose that authors of the provided articles are knowledgeable and the papers represent proper original research (“Distinguishing scholarly from non-scholarly periodicals,” 2018). The first article, “Oyster feuds: Conflicting discourses and outcomes in Point Reyes, California” by Leslie-Bole and Perramond (2017), has a reference page, where all the used sources are cited, there are many in-text citations that are properly cited too. The abstract is provided in three languages. Moreover, there is much data presented in figures and graphs. The second article, “Toward an analytical framework for the study of race and police violence” by Mario A. Rivera and James D. Ward (2017), also provides a bibliography, the affiliations of the authors are listed and the fields of their interest, as well as their degrees, are stated. The article has a serious, structured look. The third article, “The “Open Government Reform” movement: The case of the open government partnership and US transparency policies” by Suzanne J. Piotrowski (2017), uses many tables as well, the reference page and information about the scientific background of the author is also provided. It is notable how different experiences of the authors affect the creation of the articles. For example, Leslie-Bole and Perramond (2017) choose to use pictures instead of tables, as their background is related to environmental science. The experience of the audience is significant too since many articles use specific terms or do not present a full context of the topic they are investigating. However, it is common that scholarly papers suggest certain background knowledge of a reader.
In my opinion, the most professional and well-written paper is the article by Piotrowski (2017). The quality of evidence is high; the data is objective, is it supported by the literature the author has used. The language of the article assumes some professional background of the reader; the content is appropriate for the target audience, political scientists, and students studying public affairs. The report does not reveal the author’s biases, as Piotrowski (2017) present only statistic data without mentioning her personal opinion on the Open Government Reform. The article meets professional standards of scholarly writing. It provides data in tables, which outlines the essential facts and provides a detailed comparison of the numbers to the reader. The content is well-structured, the sentences are relatively short, but do not carry unnecessary information. The paragraphs are correctly named and organized. The doer of the actions is definite, and the second-person pronouns are not used.
As mentioned above, the article may not be suitable for the audience without any knowledge in politics. Moreover, as the research is targeted on the Open Government Reform and provides much data on this new initiative, some readers may assume that the author’s intention is to promote this reform. However, Piotrowski (2017) mentions that this movement should be studied critically, as the existing New Public Management method.
To make the article more appropriate for an international audience, it would be helpful to add an abstract translated into foreign languages. For example, in the paper by Leslie-Bole and Perramond (2017) the abstract is presented in English, French and Spanish languages.
Scholarly articles should follow the standards of academic writing to influence their target audience. The research should be original, and all the sources must be appropriately cited. Only scholarly papers are appropriate for academic research and investigation.
Plagiarism and Paraphrasing
One person taking someone’s work and presenting it as their own is a case of plagiarism (DiMaria, 2009). The article used for assignment is “Responsible leader behavior in health sectors” by Beaufort Longest.
The article discusses the concept of responsible leader behavior and how it can be applied to health sectors. Longest (2017) investigates the role of the leaders and their responsibilities and the attributes of their responsible behavior. The author explores the potential impact of such actions of the leaders and gives a community development as an example. He suggests that different levels of responsible leader behavior result in different decisions in terms of favoring stakeholders and actions affecting them. The researcher also notes that community development performance may differ according to the way the leadership is performed. Longest (2010) points out that responsible leader behavior should be based on ethical principles, which is likely to receive a positive response from stakeholders.
The author mentions that responsible leader behavior has gained much interest among researchers. Longest (2017) explains two perspectives on the topic. According to the first one, the possible benefits of stakeholders need to be taken into consideration. The second one suggests that a leader’s responsibility is to minimize the harm stakeholders may face and maximize doing good for them. The author points out that the confluence of these approaches defines a leader’s responsible behavior. Longest (2017) concludes that responsible leader behavior is a worthy goal, especially for health organizations willing to improve their positions in society.
Distinguishing scholarly from non-scholarly periodicals: A checklist of criteria. (2018). Web.
