Plagiarism: Why it Continues to Occur?
Darian Camacho
English 111, Section 11
Professor Coulter
March 21, 2013
Plagiarism: Why it Continues to Occur? The increase in plagiarism has gained the attention of many institutions, administrators and educators, as well as researchers and the public. This increase has brought to attention the concern of why plagiarism continues to occur. In order to debate this concern we should first understand the definition and background of plagiarism, the factors which influence plagiarism, and what is or is not being done to prevent it. I will be looking into three articles in which my discussion will be based on. These articles include “Combating Plagiarism” by Brian Hansen, “Internet Plagiarism
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781). Some institutions do not even bother to use these plagiarism-detection services due to legal affairs. Mike Smith, who is the assistant chancellor for legal affairs of Berkeley, stated, “There probably were ways we could have done it legally, but given all the questions, the administrators here just felt that it really didn’t want to go in that direction” (as cited in Hansen, 2003, p. 781).
Hansen raises another question, “Are news organizations doing enough to guard against plagiarism and other types of journalistic fraud?” (2003, p. 781). Hansen interviewed editors, columnists, and instructors to discuss this question. The discussion going on was about a scandal involving Jayson Blair who was caught plagiarizing the articles he had written for “The New York Times.” Hansen states that “many experts were shocked when The Times conceded this spring that Blair’s editors never asked him to identify his anonymous sources” (2003, p. 781). After the scandal was made public, other news organizations began to review their policies. The increase of plagiarism is of a concern to all. Looking back at what was discussed, you can see that there are many factors that contribute to the continuing occurrence of plagiarism. First, students may be unaware of what actually counts as plagiarism. Thus, educators should be more open to their students in explaining what plagiarism is and how to prevent it. Further, plagiarism was not always considered unethical.
Plagiarism is an increasing large issue on college campuses, a habit to most of the student. According to the article ‘’The Plagiarism Plague’’, the findings on the survey made to 50,000 students on more than 60 campuses was that 70 percent of the students admitted that they cheated. Half of the students surveyed admitted that one or more times made serious cheating on writing assignments, with 77 percent of the students surveyed said that cheating was not a serious issue.
Plagiarism is a form of cheating, and a serious violation of the honor code and academic honesty in educational institutions. According to dictionary.com, plagiarism is: a piece of writing or other work reflecting such unauthorized use or imitation [1]. In simplified terms, plagiarism is taking and using some else’s work without giving credit to the righteous owner, for using their information. This work includes but is not limited to text, graphs, pictures, statistics, or other types of information that is not considered “common knowledge.” It is also considered as stealing, thus it is not tolerated anywhere in the world, and penalties are strictly
Plagiarism cases can provide insight on the dire consequences that can occur if a student is caught plagiarizing within an academic setting. A former student of Rutgers University, Amanda Serpico, was accused by her professor of plagiarizing on her opinion paper in her argumentation class (Bailey, 2011). Amanda received credit for using citations in a majority of the paper and providing the sources in the reference section, but she did not properly cite at least three verbatim passages that she used within her work (Bailey, 2011). Amanda utilized Turnitin software to review her paper and to detect plagiarism before turning in the assignment for grading to her professor (Bailey, 2011). The plagiarism accusation resulted in Amanda receiving a failing grade on the paper, a failing grade in the course, and being denied admission to several graduate schools. (Bailey,
Plagiarism in today's “copy and paste generation” is an unremitting, complex issue that is not yet fully understood.
In any educational or work setting integrity is paramount. Consequences of plagiarism can severely effect one’s academic or professional reputation. Proper citation of one’s sources can be easily detected with the evolution of plagiarism software. At the same time, this technology can also aid in creating an appropriately-cited document.
Plagiarism is a temptation every college student faces. It's also a serious issue that doesn't always get taken care of. I think the way it has been dealt with is strange. Strange in the sense that there isn't just one procedure when it comes to the punishment of those who plagiarize. In Raymond A. Schroth's article, he focused more so on the professor's side of the issue. He also presented ways to prevent the issue in effective ways and gave information on not so effective way. I really enjoyed his approach to the article. Trip Gabriel's article brought to light just how common the issue of plagiarism is. It made me truly question the way students are taught how not to plagiarize and if it needs to be revisited or updated so it's more geared
Plagiarism is a serious issue that may diminish the value of a scholarly work and interferes with the professional growth of an individual. For example, in 2003, Jayson Blair resigned from his position as a reporter for the New York Time because of “alleged plagiarism” (Dolak, 2003). Another case of plagiarism would be Matthew C. Whitaker, an associate professor at Arizona State University who in 2011 and 2015 was accused of plagiarism (Ryman, 2017). In both scenarios, Jayson Blair and Matthew C. Whitaker failed to properly paraphrase and cite sources (Dolak, 2003; Ryman 2017).
