Why University Students Plagiarize - Report Example

Why Plagiarize al Affiliation WHY PLAGARIZE Introduction Plagiarism refers to stealing or copying someone’s content and using it without including references or citations. The issues relating to plagiarism is widespread and it has evidently grown. Academic institutions have highly discouraged plagiarism but some students still use plagiarism. Use of plagiarism is an old method; copyright laws governed it. That restricted the public from using some other author’s information as theirs. In the past plagiarism was considered a flattery unlike in the present days it is seen as a vice. Students use plagiarism when passing information from one source to another. This has affected categories of students be it diploma students, degree students or masters (Macrothink Institute, 2014). There are different types of plagiarism one of them include. Copying information from one source and passing it to another source without using citations or references. This can be by deciding to submit someone else’s work, or by copying a whole content without the owner’s knowledge. In addition to the first type of cheating submission of assignments that were done by someone else and passed them as one’s own. Another type of plagiarism is content from a source being paraphrased and supply of this content is done with no document being issued. If material from sources is copied and quotation marks not included (Walker, 1998). Students can also plagiarise if academic staff do not discourage plagiarism or if this staff does not give vices on plagiarism. Another reason for student plagiarism is the pressure of academic excellence the need to achieve better grades. Some students also do not get to understand what plagiarism means hence do plagiarism without knowing. Plagiarism also appears in students work if the work done was of help from a friend who could have given exactly what was in the book. Laziness and group work also encourage plagiarism. Some students do plagiarism because the new institutions they are admitted to do plagiarism (Bellerand, 2014). Students do not take plagiarism as an offence their take is slightly compared to actual cheating in examinations. In U.K, plagiarism is a small offence, as students may want it to appear it has a moral base that is strong. In addition, both students and staff view plagiarism differently. For staff, they view plagiarism depending on the disciplines their seriousness on plagiarism is more unlike students’ .However, the difference between the student and staff view towards plagiarism decreases as graduation approaches. Use of social construct to frame plagiarism has helped deal with the various attitudes of student’s views from both oriental students and students from the west (Macrothink Institute, 2014). Student plagiarism can be said to be a big issue depending on the topic that was discussed or the country in question. This can also apply to the student if a graduate or an undergraduate. It is difficult to compare data this is because the focus given to studies varies, in that in some studies students do personal-reporting while other studies the students use quotes by other people like the staff. Even for personal reporting there is a difference in what the students do and what they verbally say it is, therefore, important to investigate and find plagiarism. (Bloodgood, Turnley and Mudrack, 2008) Plagiarism by students differs in patterns and these differences include the difference in categories between disciplines. Business studies students commonly cheat and have the highest percentage. Followed by engineering students with the least percentage of plagiarism are the humanities students. Another difference is between countries this was evident between students from America and those from Japanese. Those of U.S.A were reported to highly do plagiarism compared to the students from Japanese. In addition, differences between graduates and undergraduates brought variations in plagiarism in that graduate students just like undergraduates had plagiarism issues. Another difference was through time as time goes on the rate of plagiarism keeps on rising among different countries (Macrothink Institute, 2014). Some students cheat while others do not cheat, some cheat more compared to others. Students from countries that English is not their first language have a high tendency of plagiarism. However, these students can be determined and different determinants are used to determine them. Male students have high chances of cheating compared to female students. Mature students are rarely found in plagiarism cases, unlike young students. Another characteristic is that students with lower GPAs tend to plagiarise a lot compared to students with better GPAs. Students who attend fewer class hours or students who party a lot have high chances of having plagiarism. Inaddition pressure from peers or lack of confidence are factors that can push one to do plagiarism lack of believing they can do their assignments without plagiarism (Bellerand, 2014). With the quick and easy access to information, using digital platforms digital plagiarism has raised. Use of the internet that is available throughout everywhere has a significant impact on digital plagiarism. Students assume that information on the internet is free to take which is not the case. Students have also used their credit cards to access the Term paper mills by just click on the internet increasing access to this papers. However with all this plagiarism there is digital detection that detects plagiarism by comparing the content submitted with that which is on the internet. The computer not only copies the content but also help run it in grammar to discover plagiarism if any. Internet usage is therefore an advantage as well as a disadvantage (Bellerand, 2014). There are penalties for plagiarism in case the work is plagiarised the lecture gives his warning. The work is done and resubmitted again and counselling follows for this type of penalty no marks are deducted from the student. If the incident is reported to the faculty, then an action is most probably take to discipline this student. Some students, however, prefer that plagiarism is not acted upon .some prefer penalties but not those that affect their grades. It was unethical to involve plagiarism in someone’s work in case internet information was used then referencing was to be done (Bloodgoodet al., 2008). Conclusion It is evident that students plagiarise their work and plagiarism is increasing due to the presence of digital sources. These sources are accessible to students anytime anywhere. Countries like North America and UK have high cases of students who plagiarise their work. Basing on the fact that plagiarism is on the increase and it is widespread. It is also unethical to academic performance then t a major problem that threats quality performance in institutions. .It is however very important for institutions to bring out the need for students to avoid plagiarism and adopt measures to deal with plagiarism and also stiffen the penalties for plagiarism so that students should slow down and slowly get rid of plagiarism in the content they submit. References Bellerand, S. (2014). Plagiarism? Seawanhaka: Seawanhaka, Long Island University. Bloodgood J.M,Turnley,W.W.H $ Mudrack,P. (2008). The influence of ethics instruction,religiosity and intelligence on cheating behavior. Journal of Business Ethics , 557-571. Macrothink Institute. (2014). Plagiarism Norms and Practices in Coursework. International Journal of Education , 1948-5476. Park, C. (2003). In Other (Peoples) Words: Plagiarism by University students-literatuire and lessons, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. Lancaster: The Graduate School, Lancaster University. Walker, J. (1998). Student Plagiarism in Univrsities: What are We Doing About it? . London: Massey University. Read More