Leslie-Bole, H., & Perramond, E. P. (2017). Oyster feuds: Conflicting discourses and outcomes in Point Reyes, California. Journal of Political Ecology, 24. Web.
Longest, B. (2017). Responsible leader behavior in health sectors. Leadership in Health Services, 30(1), 8-15.
Piotrowski, S. J. (2017). The “Open Government Reform” movement: The case of the open government partnership and US transparency policies. The American Review of Public Administration, 47(2), 155-171.
Rivera, M. A., & Ward, J. D. (2017). Toward an analytical framework for the study of race and police violence. Public Administration Review, 77(2), 242-250.
Plagiarism refers to using other people’s works without clearly referencing them. Hence, plagiarism can be largely avoided by making sure that all external sources consulted are duly referenced. Nonetheless, it is generally agreed that the entire piece of writing should be original both in terms of ideas and sentence construction and structures. For instance, credit should be given to a statement said by someone else. Besides, implied, emailed, or written statements by other people should be cited whenever included in any piece of writing. These are some of the instances when credit should be awarded (Lannon & Gurak, 2016). Further still, documentation ought to be incorporated in words or ideas submitted in various pieces of writings or audio presentations. Examples include information obtained from web pages, TV programs, newspapers, and magazines. They should all be should reference accordingly.
Second, plagiarism may also be avoided by awarding credit to information gathered from interviews or verbal communication with other people. In some cases, such conversations may be in form of writings, exchange through the phone, or even face to face. Since they are not the original ideas of the writer, credit should be given.
When writing, there may be a need to incorporate some unique phrases or exact words from other authoritative sources. The latter should be referenced as well to avoid plagiarizing the work being written.
Visual materials, pictures, and pictograms may also be handy in the process of writing. While we may produce some on our own, there are those which might be cumbersome to obtain to construct (Lannon & Gurak, 2016). Hence, it leaves the writer with the option of using materials from other artists. They should equally be given credit when used.
Videos, audios, images, and any other electronically available material that has been reposted or reutilized ought to be referenced. The bottom line is that all materials used in a piece of writing that does not belong to your original production or creativity should be given credit accordingly.
In the process of documenting sources outside the domain of a writer, it is also perhaps necessary to note that there are a few outstanding cases that do not require referencing to avoid plagiarism. To begin with, you can still avoid plagiarism by writing personal reflections, conclusions on a given topic, insights, and individual lived experiences. Since these are personal creations, they do not amount to plagiarism when included in a piece of writing.
Second, personal field reports, surveys, and experiments written after undertaking certain laboratory procedures can be included in writing without referencing since they do not amount to plagiarism. Personal audio, digital pictures, or artwork do not require any documentation.
Third, common knowledge should not be documented in an attempt to avoid plagiarism. A case in point is when referring to well-known historical events, myths, and folklore. It is vital to mention that historical documents are not synonymous with historical events and therefore they should be referenced.
Generally, acceptable facts can be used in personal writings without the need to reference them. For example, a phrase like “poor waste disposal pollutes the environment” is generally admissible within the given discourse. Therefore, it can be incorporated in writing without the need to reference (Neville, 2010).
On a final note, it is crucial to note that plagiarism does not merely mean direct copying of written facts, ideas, or pictograms from others. In most cases, writers so paraphrase ideas from outside sources. In such instances, it implies that all paraphrases should be cited or acknowledged from the original sources.
Plagiarism can be defined as the act of stealing another author’s work and treating it as ones original work. It is the use of another person’s ideas or thoughts without making proper acknowledgements. It can also be defined as the imitation of a certain article or publication without giving credit to the original author.
It does not only refer to the use of exact words but also how the author expresses his thoughts. It also refers to the use of another persons work without giving credit. In practice, it is required that once a person uses direct words from another source they should be in quotation marks or indented if they exceed 40 symbols and the source should also be cited.