As one begins to grasp the concept of Schroth’s (2012) article The Plagiarism Plague, it is easy to identify the author’s dissatisfaction for plagiarism and the negative connotations he has for someone who is involved in this heinous offense. He initiates and summarizes his commentary with personal stories of how plagiarism has affected him. Schroth offers several solutions for the copyright issue that is upon us; he states, “the sanction for plagiarism must be at least an F on the paper, accompanied by a letter in the student's file to be consulted if it happens again, with the understanding that a second offense would mean expulsion.” Schroth was also sure to mention the collective approach necessary from all educators for his solution to be implemented. He believes the “policy will be effective only with leadership from the president and full cooperation from the faculty.” The writer goes on to explain how plagiarism has become an epidemic in this society and the effects of its prevalence thereof. Although plagiarism has become rampant in this society, it is still immoral and unethical. College students continue to plagiarize however, because they refuse to regard their education as a top priority and it has become culturally acceptable for people to falsify information without any serious penalties for their dishonesty.
Being a college student is hard. College requires plenty of work. Some students have other things to do besides going to school; some of them need to work in order to pay for their tuition. When school isn’t the only thing students have to worry about, they might get behind in their classes, but they can’t fail them so they have to find out a way to stay on both their job and school. A large amount of students are pushed into cheating; they do it so often that suddenly it becomes a habit. Nowadays, plagiarism is extremely popular. Students don’t like using their brain anymore; they just copy and paste. To avoid plagiarism, students should do their own work; learn how to cite in a proper form, and understand that plagiarism can result in
Evering and Moorman also noted that McCabe said, “Many high school students believe...that if information is on the Internet, it is public knowledge and does not need to be footnoted – even if it’s quoted verbatim”. Evering and Moorman say students who plagiarize are only representing someone else’s work instead of their own. Jobs as teachers are to help student create, develop and perfect a student’s own work and abilities however, they cannot do so with students plagiarizing. Regardless of the consequence, students still find the need to plagiarize. Evering and Moorman says it’s because student are too lazy and just don’t feel like doing the assignment but also the “underdeveloped sense of integrity...lack of
Plagiarism is using someone else’s work, words, production, researches and ideas without the approval or the acknowledgment of the writer or producer, and claiming the credit for himself. Many reasons and factors are attributed for the use of plagiarism and could be cultural, historical, linguistic, environmental and educational background. Plagiarism is a form of an academic dishonesty, academic misconduct, and a digital cheating. It is declared to be an unacceptable legal act and institutional regulations. And universities, schools, and instructors do not only need to decrease plagiarism, but they must also affect positively on students writings, increase the understanding of how to use digital technology to facilitate their academic writing.
Plagiarism, what is it and how to avoid it has been a major question on every students’ mind. Sure it is easy just to copy and paste and take all the credit for the work that another individual put in, but is it worth it? According to WPA, Writing Program Administrators, the definition of plagiarism as states, “plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source.” Plagiarism has always concerned teachers and administrators, who want students’ work to repre¬sent their own efforts and to reflect the outcomes of their learning. However, with the advent of the Internet and easy access to almost limitless written material on
Ten years ago a journalist with the New York Times committed plagiarism on an article. Moreover, it was later found he previously committed plagiarism before that while employed in other writing capacities. Blair attended the University of Maryland where he studied journalism. He interned at The New York Times in 1998 and offered an extended internship. However, he declined the offer of the extended internship to complete more courses before graduating (Bailey, 2008). In 1999 Blair returned to The New York Times as an “ intermediate reporter”. Moreover, according to 30 staff members on The times a letter signed by them in 2003 reported that Blair made four serious errors as a writer and editor that brought his integrity into question
Gerdy, K. 2004. Law student plagiarism: why it happens, where it’s found, and how to find it.
Academic learning in today’s changing world brings demands to future professionals. Whether in a traditional classroom, or through distance learning, one thing is similar and which cannot bring forth a successful educational future. One thing that can damage anyone’s academic future is plagiarism. Whether being the future of a straight “A” student, or a student who is just getting by. The fact remains that anyone can fall victim to plagiarism. Plagiarism is the use of other writer’s words without acknowledging the source and taking those words and passing them off as one’s own ideas (Jones, 2001). Some people may think plagiarism is just copying someone else’s work but in reality plagiarism is much serious and hold very serious