Plagiarism 1

Penalties for plagiarism in US and UK academic institutions

Student Name:

Institution Name:

Course Name & Code:

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Outline

This paper outlines a little background on plagiarism as well as the current

definitions of the practice. The second section evaluates why the act of plagiarism is

considered as a bad practice. The policy being used by the UK and US academic

institutions on plagiarism has also been reviewed. The penalties on plagiarism that exist

have been discussed in the paper as well. Finally, the paper presents a personal

opinion on the penalties purported to be heavy as well as a conclusion on the entire

paper.

Introduction

Plagiarism has found its way in the colleges’ courses more recently than ever.

During the daily learning activities in colleges, people are progressively involved with

the ideas of other people. This may be through incorporation as writings, class

discussions and lecture dictations or through reading of texts. Due to these reasons, it is

necessary that the owner of the material be given adequate credit where it is due. This

paper seeks to evaluate the penalties that exist for those found plagiarizing particularly

in the academic institutions of UK and US. The paper defines succinctly what the term

plagiarism refers to and also reviews the anti-plagiarism policies existing in the

academic institutions found in the US and UK. Also, the paper clearly outlines the

penalties imposed on those found plagiarizing in these institutions. Finally, a personal

opinion on whether the heavy penalties are justifiable has been given.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism refers to the act of using the ideas and words of another person

without acknowledging them with clarity as the information’s source. The word has been
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derived from a Latin word that means kidnapping or stealing. According to the UNC

honor Courts; plagiarism is the reckless or deliberate action of representing the ideas,

thoughts or words as one’s own without ascription in relation to submission of academic

work whether for grading purposes or other reasons (Carroll and Appleto 35).

There are several reasons why plagiarism is considered as a bad practice.

Plagiarism can not reveal to the instructor the level of subject understanding of the

student. This is because plagiarism does not differentiate the building block ideas that

have been borrowed from other individuals and the ones that are well reasoned

conclusions and perspectives from the student. Plagiarism does not indicate the

distinction between a student’s analysis and that given by a book author. Finally,

plagiarism does not support the aspect of supporting owns ideas while referring to other

peoples’ works. Therefore, when using well cited sources, the aspect of using the ideas

of an expert as evidence or proof of a new being developed by the student comes into

place. Plagiarism also contributes to laziness, where students do not undertake enough

research on their own (Clarke 91).

Anti-plagiarism policy adopted by UK and US academic institutions

There are strategies that have been developed and adopted by many academic

institutions in the UK and the US, packaged into one document as the anti-plagiarism

policy. The policy applies to all students in these academic institutions. The policy

outlines that these institutions must foster sound academic integrity by ensuring that the

contribution of other individuals has been appropriately acknowledged for any work that

has been submitted for publication or assessment (Clarke 91). The citations or

attribution to these sources must also be done according to the standard conventions of
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referencing or writing bibliographies (Joseph 25). The policy also states that there must

be stern measures taken against those found breaching the principles of academic

integrity or cheating. According to the policy, clear referencing should be ensured at all

times in order to allow any other interested readers to make a follow-up on the works

cited as well as read quotations in the original form.

Penalties imposed on the culprits of plagiarism

There are various penalties that exist for the students found plagiarizing. Some of

these have been outlined in the policy while others are just common with particular

institutions. Since plagiarism is considered as an unfair and dishonest practice, students

who are found plagiarizing are subject to sanctions on the academic grounds. This

involves a reduced score or total fail for the assignment that has been plagiarized. Also

the student may receive a low grade or a failing grade for the entire course he or she

was undertaking. Such students may also be liable to sanctions on administrative

grounds that involves suspension or in the worst cases, expulsion. However, these

penalties are not exercised without considering the various levels of plagiarism. The

circumstances under which plagiarism has been done may prompt the faculty members

to penalize the students themselves or involve the administrators. Other mild penalties

imposed by the administration are reprimand, loss of privileges, restitution and

probation (Carroll and Appleto, 35).

Personal opinion on the heavy penalties

The heavy penalties in my opinion would be the expulsion or total failure for the

entire case. The justification of these penalties may be argued from two perspectives.

First of all, the penalties are justifiable. Expulsion or total course failure will ensure that
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other students learn a lesson of the implications of plagiarism. On the other hand, the

penalties may be deemed unjustifiable. This is because of the fact that the student may

have practiced plagiarism only once or he or she was not aware of the implications of

such a practice. However, the penalties are more justifiable since they will lead to total

eradication of the vice.

Conclusion

The issue of plagiarism is a negative practice that should be discouraged at all

costs since it does not promote academic integrity. The usage of another person’s ideas

without properly acknowledging them contributes to plagiarism. The penalties that exist

should also be exercised at all times to ensure the vice is no more. However, the level

of plagiarism must be evaluated before a particular penalty is imposed on a student.

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Works cited

Joseph, Gibaldi. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.New York: The Modern

Language Association of America, 2003.

Carroll and Appleto. Oxford Brookes University. Plagiarism: A Good Practice Guide.

Oxford: Joint

Information Systems Committee, 2001.

Clarke, R. “Plagiarism by academics: More complex than it seems.” Journal of the

Association for

Information Systems, 7.2 (2006): 91-121.