Plagiarism is mostly witnessed in academic institutions where students are either too lazy or have no time for assignments (such as writing research papers). Instead of researching to produce their own work, they go for the easier option and copy published work. Other students do this in order to get high grades since they think that the published work has been written by experts and so it will be easy to pass. Plagiarism is not only practiced in academic institutions but also by artists.
Some artists have the tendency of copying different pieces of work to produce an article which looks original in the eyes of the readers. There are other artists who misuse employees into writing articles or other publications and publish them as their own original work. This paper looks at a brief history of plagiarism and explains why it can be classified as a form of theft. It also gives the definitions of paraphrasing, self-plagiarism, and explains how plagiarism can be avoided.
Plagiarism in the Past
In the past, plagiarism was not recognized as an offense and authors would copy the work of others without giving credit to the authors. For instance, in Europe, artists were allowed to copy other author’s work word by word in order to retain the original meaning.
Artists were discouraged from being innovative since they had to rely on other sources which sometimes were old fashioned. However, in the early 18th century, plagiarism was recognized as an immoral act which had to be discarded. Other morals (to discourage plagiarism) were set which are still applied in the education institutions and now plagiarism has become an academic fraudulence.
Other countries followed suit and banned plagiarism and any student found with a plagiarized work was penalized. However, many artists are still plagiarizing and it has become the order of the day. This has increased in the 21st century where most artist have ceased from being creative and innovative in coming up with their own work.
Plagiarism is now widely recognized as an offense and software have been developed to detect any plagiarized work. In many learning institutions, especially colleges and universities, student’s work has to pass through software to detect whether it is original work. The same applies to authors where their work has to be scrutinized by the publishing companies before it is accepted for publishing. Rules have been set regarding plagiarism and all authors must comply with them. With the setting of such rules, young but innovative minds have been protected from old authors who had the tendency of stealing other people’s ideas.
People are now free to come up with their own ideas and present them for publication without fear. This has also led to an increase in the level of creativity and many people are now competing with their own ideas rather than relying on the work of others. However, there is still the threat of piracy which many governments have not been able to deal with. Some authors are nowadays not afraid of plagiarism but of piracy especially if they earn their living from writing.
Can Plagiarism Be Regarded as a Crime?
We can not classify plagiarism as a crime but as a violation of morals. It is a civil matter which can not be prosecuted in court but attracts some civil penalties. Plagiarism is a serious offence for artists and may result in suspension or total expulsion. If a writer is reported with more than one cases of plagiarism, his career might be at stake because he may even lose some of his other work. Therefore, there is need to try all means that can be applied to avoid plagiarism.
Plagiarism is a form of theft but it is not the same as piracy. The latter can be defined as the sale of unauthorized copies of work, an act that deprives off the original author some of his profits but does not interfere with his credit. Depriving a writer some of his profit can also be termed as theft, but in plagiarism focus is directed on the author’s credit other than his profit. Depriving an author of credit may be a form serious of theft than piracy because it interferes with the future of the author’s career.
Ideas, thought and expression belong to the author and can be said to be private property, or the author’s intellectual property. Plagiarism is therefore the act of stealing the work of others and taking the credit of ownership of the work, thereby depriving original writers their intellectual property and the benefits that come with it. Many people think that plagiarism is taking the exact wording of another author without giving credit but believe that paraphrasing of such work is not wrong.
However, rewarding another’s ideas or thought is just like stealing property such as a vehicle and changing its color. The only difference between physical theft and stealing of literary work is that, ideas or thoughts are intangible and can not be identified. On the other hand, physical objects are identifiable and can even be valued in monetary terms. However, if objects are stolen, they remain stolen until they get back to the original owner.
For ideas, it is possible to build new ideas from the old ones to create a new concept without plagiarizing. Unlike physical objects that cannot be taken without permission from the owner, ideas can be picked up as long as the author is recognized. Sometimes, people remember ideas without remembering their source because it is very easy to remember ideas than it is to recall their source. Therefore, it is possible for one to plagiarize without having the intention to do so or without even realizing it.
