Academic Plagiarism

Presented

by

Reuben Emojong
Introduction

For along time, plagiarism has been a big problem that many academic institutions and

organizations have been struggling to eliminate. Many students do not seem to understand what

plagiarism is and its implications. However there is a good proportion of students who

understand what it is but they still engage in this vice. Plagiarism should be discouraged in all

academic institutions to increase academic integrity and honesty among students.

Plagiarism refers to presenting someone's work and claiming to be one’s own. By using

someone's work and deliberately refuse to acknowledge the source that results to plagiarism.

According to Stary, plagiarism relates to the theft or borrowing of published work without the

proper attribution or acknowledgement of the source (363). Plagiarism can arise in two

circumstances: intentional cheating or plagiarism where someone knowingly or intentionally gets

someone's work and claim it as their own. The second type of plagiarism is unintentional

plagiarism. This type of student or writer misuses information that is being propagated by

another person because they do not have the proper knowledge of citation. This may be due to

laziness or students ignorance but it is not intentional.

Plagiarism can manifest itself in various forms and it may be very difficult to detect. It

will require that instructors look at the following forms of plagiarism;

• Copying another author's work word-for-word without bothering to acknowledge the

source.

• Not acknowledging the work paraphrased from another author's source.

• Failure to cite properly the source of the work, even it is not deliberate.

• Falsifying the source of particular information.

• Submitting someone's material under the pretext that it is your own.

 • Submitting group assignment as individual work.

Plagiarism is a vice that should be handled early before it can get out of hand and students

become accustomed to it. Plagiarism is a result of laziness and lack of proper research skills. If

students are allowed to get away with this, it will affect their ability to learn and develop

fundamental research skills that are necessary for research. Plagiarism is simply a bad habit and

should be high discouraged because it is an impediment to critical thinking.

Colleges and universities in the USA take plagiarism seriously. These institutions view it

from the perspective of the fraud and data protection policy. They also consider the Human

Rights Act. Many institutions presume that students understand the effects of plagiarism and

therefore they are expected avoid it. Therefore, many academic institutions in the US have put

proposed serious punishment for students found to have plagiarized their work. Preventing

plagiarism is also a critical part of the academic integrity that is expected, or even required, by

educational institutions (Menager & Paulos 2). For the first time the students' parents are

informed and he/she fails the course. Also he/she (student) is ineligible for the National Honour

Society. Students get suspended and even expelled from US academic institutions for plagiarism

and that not withstanding, others even have their diplomas withheld or even revoked. Plagiarism

has had devastating consequences in the USA to the extent that some individuals in both

academic and scientific fields loose their jobs for failure to acknowledge the source of their

work. Historians have not been left behind either. Penalties for plagiarism have drastic effects on

the future life of every student who engages in it.

It is the sole duty of every student to avoid plagiarism given that every institution

presumes that they have perfect knowledge on the consequences of plagiarism. Students should

take certain measures to avoid being caught in the web of plagiarism. They should set aside
plenty of time for their research and write their own work. By engaging in robust research

students find it easy to write their own essays with original content. Confidence in oneself will

help students avoid plagiarism. This is the ' I can do it ' attitude lacking in many students. With

the help of able instructors and knowledge of where to find help if of any kind of difficulty,

students do well in research and to a large extent avoids plagiarism. Among the proven ways of

avoiding plagiarism is keeping a good documentation guide when doing research and taking

careful notes that include the full bibliographic citations on research. Avoiding plagiarism is a

mark of integrity (Spack 272). When students deal with plagiarism by trying to avoid it, it

lessens the chances of them being punished and the demand for the tools to check plagiarism will

decrease as trust will prevail among the teachers and students. Before submitting a piece of work

a student should check for plagiarism and on the other side when the teachers receive the work

from the student they check for any element of plagiarism in the work. The work will be

acceptable if the tools only show that there is no plagiarism.

There are several tools to check plagiarism. Fortunately, it is just as easy for someone to

detect plagiarism as it is to copy it off other people's web pages (Andert & Burleson 179). The

tools differ in that some are online websites where one pastes his work and reports are generated

for him while others are softwares to be purchased either online or from physical shops. To a

greater extent some online websites like turnitin.com offer plagiarism checking at a fee per page

for institutions and deliver results instantly. Some online sites for checking plagiarism like

advanced plagiarism checker, article checker, dupli checker, plagiarism checker, plagiarism

detect, quote finder, and plagiarized are tools offered to students at no cost. Copyspace is an

online tool for detecting plagiarism that is offered online both for free and at a fee if the student

is in need of a full comprehensive report of his work.

 In conclusion, academic plagiarism is a vice that should be avoided by students not only

because of its dire consequences but also it give them pride on achieving their on work. It is also

of vital importance to eliminate the element of plagiarism in an effort to impart integrity in

scholarly work.
References

Andert, Stephen, and Donald K. Burleson. Web stalkers: protect yourself from Internet criminals

& psychopaths. Kittrell, N.C.: Rampant TechPress, 20052004. Print.

Menager, Rosemarie, and Lyn Paulos. Quick coach guide to avoiding plagiarism . Boston,

Mass.: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. Print.

Stary, Christian. Knowledge management: innovation, technology and cultures : proceedings of

the 2007 International Conference on Knowledge Management, Vienna, Austria, 27-28

August 2007. Singapore [u.a.: World Scientific, 2007. Print.