Learning how to avoid plagiarism is a rather difficult task that requires careful training, unlike learning how to avoid theft of a physical object. This gives an explanation why some of the renowned writers of the past are sometimes accused of plagiarism without their intention to do so. In the past, it was not a must for writers to cite sources and only did so to invoke authority, unlike today when conventions have changed.
Another difference between theft of physical object and plagiarism is that one can take an abandoned property and that may not be considered as theft while for plagiarism, taking ideas of an anonymous writer and treating them as ones original ideas is considered as stealing.
If ideas and words can be treated as mere property and plagiarism as a form of theft, then, people would be buying and selling the rights of authorship from one person to another, for instance, the case of commercial term-paper services. In these services, original writers sell their work for money.
A person using such services cannot be considered as stealing the authorship of another person because the original author does not want the credit. However, credit of authorship is not for sale and can never be given away and those who do it are not authorized to do so.
What is of importance in the realm of ideas is not the ownership of the rights to a certain piece of work but the originality. Credit of authorship can never be given to any other person except the original author. It is not transferable even if both parties come into agreement for such an arrangement. Even when the original author dies, he remains to be remembered for his ideas for many centuries. Ideas and thoughts can be considered to be closer to moral actions than to property and responsibility of the work is not inheritable.
Paraphrasing
This can be defined as the use of different words other than the ones used by a certain author to refer to the authors ideas. It can also be defined as the restatement of ideas to come up with a different meaning. When paraphrasing, one does not need to use direct quotes but should acknowledge the original writer.
Paraphrasing is almost the same as writing a summary of a piece of work although paraphrases are more detailed. At the end of the paraphrased statement, the writer should include the source where the information was borrowed. Failure to cite the source is referred to as plagiarism and it is a moral violations.
Paraphrases try to retain the essential meaning of information while different words are being used. However, if the information is interpreted differently, this becomes original work and does not need to be cited. Almost all authors paraphrase in their work as they try to relate their work with that of others.
The first step in paraphrasing is to understand the message in the passage; this can be done by a quick review of the passage and then reading through the passage more carefully word by word to get its meaning. The ideas are then stated in different words defining the complex ones. Editing is necessary if the words were written in a hurry to ensure that the essential meaning is retained and a citation is given at the end of the paraphrased text. The text is then checked against the original passage for accuracy of the tone and meaning.
Paraphrase differs from a translation in that a paraphrase does not change the language but expands the original thought by use of examples or definition to make a certain passage more understandable. This does not imply that the message is changed but it is built upon or simplified into an understandable language.
Paraphrasing is mostly used by students as they write academic papers or when carrying out research concerning a certain aspect. They use different sources such as journals, magazines, websites, or books to borrow information to include in their writing. in this, all the sources used should be cited and a reference list provided for the same.
Self-Plagiarism
Samuelson observed that, there are several factors that may allow an artist to reuse some of his previous work. Some of these factors are: if there a certain publication can not make sense if the previous work was not included, if the author writes a continuation of the previous work, if previous work lays the foundation of the present work, and if the audience are different and the author wants to send the same message. This is referred to as self-plagiarism and it only applies to the same artist.
However, there are limitations on how previous work is used and the writer can not cut and paste a whole page from his previous work and treat it as a new piece of work. Nonetheless, he is allowed to borrow ideas or quote directly from his previous work without making citing the source.
But an author is not allowed to use another persons work even if it is related to the subject he is writing on) with giving credit to the other author. It is worth noting that, writing is a career practiced by many people and most of them earn a living out of it. If people are allowed to duplicate other people’s work without giving credit, then this career would loss meaning and some people might be exploited.
How to Avoid Plagiarism
The first step in avoiding plagiarism is to understand the meaning of this term because ignorance is never accepted as an excuse for violation of the rules of plagiarism. Intentional plagiarism, for instance copying or deliberate use of another author’s work without acknowledgement, or submission of an already written paper as ones original work can result in suspension. Unintentional plagiarism is copying of another’s work without having an intention to do so or due to ignorance.
There are people who do not know about plagiarism and think that by duplicating other people’s work, they will produce a high quality paper that will appeal to a majority of readers. However, either of these cases is regarded as plagiarism and is liable to equal punishment. Most schools in the developed countries prohibit their students from plagiarizing other people’s work and those who are reported with such cases face serious consequences which include suspicion, assignment cancellation, or even expulsion from the learning institution.
Direct quotes should be put in quotation marks and the source and page number cited at the end or beginning of the quote. In case of paraphrasing of ideas into other words, citations should be provided. An author’s work does not only refer to the exact words used, but also the ideas, art, graphics, and other creative expression. It may also consist of graphs, writing, pictures, websites, diagrams, and many other features.
The term source in academic writing refers to publications such as books, newspapers, magazines, movies, photos, or plays; or unpublished writings such as lecture notes, handouts, speeches and other student’s papers. The use of such materials without proper acknowledges amounts to plagiarism.
In citing sources, the first step is to identity the source, the author’s name, date of publication and the page number where the text is extracted from. After citing the author’s name, year of publication and page number in the text, the next step is to provide full details of that source at the end of the paper on a separate page. A list of all the sources used is given on the last page according the writer’s preferred referencing methods.
There are different methods for citing sources; they include MLA, APA, Chicago, or Harvard. Other methods of referencing are use of footnotes and endnotes. In these methods, raised numbers are used at the end of a quoted phrase or a borrowed idea which directs the reader to the source where the idea or phrase was extracted. This source can either be found at the bottom of the page for the case of a footnote or at the end of the paper for endnotes.
Which method is used to cite sources, a reference list must be provided at the end of the paper with more details of the author’s name, title of publication, publisher’s name and year of publication. If the citation is from an electronic source such as website, the URL should be included in the reference list.
Conclusion
As discussed above, plagiarism is the use of another’s work with making proper acknowledge. It is a form of theft that is almost similar to physical theft but differs in some aspects. For instance, taking a physical object (such as a car) that has been abandoned can not be considered as theft while taking the work of anonymous writer amounts to plagiarism.
Physical objects can be sold and ownership transferred from one person to another whereas the right of authorship of any literary work can never be sold. The original author retains the right of authorship even after death and can never be sold or transferred to another person even if he is the next of kin.
However, Plagiarism does not imply that, an author can not use another person’s work but it limits the way this is done. If an author (artist) uses direct words from another source, he should quote them with quotation marks or indent them if more than forty. He should then provide a reference list or biography, depending on the referencing style used. In -text citation are also required for any ideas or thoughts borrowed from another source.
The best way to avoid plagiarism is to use words or ideas that have not been used by another author. However, this becomes difficult for some people and has to rely on the ideas of other to produce their work. In such a case, the original author should be given credit as failure to do so is plagiarism.
Bibliography
Anderson, Judy. Plagiarism, copyright violation, and other thefts of intellectual property: an annotated bibliography with a lengthy introduction. New York: McFarland, 1998.
Broome, Marion. E. “Self-plagiarism: oxymoron, fair use, or scientific misconduct?” Nursing Outlook, Vol. 52 (6), November, (2004). pp.273–274 [1]
Clarke, Roger. “Plagiarism by academics: More complex than it seems”. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, (2006). 7(2), 91–121.
Dellavalle, Robert. P et al “Frequently asked questions regarding self-plagiarism: How to avoid recycling fraud”. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, (2007). Vol. 57 (3), September, pp.527.
Gilmore, Barry. Plagiarism: Why it happens- How to prevent it. London: Heinemann, 2008.
Kock, Ned. “A case of academic plagiarism”. Communications of the ACM, (1999). 42(7), 96–104.
Kock, Ned., & Davison, Robert. “Dealing with plagiarism in the IS research community: A look at factors that drive plagiarism and ways to address them”. MIS Quarterly, (2003). 27(4), 511–532.
Loewenstein, Joseph. Ben Jonson and possessive authorship, p.3, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Lynch, Jack. “The Perfectly Acceptable Practice of Literary Theft: Plagiarism, Copyright, and the Eighteenth Century, in Colonial Williamsburg:” The Journal of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation 24, (2002) no. 4, pp.51–54.
Samuelson, Pemela. “Self-Plagiarism or Fair Use?” Communications of the ACM, (1994). 37: 21–25.
There are so many ways of defining what plagiarism means. The commonly accepted definition of plagiarism is the act of using someone else’s words in order to convey a meaning without crediting the person who originally said it. However, there are also a number of other definitions for plagiarism and this paper aims to present those other definitions as well as explain why such practices should not be accepted by the academe.
Main text
Self plagiarism is something that is fast becoming a common practice for students these days. It is like that grade school volcano project that you used every single year only now, the students do it with their research work for say, a science experiment in physics that was originally used in chemistry. All he does is he changes the look and presentation but nothing else. This is still plagiarism because he had previously used the exact same work without telling his new teacher about it. Hence, self plagiarism. Now using the same paper but adding information to it and revising the content of the paper would not be considered self plagiarism because the paper will change in content in focus.
Buying term papers off the internet is also considered to be an act of plagiarism because you would still be using someone else’s words when you submit that paper to your teacher. It is just like listening to a story and then having it told all over again. Telling the person listening to you who the source of the story is an act of properly giving credit where it is due. Just remember, if someone else said it, did it, wrote it, or even thought about it, you have to say so in the paper you are writing because the essence of what you are saying was still said by somebody else. Failure to do so is plagiarism.
So now that we know why plagiarizing is bad, I need to tell you why we should never commit plagiarism either.
I believe that anybody who is really taking the time to study and understand his lessons will be able to write a totally original paper filled with his own understanding of the subject matter. Any quotes that are used within the page should be properly cited in order to let the person reading the paper that actual research was done in order to complete the work, aside from providing extra information for the reader.
By plagiarizing a paper, the student is practically announcing to the world that he is too lazy to study and would rather not put any effort into his grades. The temptation to plagiarize is strong specially for the hard to research and write topics. It seems easier to simply paraphrase and get things over with. However, that puts your knowledge of the subject matter into question because once you are asked to explain what it is you mean, you will get caught with a plagiarized paper.
Most importantly, the penalty for plagiarism on any educational level is too severe. Various colleges have different rules regarding how to deal with a plagiarizing student but the final punishment is always the same. These punishments range from suspension to expulsion, Neither of which would look good on a future resume or student application for higher studies.
So do the right thing, learn how to research and write term papers. Learn how to properly cite your sources within a paper. Your future educational ambitions depend on it.
Work Cited
Sauer. 2004. Research Help! What Is Plagiarism?. Web.
Ability to acknowledge the contribution of other people in one’s work is a vital skill that scholars must possess. By and large, people only come up with new suggestions and opinion after studying and understanding what has been done by others. Scientists, for example, only invent and test new hypotheses after taking time to establish what other scientists already know concerning a particular topic.
Referring to what has been done in the past by other scholars is certainly important if academicians have to avoid duplication. However, while it is acceptable and helpful to get ideas from work done by other scholars, failure or inability to acknowledge the originator of a given idea is unacceptable and must be avoided at all costs. Among other negative aspects, being involved in acts of plagiarism denies students an opportunity to be creative and grow.
The failure to recognize the contributions of other scholars in one’s work is generally referred to as plagiarism. In a study by Bloch (2012), plagiarism is defined as the inappropriate use of what is referred to as intellectual property. However, defining plagiarism and its effect on the ability of learners to be innovative can be extremely vague and confusing. As explained by Marsh (2012), different names may be used to refer to plagiarism. To some people, it implies copyright infringement or imitation while to some; plagiarism refers to poor citation.
For this reason, it is a highly contested issue among scholars. According to Gullifer and Tyson (2010), plagiarism is an increasing problem in academic institutions and universities and colleges must do everything possible to deal with it. This paper presents a discussion on plagiarism and how it affects learners. Also, the paper recommends strategies that may be adopted by educators and learners to address the problem of plagiarism.
Consequences of Plagiarism
Drawing from a study by Eisner & Vicinus (2008), plagiarism is as a result of poor teaching, and lack of thought assignments the encourage learners to think. Consequently, their advice to educators is that they make every effort to teach effectively. To a large extent, plagiarism is considered to be an act of transgression rather than theft from an author who has invested time and possibly money to publish articles, books, or other reading materials.
Arguably, it is ethically rewarding to prevent plagiarism rather than make attempts to track it down (Eisner & Vicinus, 2008). It is advisable for educators to ensure that students are given innovative assignments that are resistant to plagiarism. Interesting, Eisner & Vicinus (2008) argued that plagiarism is a strategy that is used in some places for resisting the imposition of rules by aliens. Ostensibly, the culture of plagiarism is deeply rooted in most Western countries.
As pointed out by Power (2009), learners who take part in acts of plagiarism cause serious problems for educators at all levels of learning. The problem of plagiarism has been worsened by the increased use of the Internet for academic purposes. Undoubtedly, the Internet presents students with so much information, and this makes it easier for them to plagiarize other people’s work. Even though several research activities have been conducted regarding the subject of cheating, a very small number of these studies looks at plagiarism as a distinct unethical behavior that is different from other forms of cheating (Power, 2009).
Research findings also indicate that students tend to be confused about the idea of what actually makes up plagiarism. While some scholars have argued that students over-report acts of plagiarism and cheating, some are of the opinion that these acts are generally under-reported by students. To a large extent, psychological theory and research indicate that a solid understanding of an individual’s perception of a problem is very critical for ensuring a successful change of the individual’s behavior.
Generally, plagiarism affects both the learner and the educator. For the teaching staff, plagiarism steals valuable time meant for teaching since most teachers are compelled to spend so much time teaching students about plagiarism. This based on the fact that most students plagiarize because they do not understand what plagiarism it.
During the learning process, students are expected to do several assignments or projects which are part of the course work. Typically, a devoted student will spend his or her time to understand the project and proceed to do it regardless of how difficult it is. On the other hand, individuals who plagiarize deny themselves an important opportunity to grow and develop their creativity. Besides affecting the actual teaching, plagiarism also affects the teaching staff.
Plagiarism also creates unfair competition among learners (Wendy, 2014). If acts of plagiarism go undetected, the students who plagiarize tend to be advantage unlike those who do indulge in such unethical activity. As has already been explained, plagiarism can cause a student to fail or even be expelled from an academic institution. A student who indulges in plagiarism also loses his or integrity and may not be trusted. Concerns may also be raised regarding the integrity of fellow students and whether or not they can be trusted.
Most academic institutions that have a keen interest to stop plagiarism are concerned more about helping learners to be honest and grow to become responsible citizens who can be of great service to their countries. Institutions also care about ensuring that any degrees or certificates they award are respected by all. Institutions that do nothing to end plagiarism risk losing their integrity, and may eventually lose students to other institutions viewed as being credible.
Dealing with Incidences of Plagiarism
For most researchers, plagiarism is regarded as a very complicated phenomenon whose complexities must be properly understood to formulate effective strategies (Pecorari, 2013). In the absence of effective strategies, educators see the task of dealing with plagiarism as very troublesome. An important requirement for dealing with is first to attempt to understand the problem. Arguably, plagiarism is difficult and quite unpleasant when teachers decide to deal with it in the classroom. This notwithstanding, plagiarism is a serious problem that must be dealt with ruthlessly.
Universities and colleges employ different strategies in dealing with plagiarism. Penalties for students who plagiarize include redoing an assignment or failing an assignment. In some institutions, the grades for students who plagiarize are reduced. Other institutions are, however, lenient and try to help those caught plagiarizing through counseling. The worst form of punishment is where a student is completely expelled from the university or college. According to Diane Pecorari (2013), one of the approaches that may be used to curb acts of plagiarism is to improve teaching practice about plagiarism.
Educators who are concerned about maintaining the required standard of education in the classroom must endeavor to do two important things (Wendy, 2014). First, they should detect plagiarism immediately it happens. Secondly, they must give students assignments that are very difficult or even impossible to plagiarize. While these undertakings are quite involving for teachers, they can not shy away if they want to maintain academic excellence and integrity in learning institutions.
To avoid plagiarism, students should be advised to reference other authors’ works properly. This should be done whether direct quotes are used or an author’s ideas are paraphrased. Learners should also be advised to organize their ideas well and to avoid copying and pasting. Furthermore, it is advisable for learners to work very closely with their teachers and follow instructions keenly.
In dealing with the problem of plagiarism, academic institutions should get students to do several things. First, all students should be made to sign declarations at the time of admission to show that they ready to comply with the policy of the institution regarding plagiarism. Whenever students submit their assignments to their teachers for assessment, the assumption is that such assignments will be free from plagiarism.
It is also necessary to ensure that new students understand the referencing style adopted by an academic institution. This helps to eliminate confusion and ensures that all students use a standard format of referencing work done by others. All students must also be cautioned about submitting work that is not theirs to their teachers to be marked. No student should allow another to submit his or her work for assessment. In the same way, students should not submit a fellow student’s work for assessment.
Another strategy that is often used by academic institutions to compel students to avoid plagiarism involves asking students to sign certificates as proof of originality. In worst-case scenarios, a disciplinary committee may have to be called upon to help deal with suspected culprits. Some institutions have gone as far as employing officers to be in charge of plagiarism issues specifically.
Typically, a plagiarism officer will be responsible for hearing and determining plagiarism cases. To simplify his or her work, a plagiarism officer must gather enough evidence to convict a suspected culprit. Meetings should also be organized to discuss the problem of plagiarism specifically. Usually, the plagiarism officer is expected to chair the meeting, and the meetings should be conducted in the absence of the student and a hidden location.
Conclusion
Plagiarism is certainly a serious problem for academic institutions around the world. To restore the confidence of the public in academic institutions, it is imperative for institutions of learning to formulate strategies that will help to curb the incidences of plagiarism. As explained in this paper, learners should pay close attention to instructions given by their teachers and ensure that they do everything possible to avoid taking part in plagiarism.
Without paying attention to the problem of plagiarism, institutions may lose their credibility, and this may result in the loss of students and even closure. It is thus critical for academic institutions to formulate strict policies that will scare students away from plagiarizing work done by others. Where necessary, learners should be made to understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. Allegedly, some students are victims of plagiarism simply because they can not reference properly.
References
Bloch, J. (2012). Plagiarism, Intellectual Property and the Teaching of L2 Writing: Explorations in the Detection based Approach. Tonawanda, NY: Multilingual Matters.
Eisner, C. & Vicinus, M. (2008). Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: Teaching Writing in the Digital Age. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Gullifer, J. & Tyson, G. A. (2010). Exploring University Students’ Perceptions of Plagiarism: A Focus Group Study. Studies in Higher Learning, 35(4), 463 – 481.
Marsh, B. (2012). Plagiarism: Alchemy and Remedy in Higher Education. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Pecorari, D. (2013). Teaching to Avoid Plagiarism: How to Promote Good Source Use: How to Promote Good Source Use. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill International.
Power, L. G. (2009). University Students’ Perceptions of Plagiarism. The Journal of Higher Education, 80(6), 643 – 662.